by ADELE REILLY
TO TELL the story of Edie, we need to go back 103 years and 8 months, to the year 1921.
The Crosby family lived on a farm in the green hills of Townson, at the foot of Mount Mistake. The Crosby’s had been in Townson since the 1880’s and it was a hard-working close-knit community, very proud and steeped in colonial history.
On Saturday, August 20, 1921, Edith Catherine Crosby was welcomed into the world in her family home. She was the youngest child born to second-generation farmers Samuel and Catherine Crosby.
Growing up at the head of the Laidley Creek Valley, in a family of 10 children, the rooms were filled with voices and laughter.
Edie learned early in life how to milk cows, mend fences and cook for a big family.
She didn’t have much as a child, and lived 20 miles from the nearest town and rarely visited except on Christmas Eve.
Edie attended the former one-teacher, Townson State School. She would ride her horse to school, often giving a ride to the teacher when the creek flooded or the tracks were washed out. She left school at 14 to work on the family farm, helping with milking cattle by hand, planting and harvesting potatoes and corn, feeding poddy calves and doing whatever needed to be done, from dawn until dark.
Her father was the local delivery man, delivering food and produce by bullock and horse teams to families in the area.
The kids would play jacks and marbles or play cricket in the yard.
She looked forward to the weekly dances, a highlight of Edie’s youth. She especially enjoyed the Arbor Day celebrations held at Mulgowie, Thornton and Townson. These events were filled with community, music, and joy.
Edie’s early years were shaped by war, the depression and resilience.
Her family received food vouchers during the war, but her father often gave them away as they grew their own produce and shared it with others.
In 1938, Edie met James (Jim) Bambling, a timber carter working at the local mill. He had moved to Townson with his family and was living in a cottage owned by her father. Each day he would ride his horse past her house as he worked the track from the local mill and would cart stock up to Mount Mistake. Before long, they were a couple.
They married in a modest wedding at St Paul’s in Ipswich, on September 13, 1939, just after the start of World War II. As she was only 18, she needed her parents’ permission to marry and as the youngest of four girls, she wore one of her sister’s dresses.
Jim had wanted to enlist but to Edie’s relief he was kept home by necessity with his work in the timber industry declared essential to the war effort.
Edie continued to live at home with her family on the farm, with Jim arriving home on Friday nights and then leaving for work again on Mondays.
In February 1940, Edie and Jim welcomed their first son, Lawrence James. In 1947, Lorna Agnes was born but sadly passed away the same day. Their second son Douglas Watson was born in April 1949. The following year they would complete their family with the birth of their daughter, Lynnell Joan.
Sam, her father, was 70-years-old when he passed away in the family home in 1948.
Timber gathering and milling remained the core of the family’s work for many years with Jim working for Hancock Brothers and Krugers in Ipswich as well as share farming in Thornton, Calvert and Seven Mile.
They eventually settled in Rosewood in the 1960’s and together with their eldest son, purchased a sawmill in Lanefield.
Edie balanced motherhood with running the house and she helped in every way she could. She would care for her mother Kate, until she passed away at the age of 91, in 1968.
In those years, she watched history unfold and Rosewood and Ipswich, modernise.
The 60’s and 70’s were busy with Edie watching her children grow and eventually marry, followed by the arrival of the first of Edie’s grandchildren.
Edie was affectionately known to her grandchildren as Nanna and she thrived in this role using her patience, wisdom and guidance in helping to raise them.
Her children lived close by and as the family grew, so did the celebrations.
In 1971, Edie joined the Rosewood Bowls Club, back in the days when uniforms were checked by tape measure to ensure knees and elbows were covered!
She was a talented bowler, winning 13 championships across pairs, triples and fours. She was just as skilled in the kitchen in preparing sandwiches and cakes for the club’s carnivals. Many lifelong friendships were born on those greens.
OVER the coming decades, she would be blessed with 9 grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren, and 12 great-great-grandchildren, with another on the way. She stayed involved in their lives always present for milestones, achievements and the ordinary magic of everyday moments.
In 1985, she helped organise the first ‘Back to Townson’ picnic day and remained the sole surviving member of that original committee. The tradition continues to this day, now in its 40th year, a testament to the strong community she helped build.
Jim passed away in 1993, just shy of their 55th wedding anniversary.
After his passing, Edie continued to live fully and stayed in her Rosewood property.
She loved to travel — camping at the creek or at Saplins Pocket, visiting her children across Queensland, hiking Breadknife in NSW at age 80, walking the silvery looking Uluru in the rain, camping in Jundah, Longreach and Charleville and sightseeing from Adelaide to Tasmania, Perth, and beyond.
Edie formed deep friendships during her visits to Cabanda Coffee shop taking part in a coffee group that they formed in the early 2010’s.
She continued to play bowls and in the 2000s, Edie met Bert through the Bowls Club, and they shared a beautiful companionship of weekend visits and caravanning, right up until his passing in 2021.
EDIE was a remarkable lady with the patience of a saint who was always there for her family, with an open ear to listen and an open heart to share advice.
With Doug and his family close by and Lynnell moving to Rosewood in 2018 to live with Edie, there was always someone to talk to or a gathering to attend. Visits from Lawrie and Bonnie and from all the grandchildren and great-grandchildren filled in many of Edie’s days throughout each year.
IN 2021, Edie turned 100. Family and friends gathered to celebrate her remarkable milestone, and letters came from the Queen and the Premier and Bowls Queensland presented her with a medallion also marking her 50th year as a member of the Rosewood Bowls Club.
People would ask me what her secret was to living such a long and happy life, she’d smile and say “a glass of port before dinner, catching up with friends and family and keeping busy are the key to a long and happy life”.
She truly was the matriarch of our family, and her legacy will live on in every one of us.