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09 February 2022
Doc calls time after 43 years BY ALEX PURCELL IT’S the end of an era. Cooroy’s longest-serving doctor is hanging up his stethoscope. Doctor David Kirkman is retiring after a stellar 43-year career serving the Cooroy community, delivering some 2000 babies (of which I was one), and introducing Australia-first birthing techniques. David said that he first moved to Cooroy in 1979 because he was looking for somewhere he could enjoy rural life and still be near the beach. “I grew up in Perth and after practising there for a few years as a young doctor, I moved to Queensland. “I heard about Doctor Luck in Cooroy so I came to meet him and on 8 January 1979 I started working with him. “In those days, each town had a policeman, an ambulance, a chemist, a pub and a doctor. Doctors lived in town close to where they worked because they were on call 24/7. Paramedics and mobile phones did not exist.” However, Cooroy was one of the few towns in Queensland to have a hospital, and in years to come, it would continue to be at the forefront of the medical industry. “I delivered my first baby in Cooroy Private Hospital in ‘79. I could speculate as to who the baby is and I think she is now living back in Cooroy. “My legacy I believe was to encourage alternative thinking people to consider aspects of scientific evidence-based medicine and bridge the gap between natural and western medicine. “We introduced water birthing. I think we were probably the first place in Australia to do water births.Back then, water birthing was pretty fringe. But there were a lot of people having home births and I was able to come on board and encourage them to deliver in
Dr David Kirkman is retiring from general practice after more than four decades. Picture: Travis Macfarlane.
hospital. We also delivered babies in a vertical position, using chairs, standing or squatting rather than the ‘stranded beetle’ position.” David delivered some 2000 babies, including his own son, David, before Cooroy Private Hospital closed. “Cooroy Hospital then opened as a rehabilitation hospital run by Sundale. It was the first in Australia. “When I first came to Cooroy, Kabara was still on the drawing board and is now an important facility for aged care. "That was a first too. There were no nursing homes back then.” David opened Maple Street Surgery in 1984, in a surgery
that today, is still proudly located on Level One of the old Cooroy Hospital. “Then, doctors owned their own surgeries. "Today, they’re run by corporate businesses, allowing us to concentrate on patient care.” David said that his patients have changed over the years in Cooroy. “When I first came here, patients worked either at the sawmill, brickworks, railway or were small crop or dairy farmers. “Over time a lot of those industries have changed and stopped. The brickworks, railway depo and sawmill closed and there are no dairy farms left and the butter factory became an art house.
“Today, there are more retirees, as Cooroy has become a place for a tree change and to enjoy the environment.” Something David plans to do, as a fellow retiree come March. “I’d like to explore the area and walking tracks that didn’t exist when I first moved here. “We have a property on Sunrise Road. I’m looking forward to spending time on it, in the garden, with the cattle, reading books and playing with the grandkids. “I will continue to work at Katie Rose Hospice, a specialty field I find challenging.” After David and his wife, Jan, a registered nurse who works alongside David at Maple Street
Surgery one day a week, check out of the hospital building for the final time, they are inviting Cooroy to join them to say goodbye. “We are having a farewell at Cooroy RSL on March 5, from 4 pm, and anyone is welcome to come down and join us for a fizzy.” And help David reflect on what has been an “enjoyable career and country life.” “We raised our three children here, Bonnie, David and Claudia and now have three, almost four grandchildren. "I have mixed feelings about retiring. I'll miss all the fine patients and friends I am involved with, but realise I need to open a new chapter in my and my family's life."
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