Hi List, I am currently editing/formatting a retype of the 1844-1872 diary of Patrick Coady Buckley of Prospect (now Seaspray). This diary mentions many of the people of the time, especially those in the area from Sale to Port Albert. My copy does not currently have an index, but I can search for EXACT spellings (Buckley was often inexact with his spellings). If you would like a search, please e-mail me privately on kapana@netspace.net.au with surnames. It would be really nice if you could limit yourself to surnames known to have been in Gippsland at the time. :) Just to give you a taste, from August 1852, the trip from Melbourne to Rosedale went like this: 16th: To Hennessy's Bunyip via Clutterbuck's. 17th: Got our horses over the flooded Bunyip, and camped within a mile of the Postman's yard. It was too dark to travel. Roads very bad. Creeks full of water. Horses got into crab holes. 18th: At the Moe the flood reached the bottom of the hill. Wm. Scott and his party had been 3 days without food. We had nothing ourselves since the morning before. Some wished to catch bulls for food. I gave my papers to E. B. and started to wade and swim through. When Wm. Scott saw I was getting through he followed. We did the same through Moe swamp. We called at Farley's new cut more than a quarter of a mile through water, which was very cold. Farley went over and rode my horse back, The rest followed. Lett's people and all of us stopped at Farley's for the night. I was afraid William Lett would fail coming through as he had been without food for 3 or 4 days, Thur. 19th: We swam our horses across the Morewell. We waded through the water to a big log across the river and carried our saddles across. Then to Windsor's at Traralgon, fed our horses, had dinner and started again. Swam Flynn's Creek, then on to Blind Joes. Here I separated from E. B's party and Robert Morgan who had been travelling with us. They went to Bayliss's, I went to Crooke's. 20th: Came home. Cheers Linda Barraclough Briagolong List Owner: AUS-VIC-GIPPSLAND email: kapana@netspace.net.au http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~surreal/AVG/