Gippsland with it's wet soils and swampy plains made road travel a nightmare and our early roads were often paved with corduroy. Not the type used to make trousers but logs of wood laid sideways across the tracks. The horses were kept at a gallop so imagine the jostling and pitching inside a carriage over the logs. The journey between Melbourne and Rosedale took 33 hours, stopping only to eat and change horses. As the logs perished more logs would be placed directly on top. In the 1950's, when areas of the main Gippsland road were repaired, the workmen found up to 15 feet (5 metres) of corduroy. The following article was published in The Melbourne Argus on the 10th of March 1945. "I TRIED TO GET A NAP to help pass away the dreary time, but with the jerking of the coach and the tumbling … Continue reading »