Ken Gamble

He had a company called Gamble Builders in Mount Isa in the early 70s and he was getting big contracts.

He was building townships.

He was really, things were booming for him up probably until the mid-70s when he had health problems.

What was your dad like at home after a long day of work?

Exhausted.

He was a very hard worker.

He had a lot of men working for him and it was physical.

It was out in the sun.

He'd wear this white hard hat.

He'd come home in a truck filled with tools and

building parts in the back of the the truck and he was always exhausted he'd go to the pub after it was a very big drinking culture in Mount Isa so he was one of these guys that would go to the the pub and have a few beers after work with the boys and you know come home with a roast chicken in the car.

What kind of impact did that have on your family your dad's drinking?

I guess it was pretty normal for us at the time.

But, again, it wasn't until later that we realised that it was, you know, there was domestic arguments and, you know, stuff happening in the family that was uncomfortable.

And we realised that Dad and Mum were not getting along well at all by the mid-'70s and things were tough.

You know, we would see them fighting.

We would see my father...

occasionally engaged in fighting.

So there was aggression there.

And I think that the drinking was bringing a lot of that aggression on, you know, from years of probably trauma in his early life or whatever it may be.