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In 1919, he attended a teacher training school in London whilst awaiting demobilisation before his return
to Australia. In 1920, he was discharged from the army in Brisbane. Over the next five years, he taught at Ayr,
Cooktown, and Herberton in Queensland, before being appointed to the position of itinerant teacher for the
Northern Territory Administration Education Branch. This position involved travelling to all the schools opened
between Darwin and Emungalen (now part of Katherine).
After three years, Tambling, who had become known as the ‘Swaggie Teacher’ resigned from his post, and
joined the teaching staff of Darwin Primary School, a somewhat more stable position. Quite often he would
travel to other towns acting as a relief teacher, saying of this period that, as far as he was concerned, ‘things went
smoothly’. In 1939, the Headmaster of Darwin Primary School, Victor Lampe, was appointed Chief Censor of
the Northern Territory and Tambling stepped into the role of Headmaster of the school, taking charge of some
220 students and 8 teachers. One of those teachers was Edna Williamson, who, two years later, he took as his wife,
on 1 August 1941.
In December of that year, Tambling was appointed as welfare officer on the transport ship President Grant,
which had escaped the Japanese attack on Manila and was acting as an evacuee ship for Darwin residents.
Tambling, accompanied by his wife, travelled with the ship down the east coast of Australia to Brisbane, then by
train escorting evacuees as far as Adelaide. In 1942, he returned to the Northern Territory to reopen the school
at Katherine. He was in charge of 40 students, and had only one other teacher working with him. In early April
Japanese planes raided Katherine, and an evacuation was ordered. Tambling took charge of one of the two convoys
travelling to Alice Springs, and continued by train to South Australia with the evacuees.
In that year, Tambling rejoined the army and served as a Captain at Army Headquarters in Melbourne. He was
then appointed Camp Commandant of the 3rd Armoured Division (Northern Command) on full-time war service
in the Citizen Military Forces. This position was based in the area around Cairns, and was held by Tambling for
almost five years, until he ceased duty in July 1947. He then returned with his wife to Darwin, serving as acting
chief clerk of the Northern Territory Administration, and as chairman of the Town Management Board.
In 1949 he became Headmaster of the newly formed Bagot Aboriginal School, the First Welfare school to
operate in the Northern Territory.
In 1963 he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his services to the community
and Aboriginal teaching. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II presented this to him personally on board the royal yacht
Britannia, on Darwin Harbour on 18 March 1963. He retired from the public service in October 1964.
Tambling’s recreational interests included tennis and golf, and he was a keen gardener. He was a life member
of the Darwin Golf Club, and served as its secretary for over twenty-five years. He had a gold badge and life
membership of the Darwin Returned Services League.
Having suffered from atherosclerosis for 20 years Ernest Tambling died on 23 March 1970 after a short bout
of pneumonia. An official memorial was erected in the Garden of Remembrance in Pinaroo Cemetery at Aspley in
Queensland. He was buried at Darwin General Cemetery, survived by his wife, Edna, and their three children.
P Adam Smith, Outback Heroes, 1981; Darwin Star, 23 April 1981; Personal information.
EDNA M TAMBLING, Vol 1.
TANG, CHIN LOONG (JIMMY) (1899–1979), a prominent member of the Darwin Chinese community,
was born in Darwin on 10 February 1899. His father, Chin Mee Lang, had come to Australia from Toy Shan near
Guangzhou (Canton) seeking gold. He brought with him his wife Chin Wong See.
One of several sons, Chin Loong Tang was sent back to China when he was four years old. He returned to his
father at the age of about eight years. This was not unusual; rather it was every Chinese parent’s dream in the years
before the Second World War that his or her sons return to China for a traditional education. Many worked long
hours to achieve that dream. Chin Mee Lang was no exception and as well as sending his sons back to China for
their early education he became a considerable landowner, not only in Chinatown but also in other parts of Darwin.
On his death, this land was divided amongst his sons.
Chin Loong Tang observed Chinese traditions, perhaps because of his birth and upbringing in the isolated north
of Australia, in what was a somewhat closed environment. As a young man, he married Wong Yook Hing who was
born on 24 December 1899 in Toy Shan. This was probably an arranged marriage and Chin Loong Tang supported
her, as was traditional, in Guangzhou and later in Hong Kong until her death on 9 June 1962. She bore him two
children, Chin La Fung and Chin Gee Gun, both of whom live in Hong Kong. It was not unusual for Chinese
men living in Australia to have more than one wife. Chinese custom dictated that a man should retain a physical
link to his family village in China if he were going to seek his fortune in far lands. At the same time Australian
immigration laws after 1901 restricted immigrants on grounds of race. Consequently, many Chinese men who
stayed in Australia took a second wife. These women often came from Chinese families already established in this
country. Chin Loong Tang took his second wife Lizzie Yook Lin, daughter of the late Lum Loy and Lee Toy Kim.
They were married in 1923 and over the next twenty years, she bore him five sons and four daughters. She died in
August 1945 shortly after giving birth to their youngest son.
In the early 1960s, Chin Loong Tang married his third wife Tam Wing Yee, who was born on 25 October 1925
in Guangzhou. She survived him and lived in Darwin.
Chin Loong Tang operated a taxi service and a ‘squash’, or cool drink, shop, Sun Hing Kee and Company in
Cavenagh Street, Darwin, at the time of his marriage to Lizzie Yook Lin. Before the war, the shop sold a popular
non-alcoholic beverage – Hop Beer—that was brewed by the family in Darwin.