 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
mine manager. He had to make sure the men worked very hard, did not steal any of the gold,
and had to make sure that the mine made a profit for the shareholders or mine-owner. It was his
responsibility to know the direction of the gold seam. He also in the smaller mines was
responsible for the book-keeping, and above all, he had to be hardworking, honest and
trustworthy. It can be assumed that John fulfilled all these criteria to some degree, as news of
any dishonesty travelled fast and John would not have held any of these positions for long...
John was always trying to find the gold at the end of the rainbow. But he failed in the most
important human function as a father. He never saw the gold that he had in his children. He
neglected them'.
223
While John Honeycombe was working in and around Bouldercombe, did he ever look west and
wonder about a place inland that bore his name?
His three youngest children, Jenny, Lawrie and Annie, had been bom in the Westwood District
- Westwood being a township some 40km west of Bouldercombe and beyond Mt Morgan.
Beyond Westwood, some 155km further west, was, and is, a property called Honeycombe.
I only heard about its existence early in 1989, when Fred Butcher, Jenny's youngest son, sent
me photo-copies of pages of a book about well-known properties and families in the area. He
wrote: 'There is a grazing property called Honeycombe west of Westwood which I always
thought may have been associated with our family'.
How did the property get its name? Was it named, or ever owned by a Honeycombe? I tried to
find out.
Although research soon revealed that the property was spelt 'Honeycomb' in the few records
that mentioned the place before 1905, this is not too significant. The spelling of odd names was
not very stable in the nineteenth century (or earlier) and in documents relating to Honeycombe
families, the 'e' is sometimes absent. The fact that nearly all the original purchases or leaseholds
of land in Australia were given either personal, descriptive or aboriginal names is more pertinent,
as would seem to be the fact that the property is now spelled with an 'e' - on maps, in print, and
by those who own it now.
The Honeycombe homestead, 75km north of Dingo, is one of the oldest properties in the area
and is situated by the only crossing thereabouts of the Mackenzie River. It was a 'low-level'
crossing, which meant that the river had to be very low before it could be traversed. When the
river was running well but not in spate, mail and supplies would have to be boated across for
weeks on end and carried up the river's steep banks. A bridge was not built until 1958, several
miles upstream, at Bingegang.
The aboriginal tribe who roamed the area bounded by the northern arch of the Mackenzie River
were the Kanolu, said by Gordon Mackenzie in his book The Big Bend to have been 'good
physical specimens, kindly and humorous.' He wrote of the area contained within the river's
great bend: 'The long stretches of deep water in the river itself and nearby billabongs, swamps
and the network of feeder creeks must have been made for good hunting. The river and creeks
teemed with freshwater fish, while the swamps and lagoons would have provided a rich harvest
of lily bulbs, turtles, nardoo, etc. In the scrubs and plains there was plenty of marsupial, reptile
and bird life'.
224
 |