Boisdale, Briagolong, Bushy Park, Coongulla, Maffra, Nuntin, Riverslea and Valencia Creek, VIC 3860

Maffra is an agricultural service town located in Gippsland. It was settled in the 1860s and its initial growth benefitted from its location as a stop off point to the Gippsland goldfields. Its industrial base is headed by one of Murray Goulburn Cooperative's biggest factories, producing dairy products. Maffra's population declined between 1986 and 2001, but has since stabilised.

History of Boisdale, Briagolong, Bushy Park, Coongulla, Maffra, Nuntin, Riverslea and Valencia Creek, VIC 3860

The town began as an outstation of the region???s first cattle run, Boisdale, named by pioneer grazier Lachlan Macalister after a village on the island of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. The village was originally known as Sheepfold, but Macalister renamed it Maffra after the Portuguese town of Mafra where he served during the Peninsular War.

The township was settled in the 1860s, the Post Office opening on 20 July 1864.

It was long the beef cattle capital of West Gippsland and, for many years, the only beet sugar processing centre in the country. The Beet Museum, set in the Port of Maffra Park, has relics from the defunct sugar beet industry. The building is a relocated historic weighbridge building, and is lined with pine boards from the home of Charles and Grace Quirk, one of Maffra’s first cottages.