Dulcie Martha MUTTER / FAWCETT
Born 30 January 1913 in Balaklava, South Australia [55]
Daughter of William MUTTER and Amy Louisa SAMPSON [55]
Resided with her parents on one of her grandfather's farms in Balaklava and then her father's Hillslope Farm in Everard West [P331]
Student at the Preston State School for a year and then at the Everard West State School [P331]
Attended the Nailsworth School in Adelaide for a year while living with an uncle and aunt [P331]
Then attended the Balaklava State School, during which time she lived with her grandmother in Balaklava [P331]
Along with her parents and sister Ethel left South Australia and shifted to farmland in Western Australia in 1926 [P331]
Resided with her parents on Noalimba Farm at Dudawa, East Arrino in Western Australia 1926-1938 [P331]
Loved picking the enormous mushrooms on her father's farm but sometimes found the heat and humidity hard to take [P331]
She was schooled by correspondence at home for one year and then attended the Dudawa State School [P331]
To get to school she walked or rode a pony and on occasion was given a lift by a neighbour on their spring cart [144]
Assisted her father on the farm and helped her mother with household chores [P331]
Herself and her mother took the household chores week about and made their own bread, butter and preserves [P331]
Didn't play sports but loved horse riding, was interested in cooking, and was good at needlework, crocheting and knitting [P331]
For a year or two before she was old enough to get her driver's licence she drove her father's truck to the Three Springs townsite [144]
Her driving the truck was almost a matter of necessity as her father was unwell and her brother busy working the farm [144]
When she went to get her driver's licence the local policeman didn't bother giving her a test as he'd already seen her driving [144]
She was among the 400 people who attended the Matrons and Benedicts Ball held in Three Springs on 31 August 1928 [4: 8-Sep-1928]
Attended the Arrino Race Club's Annual Ball on Thursday 4 April 1929 in pale pink georgette with handkerchief skirt [4: 13-Apr-1929]
Attended the Anglican Church's Fancy Dress Ball in Three Springs on Thursday 27 June 1929 as a "Scotch Lassie" [4: 6-Jul-1929]
In April 1930 she was recuperating in the Perth suburb of Cottesloe after undergoing an operation on her throat [4: 26-Apr-1930]
Attended the Three Springs Agricultural Society's Ball on 25 September 1930 in a "fashionable frock of black satin" [4: 11-Oct-1930]
Attended the Carnamah Grand Ball at the Carnamah Town Hall on 28 July 1932 in a gown of shell pink georgette [5: 5-Aug-1932]
Attended the Grand Show Ball following the Three Spring Agricultural Show on Thursday 22 September 1932 [5: 7-Oct-1932]
Attended the Hospital Appeal Grand Ball in Three Springs on Thursday 8 June 1933 in a dress of black satin georgette [5: 16-Jun-1933]
Won 1st prize for a Coloured Table Cloth in the Confectionary section of the Three Springs Agricultural Show in 1933 [5: 29-Sep-1933]
Attended the Ball after the Three Springs Agricultural Show on 21 September 1933 in white crinkled marocain dress [5: 29-Sep-1933]
For her 21st birthday her parents paid for her to go by boat for a six week holiday in South Australia [144]
It was the first time she had been to South Australia since leaving as a girl at the age of 13 years [144]
"Bert' Herbert Barkla FAWCETT of Arrino briefly joined her in South Australia and she met her future parents-in-law [144]
Returned to Arrino on Wednesday 1 August 1934 after a holiday visiting friends and family in South Australia [5: 10-Aug-1934]
Member of the Arrino Tennis Club in 1934-35, and a Committee Member in 1935-36 and 1936-37 [5: 1-Mar-1935, 20-Sep-1935, 2-Oct-1936]
Won 1st prize for Brown Hen Eggs at the Three Springs Agricultural Show held on Thursday 19 September 1935 [5: 27-Sep-1935]
Bridesmaid at the wedding of her brother Ken to "Sissy" Gladys E. STOKES in Three Springs on 6 September 1938 [4: 10-Sep-1938]
Following her brother's marriage she left Noalimba Farm and took up a job at the General Store and Post Office in Arrino [144]
