The house the Mary moved!
The House that floated down the Mary
Joshua Gambling was born in Wiltshire, England on 18 January 1844. His father, James, was a gardener and general labourer. Joshua was the fifth child born to James and his first wife, Caroline. Caroline had died in 1847 leaving him with five children to raise. He remarried and nine more children were born of that union. This was a very large family to be supported on a labourer’s wages. It is not surprising then that Joshua chose to seek a better life by migrating to Australia. He arrived in Queensland in 1865 aged 21 under the assisted immigration scheme accompanied by his brother, Jabez.
He first travelled to Ipswich where he met and married Cisley Denman and by 1883 they were living on the Monkland in Gympie. Here they either built or purchased this house and by 1890 had 12 children. Of these 12 only one had died as a baby. As can be seen, the house was quite a substantial dwelling which looks to have been extended probably to cater for the growing family.The story of the devastating floods of 1893 was told in a previous article as well as the stories of houses and debris floating down the river. Here is the story of one such event which took place during that disaster. When the above photograph was taken this house was ensconced at Monkland. In the 1893 flood it was swept off its stumps and swept down the Mary River minus its kitchen until it became snagged on something in Queen’s Park where its journey ended. Bystanders reported that the house remained on an even keel as it floated and the rattling of saucepans and the tinkling of cups and saucers hanging on hooks on a dresser could be heard from the swollen riverbank.
Joshua Gambling was not a man who was phased by adversity. He hired a team of bullocks and, probably assisted by his sons, towed the house out of the mud onto higher ground on Veteran Road. Descendants of Joshua have fond memories of the old house and, of course, the story of its adventure down the Mary River.
Here Elsie, who was the youngest daughter of the family, set up a tea shop to cater for travellers coming from Goomboorian to Gympie. The shop was well known for its home scones and cakes as well as the cups of tea and it was well patronised. With the advent of the motor vehicle, the ever enterprising Joshua, opened Gambling Tyre Service in town and, although Joshua died in 1920, for many years it was the place to purchase tyres.
In 2013, Jo Templeman, great granddaughter of Joshua and Cicely, found the story while going through the history of her family. She was so fascinated by what happened to her great-grandfather’s home during that flood that she decided to write a song about it. The Gympie Music Muster song-writing competition seemed like the perfect way to share her family’s history.
The chorus of the song tells it all: “The cups are still swinging in the kitchen as the house floated down the Mary River mud. In the flood.” The song in its entirety can be viewed here on Youtube.
Joshua and his wife, Cisley, as well as many of their descendants, are buried here and more descendants reside here and in the surrounding area.
When the Gympie Family History Society first published a short article on our Facebook page, many Gambling family members messaged us with more information. We acknowledge their contribution to this story.
This story was written by Denise Juler and it appeared in the Gympie Today in February 2022
Sources: Trove; GFHS Record Collection; Family accounts;
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