I always love to come across photos of the private homes of ordinary people in the early Goldfields days. There are so few around and what is there are, are often unidentified. I have lots of photographs of houses that are in either Kalgoorlie or Boulder, but with no address. The following photographs were taken at Lot 2110 Millen Street, Boulder and was the home of Carl and Jessie Scupin.
The competition was run annually by the Goldfields Water Supply Corporation to promote gardening, and the following photographs, I think, would have been commissioned by them. The photographer was J J Dwyer.
Kalgoorlie Western 8 November 1910, page 25
Kalgoorlie Western 8 November 1910, page 25
The gardener was Mr Carl Emit Scupin and his wife Jessie, and he won the first prize in the Class B section in 1909 and 1910. The lady in the photo is Mrs Jessie Scupin. He also entered the competition in 1907 and received a ‘highly commended’. His prize in 1909 was a silver medal and 20,000 gallons of water. The winner of Class A Section in 1910 was Mr Syd Hocking’s garden (Editor of the Kalgoorlie Miner), on the corner of Maritana and Piccadilly Street, Kalgoorlie. At this time Millen street was not included in the ‘Street index’ for Boulder in the WA Post Office Directories. It was in the ‘Sundry Streets and leases’ section up to 1910.
The following article shows the ‘Competition’ for the Boulder Section in 1910. There were also sections for Kalgoorlie, Coolgardie, and a Kanowna. The sections were divvied up into properties above and below the value of £50.
Kalgoorlie Miner 29 October 1908, page 2
The prizes were as follows; 1st overall prize as the champion gardener of the four towns, was a handsome perpetual silver trophy, 2nd prize was 20,000 gallons of water, 3rd prize 10,000 gallons of water. Carl Scupin was also a member of the Boulder Horticultural Society and won several prizes with them for his roses.
Second prize was 20,000 gallons of water
In those day there was a saying in garden design, ‘Flowers in the Front and Vegies in the back’. This was the reason that many houses were often very close to the front street, so that there was more land at the rear in an average quarter acre block concerned with the growing of food, chopping wood, ect. It was only the more well to do that also had flower gardens at the rear as well.
The Horticultural Society Competition Display at the Kalgoorlie Town Hall 1910
Carl Emil Reinold ‘Charlie’ SCUPIN was born on the 7th Oct 1861 in Birdwood South Australia. He was the son of Johna Erich SCUPIN and Auguste Mathilde Amalie MIETHKE, who were both from Prussia. He was first married to Caroline Ann BROOKS in 1884 in Murtoa Victoria, and the couple had six children. Caroline died in Victoria in 1892. Between Caroline’s death and 1903, Carl travelled to Western Australia where he was initially living in Mount Morgans and was involved in Mining in partnership with a man called Parry, their lease was called the ‘Sons of Toil’. It appears his children stayed behind in Victoria.
Then in 1907, at the age of 46yrs, he married Jesse Elizabeth SUTHERLAND in Boulder WA. They moved into their house in Millen St, Boulder the same year. They had no children between them. By 1912 the couple had moved to Maddington near Perth, WA where Carl became an orchardist. He died in 1935 in Perth and was survived by Jessie who passed away aged 78 Perth in 1952. She is buried in the Karrakatta Cemetery. The following article shows that ‘Charlie’ was also buried at Karrakatta, hopefully with Jessie, but his name doesn’t show up in the Metro cemetery search.
West Australian – 25 June 1935, page 1
Moya Sharp
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