By sea ...

Travelling by sea from Melbourne to the various South Gippsland Ports was an early way for settlers to enter the region. They then travelled from the port on tracks to the area to be settled.

From Inverloch

"We left Port Melbourne early on the morning of February 3rd 1888 on the Ripple, our destination Inverloch. I travelled with my mother and two brothers. We had with us our utensils, furniture, linen and clothing. The vessel was small as we were only travelling along the coast. Our first port was San Remo where some goods were unloaded. Continuing on we sailed along the coastline. Soon we entered a sheltered inlet and then tied up at the Port of Inverloch. There we were met by my father who had a wagon ready near by. Our possessions were loaded onto the wagon and my father was ready to take us to our new home at Koonwarra. As it was quite late we camped around the wagon and left in the morning after a meal of bread and tea. It took us six hours to make the trip through first tea tree, then thicker forest on a rough dusty track. We were very tired by the time we arrived at the slab house my father had built. It was small and had few comforts."

From Grantville on Western Port

"My father and I landed at Grantville in March 1875, coming from Melbourne to Hastings by coach, and then to Grantville in Jones' fishing boat. After staying in Grantville for about a week, we went to the Bass River and pitched our tents and commenced stripping wattlebark and splitting staves for sale in Melbourne. We carted bark and staves to Grantville with a bullock team until the road was unfit to cart on, and then started to pack them using six horses, which I had to drive making two trips a day from the Bass to Grantville a distance of six miles. In about two years time, finding that the bark and staves were not paying and that the land on the Bass being thrown open for selection, we started to guide selectors to their respective holdings"

H Dowel in Land of the Lyrebird, p 125

Other settlers entered the region by sea at Port Albert and San Remo.