Bairnsdale, Melbourne VIC
Located on the river flats of the Mitchell River,& this East Gippsland trade centre and holiday town is at the junction of the Princes Hwy,& making it an excellent base for touring the region. During Mar: Riviera Festival. Apr: East Gippsland Agricultural Field Days. May: Australasian Street Grand Prix. Nov: Agricultural Show. 
History
The historic Band Rotunda in Main St
The Aboriginal name for Bairnsdale was Wy Yung (or Wy-yung), meaning spoonbill (a type of wading bird). Wy Yung is now the name for a suburb of Bairnsdale, located north of the town across the Mitchell River.
The name “Bairnsdale” is Scottish for Baby’s Valley, “Bairn” is common Scottish slang for baby or child and “dale” is another name for a valley.
The current name was taken from the name of the property owned by pioneer settler Archibald Macleod, who took up the run on the west bank of the Mitchell River in 1844. Bairnsdale is probably derived from the name of Macleod’s family home on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, which had the name ‘Bernisdale’. An alternative interpretation was that Macleod returned after a long absence to find a number of ‘bairns’ (a Scottish term for babies) at the station. The name may in fact be a conjunction of these two stories, accounting for the transformation of ‘Bernis’ to ‘Bairns’.
The town site was surveyed in 1859, with the first blocks of land sold in 1860. Lucknow on the east bank of the river (named for the Indian city of Lucknow to which horses bred in the Bairnsdale area were sent to aid the British Crown during the Indian uprising), was already a thriving village. The Post Office opened on 2 February 1858 at Lucknow and was relocated to the township and named Bairnsdale on 3 April 1862. Lucknow remains as a suburb of Bairnsdale.
Attractions
St Mary's Catholic Church , Main St, Bairnsdale
The spectacular murals adorning the interior of St Mary's Church
The Mitchell River flows into Lake King at Eagle Point Bluff. Between the town of Bairnsdale and Eagle Point Bluff are found enormous silt jetties (a type of digitate River Delta), second only in length to those formed at the mouth of the Mississippi River in the United States.
One of the most notable landmarks of Bairnsdale are the murals on the ceiling and walls of St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Main St (Princes Highway). These murals were painted by out of work Italian artist Francesco Floreani during the Great Depression and remain a fascination to this day.
Also of note are the gardens maintained on the median strip of Main St. This very wide median strip stretches from the Mitchell River to the western edge of town, a distance of about 4 kilometres (2 mi). The main garden section runs for over 500 metres (550 yd) through the central commercial district and features beds of flowering annuals and perennials, numerous mature deciduous and evergreen trees, war memorials and a restored historic band rotunda. The rotunda was constructed in 1910 and restored to its present condition in 1993.
The East Gippsland Rail Trail begins in Bairnsdale. Almost 100 kilometres (60 mi) in length, the multi-use trail permits walking, cycling and horseriding as it follows the alignment of the former railway line to Orbost.
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