Shop Assistant at "Jack" John K. A. ALLAN's General Store & Post Office in Arrino for £2 per week and board 1938-1939 [144]
In addition to all the usual general store supplies the store sold bolts, spare parts, men's working clothes, haberdashery, [144]
stockings, hankies, material, pins, needles, meat, lollies, and chocolate; and also pumped petrol and recharged batteries [144]
She and Emma T. TURNER cut up the butchered meat brought in to be sold at the store [144]
Working men all wanted chops and she and Emma reckoned they could "get more chops out a sheep than anyone else" [144]
Towards the end of 1939 she left Arrino and shifted to live with her parents in the Perth suburb of Belmont [144]
Resided with her parents at Preston on Belgravia Street in Perth suburb of Belmont in 1939 and 1940 [144]
Member of the Belmont branch of the Red Cross Society, and taught Sunday School at South Belmont [144]
Married "Bert" Herbert Barkla FAWCETT in Perth on 6 July 1940 [66] [144]
After their wedding they stayed at the Royal Hotel in Wellington Street, Perth [144]
They had £50 which they used to buy a dining table, six chairs, lounge, china cabinet, small table, double bed, and low boy [144]
Prior to their marriage Bert already had a kitchenette, kitchen table and a wardrobe [144]
Resided with her husband on Terrara Farm in Arrino 1940-1949 [144]
Their home on the farm was a two bedroom house clad and lined with asbestos sheeting [144]
The house consisted of two 12 x 12 foot bedrooms and a 12 x 24 foot kitchen-dining room [144]
Over the years and as money allowed they added a back verandah, bathroom-washhouse, and then a front verandah [144]
Near their home they planted roses, fruit trees, a lucerne patch, and "apart from the snakes it was a very nice place to live" [144]
Gave birth to a still born daughter on 5 May 1942, who was buried at the Three Springs General Cemetery (Anglican, Plot 45) [24]
In 1946 they purchased their first refrigerator [144]
Member of the Arrino branch of the Red Cross Society [P331]
During the Second World War she had essential items packed in a tin trunk to take in the event that the district was evacuated [144]
In the trunk, which had belonged to her mother, she had items such as flour, rice, sugar, tea and tinned food [144]
In the event of invasion all woman and children in Arrino were to be evacuated to an unknown location inland to the east [144]
While her husband was on a coastal patrol with the Volunteer Defence Corps the tail end of a cyclone struck Arrino [144]
One corner of the kitchen was lifting in the strong wind, so she climbed onto a cupboard and held the roof down [144]
Briefly resided in Dongara in 1947, during which time her husband was the local butcher, and then returned to Arrino [144]
They left Arrino in April 1949 and shifted to Hillslope Farm in Nabawa, where they resided until 1974 [144]
The journey from Arrino to Nabawa was made with her husband and their three daughters in the front of their truck [144]
Became a member of the Nabawa branch of the Country Women's Association in 1950[P331]
Remained a member when Nabawa was amalgamated into the Chapman Valley branch of the Country Women's Association [P331]
In 1974 they left Nabawa and shifted to Chalnooka Farm in Yetna [P331]
Due to her husband's ill-health she ran Chalnooka Farm and its studs for a few years prior to her husband's death in 1990 [P331]
Her husband had sold the farm just before his death, and in 1990 she moved to the northern Geraldton suburb of Sunset [P331]
At her family's request she later moved to Harbour Pines Retirement Village on Francis Street in Geraldton [P331]
Later a resident of the Juniper Hillcrest nursing home on Onslow Street in Geraldton [528: 31-Jan-2023]
In 2023, at the age of 110, she was reported to be the oldest person in Western Australia [528: 31-Jan-2023]
Mother of Kathleen, Anthea and Lenore [P331]
| Reference: Carnamah Historical Society & Museum and North Midlands Project, 'Dulcie Martha Mutter / Fawcett' in Biographical Dictionary of Coorow, Carnamah and Three Springs, retrieved 16 April 2024 from www.carnamah.com.au/bio/dulcie-martha-mutter [reference list] |
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