A surprising twist of fate has resulted in a Proserpine Hospital obstetrician discovering her own grandmother was the first baby born at the facility 100 years ago.
It only clicked when Dr Kyren (Ky) Baxendell was reading an article about the history of maternity care in the Proserpine region and noticed the maternity ward’s official opening date was 12 July 1924, just one day prior to the birth of her maternal grandmother Joyce Alice Nicholas.
“My grandmother was always super proud of being born at Proserpine Hospital on 13 July 1924,” Ky said.
“She loved the fact that I was working here and said ‘you just wouldn’t believe it Ky, I was born there and now you are delivering babies there’. She just loved that.
“Now I really understand why as not everyone was born in a hospital in those days; most births were attended by untrained midwives at home.”
The first hospital maternity ward was an extension of the original Proserpine hospital built in 1911 on the riverbank opposite the Junior Sporting Complex on Crystalbrook Road.
Joyce Bagley (nee Nicholas) died in Brisbane in May this year, just two months shy of her 100th birthday.
Joyce was the first of four children born to Proserpine farming couple Alfred Collan Nicholas and Elizabeth Earl Wright Harrower. Alfred, who was commonly referred to as Bing, also owned a fruit and vegetable shop in Faust Street where the Reject Shop is now situated.
Joyce worked in the family shop as a teen and was well known in the Proserpine region as a pianist and piano teacher. She played regularly at the Proserpine community hall and for many of the town dances prior to her marriage at age 21.
Joyce lived in Proserpine right up until her wedding to Albert Bagley, of Mackay. The couple caught the train to Mt Tamborine for their honeymoon that same night, Joyce having never left her hometown before.
Although her parents and brothers continued to reside in Proserpine, Joyce spent her married life with Albert, who was in the military, stationed at bases around Australia as well as five years in Singapore. They had two daughters, including Ky’s mother Sharon, both of whom became nurses.
The Nicholas family had property at Coral Esplanade near Cannonvale, but the main family cane farm was in Proserpine.
“My great-grandmother had all four of her children here at the hospital where I now work – my grandmother was the eldest,” Ky, who has been a GP obstetrician in Proserpine since 2019, said.
“We combined Joyce’s 100th birthday celebration and her funeral on her actual birthday on 13 July. She had already received her letter from the King prior to passing away two months before her birthday,” she said.
“I’m very fortunate as my paternal grandmother is also still alive and recently turned 100. Longevity must be in the genes.
“Whenever patients come into the hospital who are around that vintage I often tell them my grandmother was born here and tell them her name,” Kyren said.
“They often don’t remember her, but then remember her playing at the dances or remember her brother Fred Nicholas who lived in Proserpine all his life.”
Ky feels very connected to the Proserpine community.
“I’m not local, but kind of, sort of am really,” she said.
“I’m incredibly proud to be delivering babies here where my own grandmother was born.”
