An agricultural and pastoral town, often used as a base for the exploration of Wilsons Promontory. The town hosts an Agricultural Show in February, the Daffodil and Rotary Art Festival September and the Leongatha Food and Wine Festival in January.
Location: 125 km south east of Melbourne. Map
Origin of name: of Aboriginal origin, believed to refer to teeth.
Brief history: the first Europeans into the area arrived in in 1845. Timber getters cleared the forests of huge mountain ash trees from the environment in the 1870s. During the recession of the 1880s the government sought ways to alleviate unemployment by establishing a land clearing labour colony here. The colony operated from 1893 until 1903, when the clearing project was completed; 6000 men had passed through the colony. None of the colony's buildings survived the subdivision of the land for soldier settlement farms after World War I.
Natural features: Berry's Creek; Moss Vale Park; Holmes Hill; Cooks Hill; Ross Hill; Mount Misery
Built features: Moss Vale Park (a grove of english trees)
Heritage features: Firelight Museum; Leongatha Art and Craft Gallery; Mushroom Crafts; Great Southern Rail Trail; South South Gippsland Tourist Railway Museum