diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/Version.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/Version.java
index 7f420e6bb5d..7536f23d587 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/Version.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/Version.java
@@ -239,7 +239,9 @@ public class Version {
     public static final int V_1_5_3_ID = 1050399;
     public static final Version V_1_5_3 = new Version(V_1_5_3_ID, true, org.apache.lucene.util.Version.LUCENE_4_10_4);
     public static final int V_1_6_0_ID = 1060099;
-    public static final Version V_1_6_0 = new Version(V_1_6_0_ID, true, org.apache.lucene.util.Version.LUCENE_4_10_4);
+    public static final Version V_1_6_0 = new Version(V_1_6_0_ID, false, org.apache.lucene.util.Version.LUCENE_4_10_4);
+    public static final int V_1_6_1_ID = 1060199;
+    public static final Version V_1_6_1 = new Version(V_1_6_1_ID, true, org.apache.lucene.util.Version.LUCENE_4_10_4);
     public static final int V_2_0_0_ID = 2000099;
     public static final Version V_2_0_0 = new Version(V_2_0_0_ID, true, org.apache.lucene.util.Version.LUCENE_5_2_0);
 
@@ -257,6 +259,8 @@ public class Version {
         switch (id) {
             case V_2_0_0_ID:
                 return V_2_0_0;
+            case V_1_6_1_ID:
+                return V_1_6_1;
             case V_1_6_0_ID:
                 return V_1_6_0;
             case V_1_5_3_ID:
diff --git a/core/src/test/resources/org/elasticsearch/bwcompat/index-1.6.0.zip b/core/src/test/resources/org/elasticsearch/bwcompat/index-1.6.0.zip
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..02a5806638b
Binary files /dev/null and b/core/src/test/resources/org/elasticsearch/bwcompat/index-1.6.0.zip differ
diff --git a/core/src/test/resources/org/elasticsearch/bwcompat/repo-1.6.0.zip b/core/src/test/resources/org/elasticsearch/bwcompat/repo-1.6.0.zip
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..1c31a0240be
Binary files /dev/null and b/core/src/test/resources/org/elasticsearch/bwcompat/repo-1.6.0.zip differ
diff --git a/dev-tools/create_bwc_index.py b/dev-tools/create_bwc_index.py
index 95f1acbad49..393b01606a9 100644
--- a/dev-tools/create_bwc_index.py
+++ b/dev-tools/create_bwc_index.py
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ def build_version(version_tuple):
 def build_tuple(version_string):
   return [int(x) for x in version_string.split('.')]
 
-def start_node(version, release_dir, data_dir, tcp_port=DEFAULT_TRANSPORT_TCP_PORT, http_port=DEFAULT_HTTP_TCP_PORT, cluster_name=None):
+def start_node(version, release_dir, data_dir, repo_dir, tcp_port=DEFAULT_TRANSPORT_TCP_PORT, http_port=DEFAULT_HTTP_TCP_PORT, cluster_name=None):
   logging.info('Starting node from %s on port %s/%s, data_dir %s' % (release_dir, tcp_port, http_port, data_dir))
   if cluster_name is None:
     cluster_name = 'bwc_index_' + version
@@ -143,7 +143,8 @@ def start_node(version, release_dir, data_dir, tcp_port=DEFAULT_TRANSPORT_TCP_PO
     '-Des.network.host=localhost',
     '-Des.discovery.zen.ping.multicast.enabled=false',
     '-Des.transport.tcp.port=%s' % tcp_port,
-    '-Des.http.port=%s' % http_port
+    '-Des.http.port=%s' % http_port,
+    '-Des.path.repo=%s' % repo_dir
   ]
   if version.startswith('0.') or version.startswith('1.0.0.Beta') :
     cmd.append('-f') # version before 1.0 start in background automatically
@@ -329,7 +330,7 @@ def parse_config():
                         help='Recreate all existing backwards compatibility indexes')
   parser.add_argument('--releases-dir', '-d', default='backwards', metavar='DIR',
                       help='The directory containing elasticsearch releases')
-  parser.add_argument('--output-dir', '-o', default='src/test/resources/org/elasticsearch/bwcompat',
+  parser.add_argument('--output-dir', '-o', default='core/src/test/resources/org/elasticsearch/bwcompat',
                       help='The directory to write the zipped index into')
   parser.add_argument('--tcp-port', default=DEFAULT_TRANSPORT_TCP_PORT, type=int,
                       help='The port to use as the minimum port for TCP communication')
@@ -364,7 +365,7 @@ def create_bwc_index(cfg, version):
   node = None
 
   try:
-    node = start_node(version, release_dir, data_dir, cfg.tcp_port, cfg.http_port)
+    node = start_node(version, release_dir, data_dir, repo_dir, cfg.tcp_port, cfg.http_port)
     client = create_client(cfg.http_port)
     index_name = 'index-%s' % version.lower()
     generate_index(client, version, index_name)