www.kaelewis.com My webpage above may be of interest. It contains a searchable database of about 6000 goldminers who bought miner's rights in Thames New Zealand in May - Sept 1868. Many of these goldminers came from Victoria when the gold there had run out. For this reason I think it would be worth while searching to see if a known Victorian goldminer was in Thames later on. If anyone should be able to positively identify one of the goldminers on my database, I would be pleased to hear from you. I would like to add a short biography and also a photo to any positively identified miner on the database. The goldminer's database is incomplete so will be extended from time to time, as time permits. The webpage also has the story of my great great grandfather Edward Hooper who was in Melbourne, Otago, South Australia (Burra Burra) and Thames between 1851 and 1871. I have been able to prove he was a goldminer in Otago (1861) and Thames (1868) but so far lack of records from the Victorian fields means that I have been unable to prove whether he looked for gold there or not. However I do know he was in Melbourne for at least some of the time between 1851 to 1861. If anyone can help me identify similar databases of Victorian goldminers I would be very grateful. Regards, Kae Lewis