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- about Adam's experiences as a Detective Constable with the Drug Squad at New Scotland
Yard and his subsequent trial at the Old Bailey accused of perjury and conspiracy (he was
acquitted) - was published in September. John, who thought that Adam seemed like 'a very
good bloke', would help to get him a job in Queensland; and later on, in Toowoomba, David
became good friends with Adam and Sam.
It was during this visit that John and Beth for the first time saw Honeycombe House and some
of the places associated with his, and my, ancestors. Ten years later, in September 1984, we
would gather there, with over 150 Honeycombes from all over the world, for the Honeycombe
Heritage Weekend.
In 1974, on his return to Ayr, John set in motion the development programme that would make
Honeycombes into one of the most successful business entreprises in the Burdekin today.
Honeycombes Haulage Pty Ltd was formed, with a fleet of 16 trucks and trailers which took
the total amount of cane cut at up-river farms at Millaroo and Dalbeg down to the railhead at
Claredale. Honeycombes also opened a real estate agency in Ayr, and began building homes
with a Logan unit franchise in 1977. A real estate office was opened in Townsville (also building
Logan units) in 1979.
All aspects of the Honeycombe business, in real estate, home building, land sales, property
management, farm machinery, trucks, new and used cars,
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have since expanded further in Townsville and Ayr and employ over 200 people; and in
addition to the cane farms, and the original allotment that Esther bought in 1913, John's
companies and he himself own shares in other businesses and several flats and houses - as do
his sons. Peter and Robert both work for Honeycombes in the real estate office in Townsville's
Charters Towers Rd. David is a Qantas pilot, and now flies 747s, taking 22 hours to fly to
London - a journey that took William Honeycombe 160 days.
But perhaps the family's most notable and proudest achievement (so far) was when a
Honeycombe, John's wife, Beth, became Chairman of the Shire Council in 1991.
What happened to the older generation of Honeycombes in Ayr?
Alma died in Ayr in September 1983; she was 81 Bill Honeycombe, John's father, died two
months later.
He and Gwen had left Katoomba when he was smitten with Parkinson's disease and had settled
on the Gold Coast, at Tweed Heads, NSW. For 12 years she cared for him as his health
deteriorated and until he went into a nursing-home. He aged prematurely; he could hardly talk;
he was skin and bone; his mind had gone. Lloyd went to see him and was horrified. He said: 'If
he was a dog, you'd shoot him.'
Bill died of broncho-pneumonia in a hospital on 30 November 1983 at the age of 79. Gwen still
lives in Tweed Heads, stricken with arthritis, but she doesn't care to remember the past.
Zoe left Ayr eventually and settled in Torquay. She went south initially to be near her second
son Lloyd. Her later years, those of her independence and domicile in Torquay, were fairly
happy ones. She played cards frequently, and she had a car that John had given her, a new
Mazda sedan, automatic. He also paid for three trips she made to Europe and for the airfares to
Singapore, when she visited Lloyd and his family. But when she died in April 1992 she left her
house to Lloyd and nothing to John.
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