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his responsibilities, but was not shy of putting himself and his pleasures first. One gets the
impression he was fond of good food and drink and female company and enjoyed a night out
with his mates.
It was in 1893 or soon thereafter that the mental and physical health of Mary Honeycombe,
now 40, took a turn for the worse.
It has been said that the death of her second son, Frank, affected her greatly and that she
became very depressed - so much so that she became something of an alcoholic. Her
depression may have been exacerbated by her husband's presumed infidelities, and his
absences, and by the birth of her last child, Nellie. Perhaps Mary could no longer cope without
her husband and with the strain of trying to bring up seven children, although by this time Willie,
who was now 14, was working in a mine. Or had John left her to move in with a younger
woman - he was now 51 - endeavouring to recapture some of the lost joys of his youth and
escape from the humdrum pressures of family life?
According to his grandson, Bob Honeycombe, John was compelled in 1894 by the breakdown
in his wife's health to put her in a nursing-home (at Lismore in New South Wales) and to leave
the youngest children with family friends and relatives, while he took the two eldest boys, Willie
(Bill) and Bob, then aged 15 and 11, down to Geelong, to stay with his much older sister, Jane
Mountjoy, and her husband.
This tradition is only partly correct. For it seems that Mary was never in Lismore, although she
was not too far away. And although there was some kind of crisis in the family in 1894, when
Mary may have had a breakdown, her incarceration in the alleged nursing-home - in fact a
mental hospital - did not happen until 1900.
But it is almost certain that John's journey south with his two eldest boys did occur in 1894, if
not before. It had to have occurred while Bob was still of an age (and Willie) to be sent to
school. And if Mary was indeed hospitalised at that time, her youngest children, the three little
girls and Lawrie would certainly have been placed in some relatives' care.
233
A memory of the time that John's two eldest boys spent with their Aunt Jane in Geelong
remained for a long time with the younger of them, Bob. Years later he would recall that his
bedroom window overlooked an apple tree, whose fruit he could reach and pluck. According
to his eldest son, also Bob, Aunt Jane wanted to keep the younger boy and give him a good
education. But his father, John 'did not approve of this and brought his two boys back to
Charters Towers'.
According to another family source, both boys were offered a home by Jane and both turned
the offer down. This seems more likely. For John would surely have welcomed the chance to
offload his sons, at least financially, and provide them with a better chance in life.
If this had happened, how different Bob's life would have been, and longer, if he had remained
with his aunt where apple trees grew.
While John was down south in 1894 he would very likely have seized the opportunity to visit his
old haunts and cronies in Ballarat and Melbourne. No doubt he called on his older brother
Richard, who was now 64, and introduced his two young sons to him. Probably they all stayed
in Melbourne for a while with Richard in Albert Street, or with one of his four sons, who had
families of their own and were well established in Footscray, Fitzroy and Yarra. Perhaps there
was a family reunion in Albert Street at Christmas, attended by Richard and Elizabeth's seven
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