Alfred Joyce began a pastoral partnership with his brother on the Upper Loddon early in 1844. His reminiscences reveal every stage of the venture, from the departure from Melbourne with stores to the completion of a roomy homestead, from the threat of bankruptcy to substantial success within a decade. In writing them, he was not dependent upon his memories; the many letters he had written to his parents in London had eventually been returned to him, and those written between 1851 and his mother’s death in 1858 form a continuation of his own narrative. They describe in vivid detail the upheavals that followed the discovery of gold, the transformation of both town and country, the dissolution of the Joyce brothers’ partnership, and Alfred’s activities as a pastoralist, farmer and miller at Norwood on the Bet Bet Creek. In this third edition, for which a much wider range of illustrations is available, an epilogue continues the story of George Joyce at Plaistow and Alfred Joyce at Norwood until both properties had passed into other hands. Domestic tragedy overwhelmed the one, while droughts and mortgages eventually ruined the other.

Contains references to the following places:
Alma diggings. Ballarat diggings. Bendigo diggings. Black Forest. Carisbrook. Castlemaine. Charlotte Plains. Clunes diggings. Daisy Hill diggings. Daylesford. Deep Creek. Dunach Forest. Dunolly diggings. Fiery Creek diggings. Forest Creek. Gisborne. Glengower. Holcombe. Jackson’s Creek. Jones Creek diggings. Joyce’s Creek. Keilor. Kyneton. Lexton. Maryborough diggings. Mount Alexander diggings. Mount Franklin aboriginal protectorate. Norwood. Plaistow. Rodborough Vale. Tarringower. Tottington. Wareek. Woodend. Woodside (Mount Macedon).

NAMES from the index (2nd ed. 1949):

- Anderson of Lexton. Annand and Smith, grocers. John Bakewell. John Batman. John Bear and Son, stock agents. Bell and Co., merchants. Sir Benjamin Benjamin. Andrew Beveridge. Dr Thomas Black. Hugh Blair. Charles Bonney. George Borradale. Caroline Bucknall, see: Caroline Joyce. Edward Gittens Bucknall. Mrs E.G. Bucknall. Frank Bucknall. Rev George Burder. Hon William Campbell. Clowes brothers. Henry Clowes. Joseph Clowes. Robert Clowes. Thomas Clowes. George Selth Coppin. John Cotton. George Curtis. Dalgety and Co. Frederick Gonnerman Dalgety. Mr and Mrs Dent. De Pass and Co. Frederick Thomas Eager. Sarah Eager. Charles Hotson Ebden. Henry Edwards. John Pascoe Fawkner. John Morris Fisher. John Vesey Leslie Foster. Captain Joseph Gibson. Hugh Glass. Richard Goldsbrough. Charles Ibbotsen Gore. Rev J.H. Gregory. Griffiths, Borradale and Gore, see also: Dalgety and Co. Charles Browning Hall. Ham brothers. Catherine Hayes. Heap and Grice, merchants. Captain John Hepburn. George Heyward. Isaac Hinds. – Hinton. Henry Hopkins. Sir Charles Hotham. William Hovell. Dr Godfrey Howitt. George Hudson. Hamilton Hume. William Morrison Hunter. Samuel Jackson. William Jackson. Jeffreys brothers. John Jenkins. Daniel Jennings. James Stewart Johnston. David Jones of Lake Victoria. Alfred Joyce. Alfred Joyce, miner. Ann Joyce. Caroline Joyce (Mrs Alfred Joyce, nee Bucknall). George Joyce. James Joyce. Thomas Joyce senior. Mrs Thomas Joyce senior. Thomas Joyce junior. William Joyce. William Kerr. – Kissock, stock agent. W.F.E. Liardet. D.R. Long. Alexander MacCallum. Charles Mackinnon. Colin Mackinnon. Donald Mackinnon. Lachlan Mackinnon. Captain Dugald Maclachlan. – Manton. Father Theobald Mathew. – Melville, bushranger. Mickle and Lilburne, stock agents. Henry Meyrick. Miller and Anderson, of Lexton. Major Thomas Mitchell. Alex Fullerton Mollison. William Mortimer. Lockhart Morton. M. Napper. William Nicholson. Edward Stone Parker. Rt Rev Charles Perry. David Reid. Rev John Rippon. George Augustus Robinson. Robert Ross. Laurence Rostron. Thomas Urmson Ryder. Richard Schlesinger. Don Campbell Simson. John Smeaton. John Thomas Smith. W.A. Smith of Carisbrook. William Edward Stanbridge. Robert Stephenson. Charles Sturt. Alexander Tolmer. William Trent. Robert Blathwaite Tucker. S. Tucker. Watson and Wright, merchants. Isaac Watts. Charles Williamson. Edward Wilson. ‘Tulip’ Wright.