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be trained, and all we had left were boys, delivering groceries door to door. They'd just built
that new building - and it had to be paid off. They worked long hours - Alma and Lloyd, Esther
and Len. They used to stay open until eleven o'clock at night. It was all hands on deck.'
A teenage girl called Clarice Richards was employed by Len Honeycombe to assist Alma in the
office. In 1989 she wrote to John Honeycombe about some of her remembrances of those
days.
'I remember the times during the war when things like chocolates, biscuits and tinned fruit were
virtually unobtainable... I remember the tedious job of having to count coupons for butter, sugar
and tea (collected from customers) and laboriously pasting them onto printed forms supplied by
the government, and these had to be handed in with the store's order to Burns Philp (the main
wholesaler supplying Honeycombes) before replacement stocks could be obtained. I remember
the introduction of the 40-hour-week, and we thought how wonderful it was to finish work at
20 to 5 in the afternoon, until the powers-that-be decided that this was too early to go home.
So commencing time was adjusted so that the shops then closed at 10 past 5. I remember all
the fun we had with your uncle, Lloyd Wilson - one of the funniest men I have ever met, with his
endless supply of yarns. As a very naive 15-year-old I don't think I fully understood the
meaning in a lot of his jokes at first... I remember when you, John, were just a kid in short pants,
and you used to annoy the life out of us office girls when you wanted to try your skill at typing a
letter on the office typewriter - a vintage model Remington... There was something special about
the atmosphere in a grocery store at Xmas time - a very busy time, with customers calling to
purchase all the Xmas "goodies". Items such as hams were available only on special occasions
such as Xmas and Easter, and the hams were always raw. You could not buy a cooked ham as
you can today... All the shops stayed open until 9.0pm on Xmas Eve.'
John Kerr, in Black Snow and Liquid Gold, described what further effects the Second World
War had on Ayr.
'At the outbreak of war, guards were immediately appointed to such vital installations as the
powerhouse, at heavy cost to the ratepayer. They were unarmed, of little practical value, and
were soon removed. The Air Raid Precaution organisation was rapidly established, although the
front line was half a world away. Its members were issued with helmets, badges and
armbands...
Children were taught the drills and volunteer fire brigades were established in Home Hill and
Ayr. This gave a much needed degree of preparedness when Japan entered the war. Each town
had an air-raid siren... Local branches of the Red Cross and the Queensland Sock and
Comforts Fund were formed to resume the work that had ended only 21 years before.
Women's commitment was substantial, most clearly in the Comforts Fund and the Women's
Land Army in cotton and vegetable picking... Public presentations were held to farewell the
volunteers, (and) voluntary levies, carnivals and functions were held to aid patriotic funds...
Council supported those at the front with a remission of rates for the duration of the war... Local
volunteers for the front line went to training camp at Miowera, south of Bowen. With no end to
war in sight, registration for military training was extended to all young men from the start of
1941. Local members of the Militia and National trainees went south, with Lt TA Campbell in
charge, for a three-month training course in Home Defence.'
At Sellheim, Captain Bob Honeycombe enlisted for war service in October 1941.
Kerr continues: 'The war was painful for many Italians, who had migrated to North Queensland.
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