Sale, VIC
By Lauren McCaleb · Reviewed by Dylan Duncan ·
Sale is the principal town of central Gippsland in eastern Victoria, lying about 210 kilometres east of Melbourne near where the Thomson and Latrobe rivers feed into the Gippsland Lakes. Aboriginal people knew the area as Wayput. European settlers arrived from the 1840s, and the town, gazetted in 1851, is generally said to be named after the British soldier Sir Robert Sale, though some accounts credit his wife, Lady Florentia Sale. The opening of a canal in 1890 linked Sale to the lakes and the sea, cementing its role as a river port. Today Sale is the commercial centre of the Wellington shire, home to the RAAF base at East Sale and a service hub for the Gippsland oil and gas industry.
Less advantaged than the national average
Sale is more socio-economically advantaged than about 30% of the 14,462 Australian suburbs we score, based on the ABS SEIFA index (raw score 951, where about 1000 is the national average).
A socio-economic measure from ABS Census data — not a measure of how good a suburb is to live in or visit. How we calculate this.
Is Sale a good place to live?
There’s no single answer — it depends on what matters to you. So instead of one mystery number, we break it down: a transparent score on each part of life we can back with public data, and an honest “not yet” on the parts we can’t.
Below the national middle on the data we score
A weighted blend of the 2 components we can score for Sale from public data. It sits alongside — and reconciles with — the socio-economic Suburb Score above; it is a transparent read, not a complete verdict.
Socio-economic advantage
30/100Less advantaged than the national average
Less advantaged than the national average — the same ABS SEIFA-based Suburb Score (30/100) shown above. Income, education and occupation, as published by the ABS. · ABS SEIFA 2021
Housing affordability
52/100Around the national median for cost
Median weekly rent was $280 at the 2021 Census — more affordable than about 52% of suburbs we can compare. Housing data only, no valuations. · ABS Census 2021
Not yet scored
We’d rather leave these open than publish a number we can’t stand behind. Here’s where each one stands.
- Amenities & accessNot scored yet — our OpenStreetMap amenity mapping is still rolling out across suburbs.
- Green spaceNot scored yet — our OpenStreetMap green-space mapping is still rolling out across suburbs.
- TransportNot scored yet — our OpenStreetMap public-transport mapping is still rolling out across suburbs.
- SchoolsNot scored yet — school performance (ACARA / ICSEA) needs a data-reuse licence cleared before we can publish it.
- SafetyNot scored yet — Australia has no single open crime dataset and safety data carries defamation and legal care, so it is gated pending a go/no-go and will be data-only when added.
- CommunityNot scored yet — we won't reduce community to a number from a proxy. We'd rather leave it open than publish an invented value judgement.
A transparent read on public data, not a verdict — and not a measure of any person or community. See our methodology for how each component is worked out and why some aren’t scored yet.
Sale at a glance
- Population (2021)
- 14,296
- Median age
- 42
- Median weekly household income
- $1,327
- SEIFA score
- 951
- Local government area
- Wellington
- Coordinates
- -38.1069, 147.0820
Map of Sale
© OpenStreetMap contributors · View larger map
Housing & property in Sale
What it costs to live in Sale and how residents hold their homes, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census.
- Median rent
- $280
- per week
- Median mortgage
- $1,300
- per month
- Owner-occupied
- 64%
- of dwellings
- Rented
- 33%
- of dwellings
The full tenure and dwelling-type breakdown is in the Sale demographics section below.
Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021. © Australian Bureau of Statistics, released under CC BY 4.0. See our methodology.
Sale demographics (2021 Census)
The figures below profile Sale using the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census; every percentage is a share of a clearly stated Census count, so each one traces back to the source. At a glance, the largest age group is young adults (25–44) at 24% and 14% of residents were born overseas.
Age profile
| Age group | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Children (0–14) | 2,581 | 18% |
| Youth (15–24) | 1,546 | 11% |
| Young adults (25–44) | 3,456 | 24% |
| Mid-life (45–64) | 3,490 | 24% |
| Seniors (65+) | 3,228 | 23% |
Share of the 14,301 people counted by age.
Housing and households
| Tenure | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Owned outright | 2,046 | 35% |
| Owned with a mortgage | 1,685 | 29% |
| Rented | 1,898 | 33% |
| Dwelling type | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Houses | 4,892 | 85% |
| Townhouses & semis | 445 | 8% |
| Flats & apartments | 396 | 7% |
Tenure and dwelling shares are of the roughly 5,785 occupied private dwellings in Sale.
- Average household size
- 2.3 people
- Median weekly family income
- $1,778
- Median weekly personal income
- $701
Community and culture
- Born overseas
- 1,827 (14%)
- Speaks a language other than English at home
- 911 (7%)
- Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
- 360 (3%)
Work and education
- Completed Year 12
- 5,062 (45%)
- Labour-force participation
- 55.1%
- Unemployment rate
- 5.1%
- Employed full-time
- 3,502
- Employed part-time
- 2,218
Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021 (General Community Profile, by Suburb and Locality). © Australian Bureau of Statistics, released under CC BY 4.0. How we group bands and derive each share is set out on our methodology page.
Weather and climate in Sale
Based on 2014–2023 records, the warmest month in Sale is January (average daytime high around 26.7°C) and the coolest is July (around 13.7°C). The area receives roughly 648 mm of rain across the year.
| Month | Avg high | Avg low | Rain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 26.7°C | 14.6°C | 49 mm |
| Feb | 25.9°C | 14°C | 31 mm |
| Mar | 23.7°C | 13.2°C | 54 mm |
| Apr | 20.3°C | 10.2°C | 52 mm |
| May | 16.7°C | 7.7°C | 34 mm |
| Jun | 13.9°C | 5.5°C | 53 mm |
| Jul | 13.7°C | 5.2°C | 40 mm |
| Aug | 14.6°C | 5.5°C | 50 mm |
| Sep | 17.5°C | 6.7°C | 57 mm |
| Oct | 20.3°C | 8.8°C | 78 mm |
| Nov | 22.3°C | 10.5°C | 78 mm |
| Dec | 24.7°C | 12.5°C | 72 mm |
Climate normals, 2014–2023 (Open-Meteo, ERA5 reanalysis).
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Common questions about Sale
Is Sale a good place to live?
There's no single answer, so we score what the public data can back. On socio-economic advantage and housing affordability, Sale rates 37/100 overall (Below the national middle on the data we score). Public transport, schools and safety aren't scored yet — see our methodology for why.
What is the median rent in Sale?
At the 2021 Census, the median weekly rent in Sale was $280, and the median monthly mortgage repayment was $1,300. These are official ABS Census figures — StreetScout publishes housing data only, with no property valuations or agent referrals.
Where is Sale?
Sale is a suburb of Victoria, Australia, in the Wellington local government area.
What is the population of Sale?
At the 2021 Census, Sale had a population of about 14,296.
Is Sale an advantaged area?
Sale has an ABS SEIFA score of 951, where about 1000 is the national average — higher scores indicate greater relative socio-economic advantage. That gives it a Suburb Score of 30 out of 100 — more socio-economically advantaged than about 30% of Australian suburbs.
What is the weather like in Sale?
Sale has average daytime highs of about 20°C and overnight lows of about 9.5°C, with roughly 648 mm of rain across the year (based on 2014–2023 climate normals).
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