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family's aggregate property to over 200 square miles. William Bauman made Honeycombe his
home for several years. But when his health failed, it was taken over in 1915 by his brother
Joseph Bauman. He moved there with his family from Charters Towers, where he had owned
and run a successful dairy - but not while John Honeycombe was still working there.
Gordon Mackenzie says in his book that big mobs of bullocks were moved south to Tryphinia
from time to time, and as the adjacent runs of Jellinbah, Tryphinia - Honeycombe and Leura
were largely unfenced, 'the periodic musters to sort out the herds were big occasions, when
teams of stockmen, black and white, from each station attended the muster... It was the day of
the big camp, an occasion to meet, show off bush skills at the cut-out camp, and of course
yarn-spinning round the fires at night. The Baumans had some good blacks working for them,
and Fred Spookendyke and Honeycombe Johnny come to mind".
Honeycombe Johnny - so at least the place gave someone a name, it not the other way round
In 1912, part of Honeycombe was 'resumed' by the government (sold off) and selected by
Harold Katte. He renamed the 8,500 acre block Leichhardt Park and built a homestead on
Parker's Creek.
Mackenzie says of the Kattes: 'They drove their sheep to the selection and these were
shepherded by the growing family for some time until their cattle herd built up...
Communications were bad, and educational facilities nonexistent. But Mrs Katte gave their
children (there were six) a good grounding in practical education. Mail came from Blackwater,
and the children rode 13 miles
(north) to Honeycombe - the only crossing of the river - for mail and meat. During the 1918
flood, Mr Katte was away from home, and returned to find that his wife had been on the roof of
the house for two days'.
The Kattes were well-known for their hospitality, dispensing frequent cups of tea or glasses of
Mrs Katte's 'hop-beer1. Harold Katte was a Duaringa Shire Councillor for many years, riding
south on his horse to Melmoth, on the Tropic of Capricorn, to meet Lome Mackenzie, the Shire
chairman. They travelled on to Duaringa by car. Katte died in 1964, aged 86.
Lome Mackenzie, who came to Queensland with his parents in 1892 when he was 18 and in
time acquired several properties (the family homestead was at Telson), was the father of
Gordon Mackenzie, bom in 1914. His history of the area was published when he was 72. In it,
he tells of the travelling salesmen, or hawkers, who served the needs of the isolated homesteads.
These outback homes had no regular communications link with anyone until, in 1919, Jim Wafer
started the Royal Mail service (a wagon and four horses) between Dingo and Barwon Park, a
distance of 85 miles.
Most of the early hawkers were Indian or Lebanese. Mackenzie writes: 'Their wagons,
buckboards, and later motor trucks, were stocked with a wide range of goods, from bolts of
cloth to saddlery, bright cotton for the blacks, and ... patent medicines... Being born traders,
they had an uncanny knack of knowing what a potential buyer might want - nothing being too
much trouble to produce and put on display'.
Race meetings and race balls were the social events of the year; at other times picnic races were
held and rodeos. In 1926, the Mackenzie River Amateur Race Club was formed, and yearly
meetings were held at Honeycombe until the outbreak of war. 'Campers arrived a day or so
before and set up a canvas village on the riverbank. Horses came from as far away as the
Central Line, the Isaac River District, and Capella... An open-air dance-floor was constructed
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