Bass () is a town 113 kilometres (70 mi) south-east of

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

via the South Gippsland and Bass Highways, in the

Bass Coast Shire The Bass Coast Shire is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the southeastern part of the state. It covers an area of and in June 2018 had a population of 35,327. It includes the towns of Bass, Cape Paterson, Cape Woolam ...

Gippsland Gippsland () is a rural region in the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains south of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers an elongated area of east of th ...

, Victoria,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. At the 2021 census, Bass had a population of 405. The town is named after

George Bass George Bass (; 30 January 1771 – after 5 February 1803) was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia. Early life Bass was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby, a hamlet near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the son of a tenant farmer, George B ...

who explored and named Western Port bay in 1798 in a small whaling boat and sailed some distance up the Bass River. A memorial to George Bass stands in the George Bass Park. In 1835 a Scottish immigrant from

Kirkcudbright Kirkcudbright ( ; ) is a town at the mouth of the River Dee, Galloway, River Dee in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, southwest of Castle Douglas and Dalbeattie. A former royal burgh, it is the traditional county town of Kirkcudbrightshire. His ...

Scotland named Samuel Anderson sailed up the Bass River and established the third permanent settlement in Victoria he was joined in 1837 by Robert Massie. Samuel had arrived in Hobart in 1830 aboard the Lang and took up a position as bookkeeper at Circular Head with Van Diemen's Land Company before setting out for Western Port in September 1835. Samuel's brothers Hugh and Thomas joined him at Bass where they established a successful farming venture. The Anderson graves and some of their descendants are located in the San Remo Cemetery. Descendants of Thomas Anderson, the only brother to marry, remain in the area to this day. The township of Bass was surveyed and settled in the early 1860s, the Post Office opening on 1 June 1862. Located near the town is the former Wildlife Wonderland, which featured a Giant Earthworm Museum. This building allowed tourists to crawl through a magnified replica of a worm burrow and a simulated worm's stomach. Displays and educational material on the Giant Gippsland earthworm, which can grow up to 3 metres in length, and other natural history of Gippsland were also featured. The museum was shut down in 2012, and since become popular with "rough sleepers and urban explorers". The town in conjunction with neighbouring township Kilcunda has an Australian Rules football team competing in the West Gippsland Football Netball Competition.

References

1862 establishments in Australia Towns in Victoria (state) Bass Coast Shire {{VictoriaAU-geo-stub