>> Go Back - page - >> List of Entriess
T
TACK, JOSEPH TEAR (1857–1901), Chinese Wesleyan Minister, was born in the Kwantung (Guandong)
Province of South China in 1857. While he was but a lad, he travelled to the Victorian goldfields and became
a convert at the Presbyterian Mission at Ballarat. He subsequently entered the ministry of the Wesleyan Church
in 1881 and laboured amongst his countrymen in various places, notably at Tingha, New South Wales, where a
Chinese church was erected.
In 1895, he was appointed to Port Darwin to open a Chinese school and a mission that was carried on in
premises in Cavenagh Street. He worked closely with the Wesleyan minister, Reverend H Trewren. The work
that Pastor Tack was to face was not an easy one. An article published in the Australian Methodist Missionary
Review in December 1898 which was headed ‘Port Darwin and its Moral Atmosphere’ spoke of the many races
in the place, Aborigines, Malays, Japanese and Chinese (in two factions, Cantonese and Macao) as well as people
of mixed blood. The article summed up the situation thus, ‘one of the most formidable difficulties in the way of
our work there is the luxurious and lax lives of some of the Europeans who show an arrogant disdain of the alien
races’. In his study of the Wesleyan Church in Palmerston, Reverend Arch Grant commented, ‘Tack entered
into the work willingly and while not always happy with the response of his fellow countrymen had his times of
satisfaction’. A description of the ‘novel and interesting’ baptismal service held on 24 November 1896 survives.
‘Three Chinese converts were baptised. The service was conducted by Mr Tear Tack in Chinese. The attendance
composed of yellow and white faces was good and during the service the Chinese portion of the congregation sang
heartily two verses of “Bringing in the Sheaves” which Mr Tear Tack had taught them’.
During his time in the north, Pastor Tack travelled widely and conducted baptisms at Burrundie, Pine Creek and
Brocks Creek as well as in Palmerston. His countrymen respected him, probably in part because he had his family
with him. Tack agreed with other clergy that the Palmerston Mission was important because of the close proximity
of China. At that time there were about 4 000 Chinese in the Northern Territory, about 200 of whom were women
and children and there was constant movement between Palmerston and Hong Kong. Tack did, however, have firm
views as to why conversion would not always be easy. ‘1. They will not come to the Mission unless attracted by the
bait of secular instruction. 2. They are intensely matter of fact. 3. They are indifferent to all emotional appeal’.
Mrs Tack and five children arrived in October 1896. She was a ‘highly articulate and educated woman’ who
wrote a long letter to the Mission Board in Adelaide describing the experiences of her family during the terrible
cyclone in January 1897. Even though they were in a stone house, it collapsed around them destroying everything
they owned. ‘My little children were blown in all directions, their shrieks being heartrending’, she wrote. ‘I fell
several times into the water, but by breathing in our dear baby’s mouth, managed by God’s help and will, to keep
her alive. The little girl, about six years of age, was found in the morning clinging on to a fence, quite exhausted,
and one little boy took shelter under a piece of iron that had blown off the next house. Mr Tack managed to find the
other two children and kept them with him until daybreak. He got his legs cut very badly, the children got cut and
bruised, and at present Mr Tack is not at all well... At present we are staying with a Manilla family, who kindly let
us have two rooms’. The Mission Board sent 20 Pounds to assist them.
The family left the Territory on 16 January 1899 and for some months Pastor Tack acted as Foreign Mission
Deputation in New South Wales and Queensland giving publicity to the church’s work in overseas missions.
A minister from the Bathurst district noted ‘the story was very interesting, lit up with quiet good humour and
was well told. His quiet gentlemanly demeanour won us all. Pastor Tack’s health, however, was permanently
impaired.
Early in 1901, he was appointed by the Methodist Conference as ‘Missionary to his Chinese countrymen in
and around Cairns’. Within months, his health gave rise to concern and he was ordered south to recuperate but he
died in Cairns from heart disease on 3 August 1901. His death was noted in the local press, which described him
as ‘intensely practical, straight-forward and earnest in all his work’. Although the modern perception is that at the
time there was much racial tension between Chinese and Europeans the obituary concluded that ‘his loss will be
felt by both Europeans and Chinese, for to know the Rev Tear Tack was to admire his sterling qualities, both as a
preacher and practiser of the gospel’. The Cairns Morning Post was also in no doubt that another Chinese pastor
would succeed him. It was, however, a different story in Palmerston. More than 40 years were to pass before
Reverend Lo Shui Kwong came to the north to begin active mission work with the Chinese population.
Australian Methodist Missionary Review, 1898; Cairns Morning Post, 9 August 1901, 13 August 1901; A Grant, Palmerston to Darwin: 75 Years
Service on the Frontier, 1990; B James, Occupation Citizen, 1995; Northern Territory Times and Gazette, 17 July 1896, 30 August 1901.
HELEN J WILSON and BARBARA JAMES, Vol 3.TAMBLING, ERNEST ALFRED (1899–1970), soldier, teacher and headmaster, was born on 30 October 1899,
the son of a Warwick saddler, Alfred Tambling, and his wife Annie, nee Tucker. He was raised under the Church of
England faith, and received his education at Pratten School in Queensland. In 1913, he began as a trainee teacher
there.
When war broke out, he enlisted in 1915 with the Australian Imperial Force and in 1917 served abroad,
in England, France and Belgium, as part of the 49th and 19th Battalions. He became a member of the First Australian
Royal Guard in 1918, serving under the 9th Battalion of the AIF at Sebourg Chateau, near Avesnes in France.