present Ellis Road (referred to now as Tonimbuk) north-east of the current town. Connor built the old "Buneep Hotel" around 1858 to accommodate coach travellers on the long route, a journey that usually took 36 hours. The names recorded in this era for the old town included Buneep, Burneep Burneep and Burra Burneep. At around the same time and in the same area the transport company Cobb and Co established their own trading post. In 1859, a new road, later known as the Old Telegraph Road was surveyed in an attempt to avoid the bad conditions of the previous route to Sale. But, in 1860 there were further improvements made for coach traffic with the opening of the Old Sale Road which crossed the Bunyip River to the south of the old Buneep village, which was abandoned around this time. In 1867 David Connor selected land to build the "Bunyip Hotel" on the west side of the Bunyip River along the new road. The licensee was David Devaney and the hotel had 14 rooms as well as a 25 stall stable. Located on a low hill some 44 metres above sea-level, a township was established in its final location alongside the Bairnsdale railway line when it arrived in October 1877. By March of the following year the section of the line to Moe was completed. Surrounded partly by swamp as it was, the foundation of the town, and railway line, can be attributed to its relatively elevated position, its prior use as a coach stop and the increasing need to provide transport for farm produce and timber. Two hotels, the "Butcher's Arms" and the "Bunyip" were set up in 1876 while the railway line was under construction and in 1877 the "Railway Family" hotel opened with John O'Brien as its licensee. The establishment of these hotels was permanent. The Post Office opened around November 1877 and was known as Bunyip R. S. until 1903. The main outlet for the men looking for work was in the timber industry and local splitters were fully employed having orders to keep them in work for many months. Large eucalyptus trees were selected and were then sawn with a cross cut saw into required lengths. Palings were used for weatherboards, garden fences and roof shingling. Although a number of private attempts were made at drainage works in the 1860s and 70s they were met