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The headmaster, Walter Mooney, sent a copy of the photo in November to the education
authorities in Brisbane, asking for a grant and bitterly drawing attention to 'the structure' and to
the closet - 'a true index to the other buildings (?).' He wrote: 'An intelligent community will
make many sacrifices to have an edifice in every respect fit for educational purposes, while an
ignorant one will be quite indifferent appertaining to the same laudable object.' Eight persons in
authority saw and initialled the letter. But Mr Mooney's plea was evidently ignored, a new
school not being built until 1900.
In 1888, the year that little Frank was killed, his father, John, was a mining manager (at Mount
Peers mine): he is described as such on Lawrence's birth certificate. It also reveals that the out-
of-wedlock circumstances of Willie's birth in 1879 had been glossed over by then. On Frank's
death certificate, as on other certificates, the date of John and Mary's marriage has been altered
to precede and legitimise Willie's birth. It is given as 1878.
John is listed as a mining manager at Bouldercombe in 1889. But he is an ordinary 'miner1 when
Annie Frances is born in 1891 - not at Three Mile Creek but at Union Hill.
John's great-grandson, John, was told that John was 'manager of mines in Charters Towers,
Three Mile Creek and Rockhampton between 1882 and 1887 and later near Bouldercombe'.
This is correct - an accurate oral tradition. But no post was held for long, and the mines were
not very productive. A mine manager was more of an overseer then, a supervisor. John's
occupation is
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merely described as a 'miner' in the Crocodile Creek school register (1884-1891).
His great-grandson was also told that John 'failed to see that his children were properly
educated' and was 'an errant husband'. In more ways than one, apparently. But who and what
contributed to the imminent division of John and Mary's family will never be known - what
character flaws or neuroses, what grievances real or imagined, what disaffection wrought by
circumstances, privation, behaviour or mental stress. It has been said by family members that
Mary Honeycombe was greatly affected by her second son's death and that the marriage began
to disintegrate from then on. It is said she 'took to the bottle'. But it is also said she looked after
her children as best she could, caring for them in primitive conditions, clothing and feeding then,
while John spent many hours sway from home - not always at work and not always returning at
night. He was middle-aged now: he was 48 in 1890; Mary was 39.
In 1892, the Crocodile Creek school register records that young Willie, as well as Bob and
Jane, left the school, Willie in July and the other two in June. Jane, or Jenny, had only been there
for three months. Their departure seems to have been prompted by an improvement in John
Honeycombe's fortunes - he became the mining manager of the Investment Mining Company at
Bouldercombe in the Port Curtis District in 1892, remaining there for over a year.
Presumably the whole family moved house and the children were sent to other schools, to the
east of Bouldercombe and in the Port Curtis District, after which John moved again, to Mt
Hedlow, which was 14 miles north of Rockhampton. That was in 1893, when John became
manager of a mine up there. Called Greek's Reef, it was said in 1882 to have vied with Mt
Wheeler for the best yield in the area. Crushing machinery was erected there in the 1890's, but
the results were poor and work soon ceased.
Margaret Kelly, John's great-granddaughter wrote in 1993: 'Very little is known as to what type
of man John was. What we can understand is that the most unpopular man on any field was a
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