Ensay, Victoria

Ensay Victoria
The township of Ensay on the Great Alpine Road
Ensay
Coordinates	37°23′0″S 147°50′0″E / 37.38333°S 147.83333°E / -37.38333; 147.83333Coordinates: 37°23′0″S 147°50′0″E / 37.38333°S 147.83333°E / -37.38333; 147.83333
Population	331 (2006 census)
Postcode(s)	3895
Location	360 km (224 mi) E of Melbourne 80 km (50 mi) N of Bairnsdale 50 km (31 mi) SE of Omeo 26 km (16 mi) SE of Swifts Creek
LGA(s)	Shire of East Gippsland
State electorate(s)	Gippsland East
Federal Division(s)	Gippsland

Ensay is a small town located between Swifts Creek and Bruthen on the Great Alpine Road in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. Ensay is 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of the major town of Bairnsdale and 366 kilometres (227 mi) east of the state capital Melbourne. Other nearby towns include Omeo and Benambra.

The town centre is located north of the confluence of the Little and Tambo river; with an altitude of approximately 400 metres (1,312 ft) AMSL. The population of Ensay was 331 as at the 2006 census.

The Aboriginal name for the area around Ensay was Numblamunjie, which translates as ‘blackfish place’. Archibald Macleod (see Bairnsdale, History) set up a station in this area in 1843. He named it after the now unpopulated island of Ensay in the Outer Hebrides of his homeland of Scotland, whose name originates from the Old Norse for Ewe Island.

The land around Ensay was originally taken up in 1839 by the noted explorer of the district Angus McMillan on behalf of his then employer Lachlan Macalister. This was abandoned shortly afterwards in 1841 with the settlement of large areas of land in the more central parts of Gippsland.