I have been past this place and i know the ledgend of lucy, i feel this is a big part of the local history and i hope that placing a cache here i can keep the ledgend alive.
The cache is a 600ml container with swapables, log book and pen.
This is the decription taken of the ABC's Web site
It started when Bob Bates stumbled upon a property while four-wheel driving in East Gippsland with friends in 1975. They had pulled over for a rest when Bob spotted a woman tip-toeing between some timber stacks in the distance, as if she was trying to avoid detection. Nearby was a small hut with smoke rising from a chimney.
The group set off again but the image of the woman stayed with Bob.
"We went to the great little town down the road called Swifts Creek and there we learned all about her," Bob recalled.
The woman was Lucy Strobridge who was born in 1919 and grew up on a farm in Brookville, a gold town west of Swifts Creek. When the gold rush ended, the town disappeared, but Lucy stayed.
Bob told ABC Gippsland's Mornings program Lucy had a traumatic childhood. She was particularly close to her younger brother Billy who had polio and the pair would communicate with each other in a language only they would understand.
Lucy was said to have been devastated when Billy was taken away in a car to the Children's Hospital in Carlton in 1936. Some say this was when she stopped talking.
Five years later her father died. Her sister Maude had already left home and married.
When the family property was sold, Lucy and her mother Ellen set up home in two huts on the edge of the abandoned Brookville township. It's thought Lucy held a grudge against her domineering mother.
When Ellen died, Lucy remained in the huts which had no electricity or modern conveniences and barely a stick of furniture. It was then the people of Swifts Creek and surrounding communities stepped in.
"They had working bees up there for her, cutting firewood up, particularly the people of Swifts Creek, they really looked after her," Bob said.
"What touched me the most (about Lucy's story) is the effort that people went to, to help her and it would always go unthanked. That's typical country folk."
Despite the good will, Lucy was fiercely private and employed bizarre tactics to keep strangers away from her property.
Bob documented Lucy's story and the history of the district in which she lived in a book Maid of the Mountains .
It was published almost 10 years ago but is still one of the most sought after local history books.
"It's really good to hear of the interest that people have portrayed in learning more about Lucy," he said.
Congrats to Greynomads - Bill and Diana for being ***FTF***