The marina at Metung

Metung
Interesting small township on Lake King behind Ninety Mile Beach
Located 314 km from Melbourne and 32 km from Bairnsdale, Metung is a pleasant resort town which attracts people eager to fish and boat on the lakes.

Originally called Rosherville, Metung is named after an Aboriginal word thought to mean either "mainland" or "ti-tree river bend", after the trees which line the beaches. A large meteorite rock on the shores of Bancroft Bay, known to the Aborigines as Wallung, featured in a number of Aboriginal myths dealing with people being turned to stone for mistreating their dogs. Nearby Butcher's Creek was also believed to be the haunt of malicious spirits of the dead.

Metung was once a popular holiday spot with Gippsland's gentry. In the book Across the Alps to Omeo (undated but it does have advertisements for hotel accommodation for one shilling a night) the author writes about Metung as 'one of the prettiest places on the Lakes. This charming retreat is situated on the shores of Bancroft's Bay, and is awarded by competent judges of the picturesque the palm for beauty of scenery. This place is the gem of lakeland. Visitors will find everything up to date at the Scarborough Hotel, a few yard from the pier, the warrant of which will be that Mr. Glover has had a great deal of continental experience and knows how things should be done.'

Spring covers the paddocks with daisies near Metung

The 'upper class' regatta day was described by Dorothy Blewett in her novel Vision (1931) when she wrote: 'Dozens of small craft, fishermen's boats, motor launches, all decked with flags - the great boats from Sale and Bairnsdale, brimful of laughing people'. The writer Mary Grant Bruce's visits are drawn upon in her novel Possum (1917). In the 1950s she revisited the sites depicted in her novels with Hal Porter who made the following remarks: 'Out of season, it's a fishing, boat-building, yachting Sleepy Hollow, with a number of closed-up holiday cottages.' Metung is also mentioned by Eve Langley in The Pea Pickers (1942) and White Topee (1954).

The Metung Regatta is held in January.

Things to see:  

Cruises
Cruises are conducted by Bull's Marine Industries and Riviera Nautica, where sailboards, sailing dinghies and fishing gear are also available. Customers can help work their ship if they wish or just relax. Both businesses are located on Metung Road. Bull's is a shipbuilding yard long associated with boating on the lakes. Captain James Bull arrived in Gippsland in 1878 and began exploring the lakes on his paddle steamer, The Tanjil. He later made an unsuccessful attempt to convert the Burrabogie into a floating hotel. Bull's (aka Metung Cruises) can be contacted on (03) 5156 2208 and Riviera Nautica can be reached on (03) 5156 2243.

Spray Cruises offer excusions on board the 14-metre sailing ketch 'Spray'. They depart Metung daily at 11.00 a.m.. Bookings can be made at the Metung Village Store, tel: (03) 5156 2201.

The Sculpture Gallery
Wood sculpture, pottery, wooden furniture, paintings, silk, jewellery, woodwork and leadlight are available from The Sculpture Gallery in Cantrills Rd, tel: (03) 5156 2770.

Kirkby & Foster Gold and Silversmiths
This studio/gallery features gold and silverwork in a range of forms, from classical tableware to contemporary jewellery. It is open weekends from 11.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. or by appointment, and is located at 17 Nungurner Jetty Rd, tel: (03) 5156 3273.

Fishing
Flathead, mulloway and bream can be caught in Bancroft Bay, off Shaving Point and the jetties.

Gippsland Lakes
The Gippsland Lakes are a group of coastal lagoons which were formed when the ocean's sand deposits created lengthy sandspits, low-lying sand islands and dunes which eventually formed a barrier (Ninety Mile Beach) separating Bass Strait from the calmer waters they enclosed. The rivers which flow into the area deposited silt and clay which divided the inland water into a series of lakes and swamps. In the 19th century graziers took up land in the area, destroying much natural bushland. By that time there was no reliable point of access to the ocean. Thus an artificial entrance had been created by 1889 (see entry on Lakes Entrance) to allow permanent navigable entry. This new mouth both lowered and stabilised water levels in the lakes which are fed by a number of river systems - the Latrobe and the Avon (which flow into Lake Wellington), and the Mitchell, Nicholson and Tambo (which flow into Lake King).

Taken together the lakes constitute the largest navigable inland waterway in Australia. The major bodies of water - Wellington, Victoria and King - cover 320 km of shoreline and encompass 340 square kilometres. They are the centrepiece of a distinctive and environmentally significant regional landscape of wetlands and flat coastal plains with its own unique landforms, vegetation and fauna.

The Gippsland Lakes possess features of international, national and state significance. The Mitchell River delta, for example, is an eroded digitate delta which is considered a site of international geological significance. It extends southwards from the area around Bairnsdale along the western shore of Lake King to Eagle Point Bluff. From this point it takes the form of a series of long, narrow, winding jetties of silted sediment which extend eastwards out into Lake King for 8 km (see entry on Paynesville).

Also of geomorphological interest are Cunninghame Arm (south-east of Lakes Entrance) which is a relict of a narrow channel that connected the Lakes to the ocean before the creation of the artificial entrance in 1889; the unique ecology and geomorphology of Lake Reeve with its extensive saltmarsh areas; the Tambo River delta which extends 2.5 km south-west into Lake King (although it is rapidly eroding); the Latrobe delta, protruding over 2 km into Lake Wellington, which is formed by silt trapped in reedswamp; McLennans Isthmus (a long, broad sandy promontory that separates Lake Victoria and Lake Wellington) and McLennans Strait (a deep narrow residual channel that connects these two lakes).

