By Paul Dobbyn
MEMORIES were flowing faster than the Mary River in flood at a Memorial Mass and reunion to celebrate the lives of Gympie’s musical Webb brothers Marius and Fabian.
Gympie Brothers Old Boys including Mass celebrants Fathers Frank Gilbert and Pat Cassidy, surviving Webb brother Berard, the brothers’ wives and children and bush poet Noel Stallard were among those contributing to a spate of memories.
Those present recalled the brothers’ many achievements including the founding of the Gympie Country Music Muster and the Kilkivan Great Horse Ride.
The Memorial Mass at St Patrick’s Church, followed by a lunch at the Victory Hotel on June 13, was organised by close family friends, Brisbane and Gold Coast identities brothers Gary and Ray Balkin.
Fr Gilbert, in his homily, recalled his school days with Fabian Webb in the late 1940s.
He related an anecdote involving an athletics carnival between Gympie, Maryborough and Bundaberg Brothers schools.
“I was carrying the baton in a relay and was to hand it on to Fabian,” he said.
“Just before giving the baton to Fabian, I lost my running shoe right in front of the Maryborough barrackers.
“I forget whether this caused Fabian to win or lose the race.”
Marius’ daughter Maria Townsend-Webb and Fabian’s son Anthony, as the Memorial Mass opened, shared their memoirs of delightful childhoods spent growing up on the brothers’ Thornlands property at Widgee.
“Dad was a great dad,” Maria said.
“He took us fishing at the creek, where we caught jewfish and cod in the conventional way.
“His technique for catching mullet, however, was with a rifle, firing a shot as they jumped out of the water, and we would then go in to retrieve.”
Marius’ daughter also reflected back to the Webb Brothers’ audition for the Australian Amateur Hour in 1954.
Their resulting win saw their music broadcast on radio station 4BK, followed by a recording contract.
“The rest, as they say, is history,” she said.
Anthony Webb spoke of his father’s great love of music and the fact that, despite suffering from Type 1 Diabetes, he had gone on to serve 38 years as a Kilkivan Shire councillor and launch the Kilkivan Great Horse Ride.
The Webb Brothers’ song Call of the Bellbird echoed around St Patrick’s Church as the Memorial Mass closed.
Celebration of the Webb brothers’ lives continued at the Victory Hotel during a luncheon shouted for more than 70 family and friends by Ray and Gary Balkin.
The Balkins’ friendship with the Webb Brothers stretched back to their boarding school days at Christian Brothers College and later when the trio performed at Brisbane’s Melbourne Hotel and Nambour’s Royal George Hotel.
Addressing the hotel gathering Gary Balkin said: “It’s now time to share more memories and comical stories of those wonderful times.”
He recalled Berard Webb as a lad practising guitar outside “the old Christian Brothers boarding school study”.
“The Webbs gained a love for music at home – their mum was a very good pianist and had a lovely voice,” he said.
“They began to realise the three of them were natural harmonists and first got the group together around the piano at home long before they went on the road.”
Surviving Webb brother Berard reflected back on “our generation who started the school’s team in the Gympie Third Grade rugby league competition”.
“We wiped the floor with the opposition with four footy teams in third grade and only 40 points scored against us for one whole season.”
He also looked back on a music career spanning more than 60 years and triumphs including many hit singles, tours of Australia and New Zealand, winning two Golden Guitars at Tamworth, having their handprints in the Hands of Fame at Tamworth and being inducted into Tamworth’s Roll of Renown.
Renowned bush poet Noel Stallard in his rousing poem, We Old Boys Are the Gympians, celebrated school life atop Calton Hill in simpler times.
The poem referenced “confessions once a month”, the various nicknames and quirks of Christian Brothers, the ongoing day boys versus boarders rivalry, as well as charting adventures swimming the frequently flooding Mary River.
The conclusion paid tribute to the Christian Brothers who “did their best in school boys days to make us into men”.
Fabian Webb’s wife Tanda, speaking afterwards said, “the Mass was so beautiful, and then the rest of the day was so enjoyable meeting so many of the Old Boys I have never met before”.
“I was really thrilled to meet the boys in Fabian’s class, Joe Draheim, Des Condon, and of course Father Frank (Gilbert),” she said.
“It was mixed with a sadness that Fabian was not there, but we were so lucky to have Fabian for so many years.”
Julia Webb, Marius’ wife thanked the Balkins for organising “a wonderful day”.
“Father Frank with the help of Father Pat offered a beautiful Mass and I felt quite inspired by Fr Frank’s homily,” she said.
“Marius and Fabian are truly blessed to have had such wonderful friends as Ray and Gary.”
Fabian Webb died aged 84 in Gympie Private Hospital last November.
Younger brother Marius, who penned songs including the famous Roo in the Stew, died unexpectedly at 82 in a Brisbane hospital in April last year.
