Catherine Nash nee Murphy
” When Catherine Murphy arrived in Gympie, with her family, in June of 1867 it was a bitterly cold winter. She would always remember the cold the family experienced that year. They were living in a building of single paling walls, full of holes, with the only heating the kitchen fire.
The Murphy family had arrived in Australia from County Wexford in Ireland when Catherine was a small child. She had been born in Wexford in approximately 1852 to parents Mary and Daniel Murphy. The Murphys landed in Sydney but, disappointed with prospects there, came to Brisbane. Here, Daniel Murphy was severely injured while working on a property in Queensland and was unable to work. Mary Murphy then began keeping an hotel in the Fortitude Valley, Brisbane to support the family. Catherine’s recollections of this era paint a very descriptive picture. Rumours were spreading wildly about a gold discovery in the north. From her splendid view of the road, she watched the steady stream of men in all types of conveyances and laden with equipment stream past their door on the way to the newly discovered goldfields of Gympie. She spoke of the sound of men joking and laughing not knowing the deprivations that lay ahead.
At the same time, one of the Murphy boys had gone to Gympie without informing his parents. Mrs. Murphy, fearful regarding his welfare, went to Gympie to find him, and was so impressed with the possibilities of the place that she stayed there and sent for the family. Mary bought a business site in what is now Mary Street and paid to have a building erected. She then sent word to Daniel to bring the children and come to Gympie.
They came by the paddle steamer the “Mary Bowen” to Maryborough and from there by wagon to Gympie. Later Catherine remembered that this mode of travelling, Mrs. Nash was just the thing. ” LIKE A HUGE FAIR,” she said. The feelings of the girl who afterwards was to become the wife of the discoverer of the field on, reaching the field are best described by her. She said: “When we got to Gympie, up on the hill, over the one long street, we were amazed at the grotesque looking township, with its very primitive buildings.”
Much of the responsibility of caring for the younger children and her invalid father fell to Catherine as she was the eldest at home. Mary Murphy’s hotel proved popular with miners for its good food, warm beds and hospitality. The miners were very curious about the ‘new girl’ in town and the first night they crowded the street outside the hotel hoping for a glimpse of her. It was probably here that 16 year old Catherine caught the eye of James Nash.
James and Catherine were married in Maryborough on 6 July 1868. James had been rewarded with 1000 pounds for his gold discovery in Gympie, and with that and the money from his mining efforts he took his new bride to England. On their return they took up farming at Tiaro where they had six children,
Only three of their children would live to adulthood. Francis died of dysentery in 1875, Katherine Mary died aged 4 years and 11 months and Eva Kathleen died in 1897, aged 16. Their son Allan William was a popular schoolteacher but lost his life when killed in action at Gallipoli aged 36. Elizabeth Amy (known as Amy) married Joe Moore and assisted in the care of her father in his latter years. Herbert had met with an accident when he was a child, which left him without speech or hearing. He became a well-known artist and was well liked around Gympie.
James and Catherine finally separated and she tried her hand at a couple of businesses without much success. She finally purchased a house on the corner of Monkland and O’Connell Streets where she lived until her death. She worked tirelessly for the Red Cross, the ambulance and the hospital.
Catherine had had a stroke when informed of Allan’s death in 1915. She recovered and would live another 16 years. She died on the 9 May 1931 at her home in Monkland Street aged 78 years. She is buried in the Gympie Cemetery with her son, Herbert but not with James.
Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser (Qld. : 1860 – 1947) Tue 12 May 1931 MRS. CATHERINE NASH.
“Mrs. Catherine Nash, relict of James Nash, the discoverer of Gympie goldfield, died at her residence in Monkland-street, Gympie, on Saturday at the age of 78. Her husband died 18 years ago. Born in Ireland, Mrs. Nash came to Australia at an early age with her parents, and settled in Gympie, where she met James Nash; she was married a year later in Maryborough. Her husband, first discovered gold at Gympie in 1867. The late Mrs. Nash is survived by a daughter-in-law, Mrs. A. W. Nash, and a son, Bert. Another son, Major Allan Nash, was killed in the war.”
Catherine is not the first woman to be overshadowed by a famous husband but in researching the life of Catherine Nash nee Murphy what is striking about her is her courage and resilience. The way she grasped the difficult life on the newly discovered goldfields is inspiring. She was possessed of a dry wit and was quite the social commentator. The following quote sums up her personality very well.
“Soon Brisbane and all the other towns within Queensland were left much under petticoat government. With the exception of a few who could not get away, all the male kind made for this new Eldorado. All were in the exhilarating clutch of the gold fever. Business did not improve in Brisbane immediately after the discovery of Gympie; in fact, one could have fired a cannon ball down any of the streets and not be likely to strike anything more formidable than ladies in hoops, that cool and not ungraceful accessory to a lady’s toilet in those days, the crinoline. That was all the rage and fashion then, and one might as well be out of the world as out of a crinoline. I remember some extra fashionable ladies who wore enormous extensions and looked like beautifully decorated barrels wobbling along on springs. The early ‘sixties was an un-comfortable period for ladies. What with tight lacing and steel envelopes it is a wonder any of them survived to tell the tale.”