Owing to the permanence of the main lakes and the reasonably regular flooding of the adjacent wetlands, the ecosystem is an important habitat for over 40 000 ducks, swans, coots and other waterbirds, particularly in periods of drought. Lakes Wellington, Victoria and King are permanent deep saline wetlands supporting populations of migratory seabirds, including the little and fairy terns. Lake Reeve is an extensive intermittent saline wetland of international zoological significance which provides a highly significant habitat for up to 12 000 migratory wading birds, making it one of the five most important areas for waders in Victoria. Other noted bird populations exist at MacLeod Morass, Sale Common, Clydebank Morass, Dowd Morass, Jones Bay and Lake Bunga. The latter is a relatively small coastal wetland that is fresh to brackish, supporting waterfowl, little tern, hooded plover and the white-bellied sea-eagle. Other good birdwatching sites to the north are Blond Bay State Game Reserve, located behind Lake Victoria, and Colquhoun Forest. Vegetation around the lakes is varied, including swamp paperbark, reed and salt-marsh vegetation such as glasswort, shore rush, sawsedge and salt grass.

Parts of the Lakes system are heavily used for commercial and recreational fisheries and for other water-based recreation, while the immediate hinterland has been developed for agricultural uses and limited residential and tourism purposes. Almost all of the lakes are accessible by boat and boat-launching facilities are available at Hollands Landing, Loch Sport (see entry on Sale), Paynesville, Eagle Point, Toorloo Arm, Mill Point, Seacombe, Goon Nure, Lakes Entrance, Nowa Nowa (see entry on Lakes Entrance), Lake Tyers, Nungurner, Metung, Nicholson and Johnsonville. For those without a boat, fishing trips and boating tours of the lakes and rivers are available from Paynesville and Lakes Entrance. Black bream are especially plentiful in the waters of the Gippsland Lakes.

At the present time salinity (caused chiefly by the alteration of the ocean outlet) is destroying shoreline vegetation which, in turn, is causing shoreline erosion and thus accelerated deposition in the lakes. Vegetation changes are also depleting the wetland fauna, including some endangered bird species and the breeding habitats for some fish species - some also rare. Moreover, wind-borne salt is affecting vegetation near the shoreline and destructive algal blooms have become a recurrent problem. Industrial and domestic waste disposal, run-off and a sewage treatment works are also affecting the waterways.

The lakes contain many archaeological sites, including shell middens, scarred trees, occupation sites, burials and axe-grinding grooves.

The Bataluk Cultural Trail
The Bataluk Cultural Trail extends from Sale in the east, through Stratford, Mitchell River National Park, Bairnsdale, Metung, Lake Tyers, Buchan and Orbost to Cape Conran in the west. It follows the trails and trading routes of pre-colonial days and focuses on elements of Koorie history and culture, including Dreamtime stories, traditional lifestyles, the Den of Nargun, Legend Rock, Aboriginal Keeping Places, archaeological sites such as canoe trees and shell middens (some dating back 10 000 years), cultural centres of the region, and aspects of European invasion, colonial settlement and present-day existence. At Metung the focus is on Legend Rock.

	Hotels
	Metung Hotel Metung Rd Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 2206
	Bed & Breakfast/Guesthouses
	Anchorage Bed & Breakfast Metung Rd Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 2569
	Clovelly B & B Essington Cl. Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 2428
	Pelican Perch B & B Smith Way Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 2519
	The Studio Landscape Dve Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 2109
	Apartments
	Arendell Holiday Apartments 30 Mairburn Rd P.O. Box 32 Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 2507 Rating: ***
	Metung Waters Kurnai Ave Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 2166
	Slipway Holiday Apartments 50 Metung Rd P.O. Box 82 Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 2469 Rating: ****
	The Moorings Serviced Apartments Metung Rd Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 2750 Rating: ****
	Cottages & Cabins
	Appletree Cottage P.O. Box 115 Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 3262
	Maeburn Cottages 33 Mairburn Rd P.O. Box 141 Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 2736 Rating: ***
	The Cowyard Cottage Nungurner Jetty Rd P.O. Box 152 Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 3234 Rating: ***
	Wildwood Cottages Nungurner Jetty Rd P.O. Box 115 Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 3262
	Edgwater Terrace Metung Rd P.O. Box 106 Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 2666 Facsimile: (03) 5156 2677 Rating: ****
	Holiday Makers 185 Metung Rd Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 2243 Rating: ****
	McMillans Coastal Resort 155 Metung Rd P.O. Box 66 Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 2283 Rating: ****
	Metung Holiday Makers Meaburn Rd Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 2306
	Houseboats
	Bulls Cruisers Metung Rd P.O. Box 1 Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 2208
	Riviera Nautica Cruiser 185 Metung Rd P.O. Box 24 Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 2243
	Restaurants
	Cafe Edge Metung Rd P.O. Box 22 Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 2330
	Marrillee Metung Rd Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 2121
	Metung Yacht Club Metung Rd Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 2315
	Mosiacs Metung Rd Metung VIC 3904 Telephone: (03) 5156 2077