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might have determined by the first major discovery of gold in Queensland that year.
This was at Gympie, some 180km north of Brisbane. Other strikes had already been made
further up the coast near Rockhampton, at Canoona and Crocodile Creek. Many of the miners
from the Victorian goldfields made their way north, travelling thither from Melbourne by sea.
John Honeycombe may have been among them. The next gold-strike was far inland and even
further north, at Ravenswood. That was in 1868. Some of the miners rode to Ravenswood from
Rockhampton; most probably walked. Others sailed up the coast to Townsville and made their
way to Ravenswood from there.
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It was not until 1871, however, that prospectors, moving west from Ravenswood, found the
biggest gold-field in the north. Three prospectors from Ravenswood, Mosman, Fraser and
Clarke were camping in the bush when there was a storm. The horses scattered, and an 11 -
year-old aboriginal boy with the group, called Jupiter, was sent to round them up. While so
doing he knelt by a stream to have a drink of water and recognised the glint of gold. Excitedly
he carried the glittering stone back to his masters. It was Christmas Day.
The site was named after WSEM Charters, the warden or gold commissioner at Ravenswood,
who registered the claim, with the descriptive addition of Tors, referring to the low hills
thereabouts. This changed to Towers, the two words sounding much the same to the largely
illiterate miners. The scene of Jupiter's find, a thousand miles north of Brisbane and proclaimed a
town in 1877, grew from a collection of huts - 'a drunken, brawling community' according to an
official in 1873 - into the second largest town in Queensland. Boastfully known as The World, it
would sustain a population of 27,000 and 54 hotels by 1901, when Australia became one
nation in constitution and name.
In 1878, John Honeycombe, aged 36, was living in Charters Towers on St Patrick's Block,
which surpassed all the other goldmines and claims thereabouts in the amount of gold it
produced. The block was situated on the northeast edge of the town near Mosman's Creek.
Miners lived in communal shanties made of wood, corrugated iron and bark, or if they had
some money, in rough boarding houses or even hotels. Their methods of work were very
wasteful: lower grades of ore were left on the slopes in their hurry to find the richer ores which it
was believed would be found at greater depths. No real effort was made to develop mining and
milling techniques. Dust flew as holes in the ground were deepened and detritus deposited
above. Within a few years the area was denuded of all trees and even of any vegetation, which
was eaten by goats. Timber for mining had to be brought by horse teams from as far as 50 miles
away. Firewood was obtained within a 10 mile radius of the town. The population was
inevitably largely male, whose thirsts were slaked in the hotels, and whose other needs were
catered for by the few young complacent females who served as saloon girls or domestics, and
by prostitutes.
In February 1879 in Charters Towers Mary Casey gave birth to a baby boy, conceived of
course the previous year. He was baptised as William John Casey, his fathers name not being
given, or not even known. Mary said, untruthfully, that she was 21 and had been born in
Launceston, Tasmania.
Although John Honeycombe would not marry Mary Casey for another two years, there is no
reason, apart from family rumour, to suppose that William John was not John's son. Certainly, in
photos he looks like his mother, with the same broad forehead and rather square face. But he
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