It is undeniable that some individuals, whether contemporary or historical, are objectively more interesting than others. Henry Ibberson Tubbs is one such.
Mr Tubbs, born in 1846 in Cambridgeshire, arrived in Australia in 1871 and came to Redcliffe, where in 1881, he bought land and built a cottage – one of only five dwellings along the peninsula seafront. When that house was destroyed in a bushfire later that year, Tubbs, seemingly undeterred, rebuilt, this time on a grander scale. What rose from the ashes was Orient House, a boarding establishment catering to the ever-increasing numbers of visitors attracted to Redcliffe’s seaside charms.
A stalwart of local commerce, Tubbs also contributed to public life, being for many years a member of both the Redcliffe Divisional Board and its successor shire council. He was instrumental in lobbying for a new school at Humpybong and was a pioneer of Redcliffe Congregationalism, being one of its first lay preachers. Such was his service to that denomination that its first place of worship was known as “Tubbs’s Church”.
The Eccentric Side of “Doctor” Tubbs
But this was the conventional Mr Tubbs. The other Tubbs served his community in less orthodox capacities. Known colloquially as “Doctor” Tubbs (although entirely without medical training), he helped maintain the health of his fellow Redcliffians, both human and animal, setting dislocated bones, stitching and dressing wounds, prescribing, mixing and administering remedies and occasionally assisting at childbirth. This was, needless to say, regarded askance by those actually qualified in these areas, resulting in his more than once being the subject of legal proceedings and inquiries.
Another of Mr Tubbs’s unofficial services was officiating at funerals. This, like his extracurricular medical activities, occasionally earned the opprobrium of those who considered it their rightful domain. In 1907, after burying a Mr Martin, he was upbraided, in the pages of the Brisbane Courier, by a Reverend Gerrard for his “incorrect assumption of a clerical duty.” Tubbs replied to the cleric’s “most impertinent” letter by asserting that he would certainly not be seeking the permission of church authorities to bury a neighbour should he be asked to in future.
He was a genial host at Orient House, entertaining friends and visitors at picnics and providing amenities such as croquet lawns and a tennis court. Once, participating in a fundraising concert, he performed the death scene from Romeo and Juliet. As he and his fellow actors would then have been well into middle age, this was surely a histrionic triumph.
Tubbs Street in Clontarf commemorates one of our most versatile, public-spirited and entertaining predecessors.
[With thanks to City of Moreton Bay ourstory.moretonbay.qld.gov.au; Image courtesy of City of Moreton Bay, reference number RMPC-100\100918.]
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- Reflect: An Art Exhibition to Contemplate
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