Hi All Thanks for those who took the time to answer my question on the naming of the MacDonald River. I am still not quite sure. Elizabeth Roberts on her 'Convict Trail website' has a couple of pages on a John MacDonald who was born in Ireland and sentenced in Scotland to life for theft. He arrived in Sydney on December 28 1820 on 'Asia' and was assigned to Robert Crawford. During that time he became friendly with Aboriginals and they taught him the various tracks. He was with Crawford for 9 years and then received his ticket of leave for discovering a new route. His ticket of leave was cancelled and he was sent to Newcastle. In 1834 he had become a bushranger and lived with Aboriginals where he raided properties and was shot that year at the age of about 31. If Elizabeth is correct I tend to think that he was the person after whom the MacDonald River etc was probably named. This is the website. http://www.convicttrail.org/ Shirley McLeod [email protected]