 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
(Some) were treated shamefully and interned... Local police advised Italians not to congregate
publicly, especially not to talk Italian... After Japan bombed Pearl Harbour in December 1941,
and Asian colonies fell (Singapore surrendered in February 1942 and Darwin was bombed),
Australians suddenly sensed the imminent threat. Within days the Mobile Recruiting Rally was
enrolling volunteers in Home Hill... Ayr police station was supplied with a powerful electric siren
to blast out the air-raid warnings. Local businesses had to protect shop windows to prevent
slivers of glass flying about... Constructing air- raid shelters was given top priority. Schools were
closed until zig-zag trenches were dug in the grounds... Separate trenches were dug for boys
and girls... Blackouts were imposed from sunset to sunrise, so as not to provide targets for
enemy bombers. Radio stations went off the air at 6.30pm. Although regulations permitted
shrouded lights, Ayr street lights were turned off completely... There were few people shopping,
and even necessities were scarce. Houses were empty as civilians evacuated voluntarily, and
many businesses closed.'
Petrol was rationed, and then meat (in September 1943). Home deliveries by motor vehicle
were curtailed and trucks impounded for military use. Grocers were compelled to stockpile
foodstuffs in case of an emergency - tins of fruit, condensed milk, jam, etc and bags of sugar,
salt and soap. More shortages were caused and prices soared when supplies were diverted to
feed the influx of troops.
While women and children fled south for safety in 1942 - Esther and Ethel were among them
and would be away from Ayr for over a year - thousands of troops, Australian and American,
were passing northwards through the Burdekin, although few were actually stationed in the
shire. Some were based at a prisoner-of-war camp south of the Burdekin River and opposite
Clare, where Italian prisoners, brought all the way from Europe, were immured. Some
378
American servicemen came to Ayr by truck from Woodstock aerodrome for rest and
recreation at Nelson's Lagoon and Alva Beach. In July 1942, a Japanese flying-boat dropped
the only bombs that fell on Queensland during the war; they fell on Townsville. But no one was
hurt and little damage was done.
Much more devastation would have been wreaked by the Australians themselves if the
Japanese had invaded the north. If that had happened, the Army had planned and prepared to
lay waste much of Queensland, destroying 'everything likely to maintain or assist the enemy in
his operations', and retreating to a line north of Brisbane where the enemy's advance would be
resisted and battle joined.
Zoe Honeycombe had gone south to Brisbane in 1940, before the evacuation of women and
children from the Burdekin began. She went there to be near her husband and she took John,
aged four, with her. For reasons that are not too clear - except that she was pregnant - she
returned to Ayr early in 1944 and left John there (now aged seven) to be cared for by his
grandmother and Alma for the next two years. Zoe then travelled down to her mother in
Rockhampton, where on 21 February 1944 she gave birth to another baby boy, who was
christened Lloyd William (after his uncle, Lloyd Wilson, and his father). Zoe was 38 when
Lloyd was born.
She was more fond of her second son than of John, whom she is said to have treated none too
well, scolding and slapping him. For John was favoured by the Honeycombes, by Esther and
Alma and Len, with whom Zoe was not in sympathy. Alma said later: 'She took a dislike to all
 |