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baby was buried the day after he died, in Charters Towers cemetery, in a grave unmarked
except for a spike, numbered 6092.
Gladys went west after her baby's death, west of Hughenden. She found work as a domestic
servant on a cattle station, cooking for the manager's wife.
Was she sent away from the Towers, to avoid any further gossip and other mishaps? Probably
not. The baby died, after all, in some family home in Black Jack Road, not in an anonymous
lodging. And Gladys was a girl of some spirit. It seems likely that she made her own decision to
distance herself from the scenes of her recent grief and shame and from the prospect of ever
seeing her seducer again, and indeed her family. Only Lena stayed in touch with her.
It was in 1918 that Bob Honeycombe received a letter from a minister in Kalgoorlie, probably
Archdeacon Collick, asking for some money for Bob's destitute father, John. Young Bill was
present when a violent argument ensued between his father and mother about whether any
money should be sent. 'Your father has never done anything for you in your life!' cried Lena. But
£5 was sent, and the family were on short rations for a week.
Bob himself, though not quite destitute, was extremely ill. In 1922, at the age of 39, he was
forced to give up working. He must have known that he was dying, his body torn by the
coughing, the disease that had destroyed his older brother, Willie.
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One immediate result of Bob's incapacity was that young Bob perforce became the bread-
winner. At the age of 15 his promising career at school was curtailed: he had to go to work. He
got a job in the Sellheim Meatworksas a porter.
Two years earlier, Bob senior's youngest sister, Nellie, had married William McHugh, a
railway-engine driver, in Charters Towers. That was in September 1920, when she was 27.
According to her niece, Mabel: 'She was a very lively person, very different to my father. He
was a very quiet man.' Bill MoHugh, according to Mabel, was also ' a very quiet man.'
Mabel had remained at home when she left school, aged 15, and helped her mother around the
house. "I led a lady's life,' she said ironically. But when her father's illness prevented him from
working, she, as well as young Bob, had to supplement the family income and get a job. In
1923, when she was 17, she became a 'nurse girl' with a family in Charters Towers. She lived
in, looking after two young children. 'I wouldn't do any other work,' she said. 'I loved the
children - they were so well-behaved.'
By this time, Mabel's elder sister, Gladys, had married. She met her future husband, Norman
Creffield, on the cattle station west of Hughenden where she had worked as a domestic and
cook since 1920. The property was owned by Tom Ball. Norman's grandfather is said to have
been a wheelwright in Birmingham in central England, and his father, Walter John Creffield,
achieved an accidental distinction by being the first white boy to be born on Sweers Island.
Norman was a wool-carrier, and a cane-carrier in the cutting season; he had established himself
as such by borrowing the money to buy a motor-vehicle.
He and Gladys married at Richmond, over 100km west of Hughenden, in September 1922.
She was just 20. They settled there, before moving to Townsville and then on to Ayr in 1932.
Mabel said of Gladys: 'She wanted me to come out with her when she got married, but I
wouldn't. She was out there (in Richmond) for years... Norman was a very nice chappie and a
very good husband to Gladys. They had five nice children (three were boys) and were a very
happy couple.'
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