Christmas is approaching so it’s timely to be aware of the Santa Claus curse of over a century ago. I told a version of this story live on Darling Downs radio 4AK.

William and Annie Provan were a devout Presbyterian couple and pioneers of the Toowoomba district on the Darling Downs. They arrived in the 1870s and raised a family who would be amongst Toowoomba’s great entrepreneurs, but they had a tragic secret.

Two of their sons were Alexander and Donald Provan. Alexander founded the well-known Toowoomba stationers A. Provan & Co.  Throughout the 1890s the business grew and became well known for its enterprise in introducing new ideas. As well as selling the latest newspapers and books, they added toys, Christmas cards, and all sorts of fancy goods.

In 1897 the Proven’s merged with stationery competitors J.H. Robertson & Co to form Robertson & Provan in Stationers Hall on Ruthven Street. Donald Provan took over the business and by adding further toys and gifts it became much like a newsagent’s today but 100 years ahead of its time.

What’s more, the Provans became the first to commercialise Santa Claus by having him based at their Robertson & Provan’s store to drive sales in the lead up to Christmas.

In 1907 they advertised that Father Christmas, dressed in his big red fur coat, would be in their store for three days until Christmas Eve. They said he was so pleased with the lovely toys at Roberton & Provan that he was making their shop his headquarters, and promised to give every child who bought toys to the value of one shilling or more, a free ride in his motor car.

In 1908 the idea became a tradition. Father Christmas arrived in Toowoomba and stayed, as before, at Robertson and Provan’s which this time was advertised as their big toy shop. He brought with him, so they said, the loveliest toys ever seen in Toowoomba. Again his big motor car was there to give children a ride, but this time there was no requirement to buy anything. And for the first time, Santa visited the Toowoomba Hospital.

In 1914, Father Christmas for the first time was described as “ruddy and cheery of countenance, and crowned with wisdom’s long, flowing grey locks”.

In 1917, Santa was still based at Robertson & Provens, but this time Santa had a new car and extended shopping hours were universally adopted for the first time when Toowoomba’s other city stores agreed to open on Christmas Eve.

Many of the Provans were high achievers. Another brother and partner in the business was John Provan. For many years he was Toowoomba’s best cricket bowler. In Toowoomba’s match against England in 1894, Proven bowled 30 overs, including 12 maidens, to finish with 4 wickets for 42 runs which it was said was a performance even the great Bill O’Reilly would have been proud.

Then there was Donald’s daughter Frances Provan. She was the first member of the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS), attended the first WRANS officers’ training course, and in the Second World War was the officer-in-charge of the only WRANS to serve in an operational zone, in Darwin.

But through all this, the Provens held a dark curse. The family patriarch William Proven was just forty-seven years old when he died in his Ruthven Street residence after ailing for a long time.

Alexander Provan, the head of the family business, was just thirty-two years of age when he died after also a very long illness.

His brother Donald Provan was found on the grounds behind Queensland’s parliament house. He’d been there dead for four days. He had likely been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour and taken his own life.  

Donald’s daughter the WRANS officer Frances died suddenly of heart disease while in a taxi on her way to visit her mum.

The curse even extended to staff of Roberston & Provan when a twenty-year-old girl, who had worked in the bookbinding department since she was fifteen, one night in front of the Presbyterian Church, slipped under a bus. Her head was crushed and she was killed instantly.

And that’s the tragedy of the Provan Brothers. They brought the joy of Santa Claus to Toowoomba, and yet they and people around them dropped like flies.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON RADIO 4AK.

Photo credits:
Representation of Father Christmas at Robertsons & Provan, Toowoomba, 1907 – ChatGPT.
A Provan & Co, Toowoomba – Queenslander, Brisbane, 6th October 1900, page 12.
Robertson & Provan Ltd Stationers Hall building, Toowoomba, 1906 – State Library of Queensland.
The Hospital Toowoomba, c1910 – Aussie~mobs via Flickr.
John Provan – Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Gazette, 22nd November 1947, page 5.
Frances Provan wearing the uniform of the Women’s Emergency Signalling Corps – Australian War Memorial P01262.023.