Bundaberg’s Phyllis Raines passes away aged 100

A local community is in mourning after saying goodbye to a local woman who made a name for herself in representative sport.

Phyllis (bottom right) and her family.

A local sporting icon who represented Australian women in cricket in an era when women from regional towns weren’t often celebrated for their sporting achievements, has passed away aged 100 years.

On Friday, June 10, Bundaberg lost a living legend in Phyllis Raines.

This sporting standout began her journey in cricket, with her career leading her to represent the nation in the Women’s Country Cricket team against a touring English Women’s team in her youth.

Phyllis and Bill

It is because of the likes of Phyllis that women in cricket started to get the recognition they deserve.

Phyllis was a true Bundaberg local, born to Isabella and Fredrick Fagg on March 17 in Bundaberg’s Lady Chelmsford Hospital.

She was her parents’ sixth child and third daughter.

Phyllis remained in Bundaberg for much of her life and spent her youth on the family farm in Oakwood. She spent her time playing with her siblings, and tending to the family’s draught horses.

At a young age, Phyllis fell gravely unwell and was kept behind a year of school because of her family’s fears over her health.

While told she was too weak to be running around with the other children, Phyllis would often sneak out under the teacher’s nose to spend time chasing her siblings across the schoolyard.

Her health did not keep her down and soon Phyllis developed a keen interest in sport, leading her to represent the nation in cricket.

Phyllis’s other love was hockey, and in 1946 she joined Rovers Hockey Club and by 1949 she was selected for the Queensland Women’s Hockey squad and made the Vice-Captain of the team for the years 1950, 1951 and 1952.

Phyllis and her family.

Unfortunately, an ACL injury ended her sporting career, but she remained a keen advocate of the sport and was awarded life memberships for both Bundaberg and Queensland’s hockey associations.

These sporting achievements are made even more amazing by the fact she was juggling a marriage, children and the family farm during this time.

Fate had played its hand when Phyllis went to visit her brother in the hospital after he fell off a truck bed and landed himself in a bed with a broken leg.

Alf shared the room with Wilfrid Horace Raines, fondly known as Bill, and after chatting over Alf’s hospital bed Phyllis found herself enamoured.

Phyllis and Bill were married on the 11th of January, 1941, in the Methodist Church.

When talking about what attracted her to Bill, she would fondly say “he was a terrible dancer! Two left feet! But he made me laugh and he was a kind man”.

By March, 1942 they were blessed with their first son, Donald, and in 1944 their daughter Jacqueline was born, followed by Anthony in 1960 and David in 1961.

In 1949 the young family purchased a cane farm on what is now Wallace Rd, and began to branch out into cattle.

A year later, the family had a new enterprise its belt when Bill attended an auction behind the now Palace Arcade, and came home with a breeding pair of spangled bantams “for the kids”.

By the end of the 1950s, the family had accumulated a dozen different breeds of bantams and had around 400 show birds.

Phyllis developed a fond love of the birds and could talk about their amazing attributes for hours with a constant smile.

In 1966, the first of the grandchildren joined the family.

At the time of her passing, Phyllis had four children of her own, eight grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and four great-great-grandchildren with a fifth on the way.

Phyllis mourned the loss of her beloved Bill in 1993, but continued on as the charming and joyful matriarch of the family that she was.

Phyllis passed away in the Riverlea Nursing Home, a few weeks after celebrating her 100th birthday.

Her grand daughter-in-law Leonie Weston shared Phyllis’s story on behalf of the family with the Bundaberg NewsMail.

“It’s a tiny comfort to think of her now back with her darling Bill and her parents and siblings,” Ms Weston said.

“The passing of anyone is hard on their family and friends left behind.

“Phyllis was five-foot-nothing but will leave a gaping chasm in the lives of those who knew and loved her.”