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years ago. We know no reason for the move. But it was possibly connected with family troubles
and with the fact that the Towers was now a hive of industry and enterprise. In the
Honeycombes' absence much had changed, and most of it was good.
By 1893 the town's amenities had been expanded by the introduction of gas mains, by a local
telephone system and an adequate water supply. Churches and masonic lodges had
proliferated, as well as schools. There was even music in the evening air, after the daytime din of
batteries, crushing mills, wagons, carts and trains had faded away. For the Salvation Army and
the Fire Brigade both had bands; there was also the Apollo Orchestra, a City Choir (they
performed The Messiah), a Glee Club and an Operatic Society. Sporting activities involved
many more people. There was football, rugby, cricket, boxing, athletics, and a new fad, cycling.
Race meetings continued to attract the greatest crowds: a race-course had been the first
sporting circuit to be made. Races were not, however, confined to horses. There were also
goat-and-cart races. At one time the number of goats rummaging in backyards, commons and in
the streets (10,000 in 1880) exceeded the number of townspeople. Goats were also the main
providers of meat, milk and cheese.
All these sporting events, sometimes held in temperatures as high as 35 degrees, induced a great
amount of drinking and gambling. Thirsts were generally quenched by a local beer, Anchor
Beer, made by a brewery on the banks of the Burdekin River at Macrossan, until it was all but
demolished in a flood in 1892. The brewery was then moved to the Towers, where most of its
products were consumed. A draught beer, known as Polo, was sold in cork-stopped bottles
with the cork wired in; later, bottled beer was sold as Towers Beer or Towers Bitter, and there
was also Terrier Stout.
In the 1890s Charters Towers was characterised by dust, bustle and noise. The fever of gold,
the euphoria of sudden riches and material success lent the town an extraordinary energy.
Commercial entreprises thrived and speculation of every kind was rampant. A Stock Exchange
had been built in 1889 and did a roaring trade. Although several banks and businesses went
bankrupt in 1893, the town and its people prospered. That year, 256,000 ounces of gold were
extracted from the ore.
Mary and her children may in fact have returned to Charters Towers in 1892. For according to
an electoral roll John was registered as being in the area of the Stockholm mine in October
1892. We know, however, that he was a mine manager at Mt Hedlow during 1893. It seems
that he and Mary separated about this time, when she was pregnant with her seventh and last
child. There may have been a row about his absences and unfaithfulness. Or about her delusions
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and moods. Or he may have decided he had had enough of his wife and five surviving children
and packed his bags and walked out.
It is possible that John was on his own at Mt Hedlow when Mary gave birth in the Towers to a
baby girl Ellen Victoria (Nellie) in August 1893. Certainly, when he returned to Charters
Towers that year he lived apart from his family. For his residence at the end of that year is given
in the electoral roll as the Daylesford Hotel in Mosman Street, and he is recorded as having
been a miner at Plants Ridge.
If he was living in a hotel he must have had some money to spend on himself, apart from
providing for the separate upkeep of his children and his wife. This he continued to do, it seems,
in a minimal way, concerned for their welfare but not too closely concerned. He was aware of
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