Hello List members, Re: the locality known as “Tombstone” in the St. Andrews area. It’s going to have to have been a little known place if it’s not on Peter’s own excellent list at http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~surreal/victowns/ or at http://www.vicnames.vic.gov.au or http://www.ga.gov.au/map/names/ I’m sure Peter is providing an extremely valuable service to history by his continuing search for these seemingly undocumented localities, AND documenting his findings on the Net. I’ve had a look for Tombstone in Flett (‘Gold Discoveries’ and’ Old Pubs’) and Helen Harris’s list, without success. The only thing I can suggest is a letter to the local paper. Sometimes old history has been retained in the memory of a local farmer or farm worker because the evidence of human activity (mine holes, broken glass and bricks, etc.) has reminded them from time to time of stories they were told many years ago. Sometimes they will know of an earlier name for a locality or road. I was dead lucky there. A local farmer (one who surfs the Net!) told me that the former (unofficial) name for a road at Bung Bong (between Avoca and Talbot) was Glover’s Lane, my gggrandparents surname. I already knew from land purchase records they had they owned land at a crossroad, but they lived on one of the three ‘opposite’ corners. I was poking around there recently and thought I had identified which corner their 1860’s Post Office cum Hotel had been on by the artifacts on the disturbed ground. A young farm worker came along, and we began chatting. Much to my surprise he was able to say that I had chosen the wrong corner, and pointed out much more substantial (but less obvious) evidence on another corner. How did he know they were the ruins of my gggrandparents home? Because he worked for an elderly farmer who always referred to that location as “Glovers’”, and who had told him what had been on the site. I knew from newspaper reports that my ancestors had left when the dwelling and stables been burnt down in the 1890’s, so that old farmer must have inherited the information from older people HE had worked with. So, making contact with the locals could be the best shot for finding location names about to be lost in the mists of time. I suspect my ‘Whitty Flat’ via Mountain Hut, via Amphitheatre, via Avoca is one of those already lost. The local farmers don’t know, and I suspect it was just a family name where my ancestors’ relatives, the Whittons, had lived. These are the people who are named in the family photo album by some wag as “The Whitters”. When you have family members who love to play with words, it gets a bit complicated. Who will know in the future that my father’s references in letters to me that the ‘babbler has just been’, will know that he is referring to the postman. Will future readers be able to unravel that ‘babbler’ was short for “babbling boastie” which was rhyming slang for “postie” which was slang for postman? In reality the postman was a quiet guy who rarely said a word, probably because he was in a hurry and had a whistle in his mouth! Good luck with Tombstone. Tom _________________________________________________________________ Hot chart ringtones and polyphonics. Go to http://ninemsn.com.au/mobilemania/default.asp