Maffra
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Maffra Victoria |
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Maffra streetscape, 2013
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 Maffra
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| Coordinates | 37°57′S 146°59′E / 37.950°S 146.983°ECoordinates: 37°57′S 146°59′E / 37.950°S 146.983°E | ||||||
| Population | 5,112 (2011 census) | ||||||
| Postcode(s) | 3860 | ||||||
| Elevation | 27 m (89 ft) | ||||||
| Location |
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| LGA(s) | Shire of Wellington | ||||||
| State electorate(s) | Gippsland East | ||||||
| Federal Division(s) | Gippsland | ||||||
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Maffra is a town in Victoria, Australia, 220 kilometres (140 mi) east of Melbourne. It is in the Shire of Wellington local government area. It relies mainly on dairy farming and other agriculture, and is the site of one of Murray-Goulburn Cooperative's eight processing plants in Victoria. Maffra is a detour off the Princes Highway and is near Sale, Stratford, Newry, Tinamba, Heyfield and Rosedale. At the 2011 census, Maffra had a population of 5,112.
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 town appears to have taken its name from a group of squatters from Maffra, a village in the Monaro region of NSW, with its location between current Maffra and Newry being written on an early map. The squatters moved on, but the name remained. The Monaro Maffra was probably connected to Mafra, a town in Portugal.
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.
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