Deep Dene Residence

Statement of Significance

The place is a representative example of Federation Bungalow architecture, common vernacular architecture between c. 1890 and c. 1915. The place, for its building form and characteristics of its class, makes a positive contribution to the streetscape and townscape of Kalgoorlie.

Physical Description

The residence is built in the 'Federation Bungalow style', a term used to describe vernacular architecture between c. 1890 and c. 1915. The period features the Federation Timber Worker's Cottage with dominant characteristics of timber framed, raised on timber stumps and externally clad with weatherboards. The cottage had a hipped roof covered with painted corrugated galvanised iron. A verandah extends across the facade, covered with a separate bullnosed roof, supported by stop-chamfered timber posts decorated with carved timber brackets. The cottage is symmetrical about a central doorway with double-hung sash windows each side. In the 17 years that the current owners have lived in the residence, they have undertook to repair and restore what they could of the home, as it was in poor condition at the time of purchase. The following information relates to what has been undertaken to restore the home and preserve its historical integrity: Front and side verandahs: - original tongue and groove boards have been replaced with similar jarrah boards from the Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital during its upgrade; - 16 original posts (reputedly brought to Kalgoorlie via camel train) have been taken down one by one, and had their paint removed by scraping and hand sanding. Posts have been filled, painted and additional boxes around their bases have been fitted; - fretwork has been replaced, especially on the western side where it had been removed; - bullnosed iron has been re-rolled and timber supported prior to painting; - front door and surrounds had 15 coats of paint on, so much so that the architectural detail in the bollection moulding had been lost. Among the coats was a curiosity: perhaps in the late 1920s/early 1930s, the door was painted magenta red with gilt. Extension at rear: - extension replaces dilapidated verandah, site of earlier bathroom and kitchen. The latter had papers dating from the 1940s under the linoleum; - the style is sympathetic to the Victorian style of the house, but the extension is 1930s in impression. The family room has a leadlight door and matching leadlight casement windows, retrieved from a home in Central Kalgoorlie. There are two bedrooms and two bathrooms and a laundry in the extension. The main bathroom has a claw foot bath and old-style basin, both of which have been re-enamelled. The basin and its stand came from an old mine manager's house in Trafalgar (now the site of the Superpit); - baseboards are jarrah, from the Kalgoorlie Brewery, formerly in Brookman Street, and from a house in Trafalgar. Original doors from the main part of the house were used; - verandah jarrah tongue and groove boards also came from Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital; posts are ex-Telecom. Main house: - linings are original 'tin' however these have been lined with gyprock and clad in English and Italian wallpapers. These were selected to reflect styles common in the 1890s but the colours are lighter and restful; - ceilings have plaster or zinc roses, hand painted in colours to match wallpapers; pressed metal ceiling in the back hall came from the Parer building (now part of the Albion Hotel) in Boulder, however the front hall ceiling has been clad in reproduction pressed aluminium. The central arch has been refurbished with a plaster moulding; - all doors and baseboards have been refurbished and painted white. Baseboards in the dining room are from the Palace Hotel. Much of the woodwork was fairly damaged, being soft Oregon timber. Some doors have been replaced by coloured glass ones and French doors from an old mine manager's home in Trafalgar. Original doors, however, have been re-used in the extension. The original back door and surround has been relocated to the laundry. A set of French doors connect the original building to the extension; - all original flooring was Oregon - as in the main bedroom. In high function rooms this has been replaced by parquetry timber (in the hall and formal rooms) or industrial grade vinyl (in wet areas and the family room). The original Oregon boards have been donated for reuse in furniture and flooring; - original tiled case iron fireplace insets have been restored in the front bedroom and formal dining room. - the dining room fireplace surround is reputed to have historical significance. When the current owners bought the 'black marble' (actually slate) mantle in the 1980s they were told that it was from Herbert Hoover's office in the National (?) Bank in Kalgoorlie, prior to becoming president of the USA. The vendor, an elderly Boulder gentleman, wanted our assurance that it would stay in the Goldfields. The local monumental workshop cut away two damaged corners of the mantle and accurately reshaped these. Early painted inset panels have been replaced with Esperance pink granite; - the current house has 13 rooms, 6 of which comprise the extension. There is a long central hall ending in the family room in the extension. Rooms are generous in proportion; kitchen and dining room are both 3.6 metres wide by 6.3 metres long. There are still two rooms to restore at the front of the home. Garden area: - stones of raised front beds came from old sewerage system in Central Kalgoorlie - hand hewn; - raised native garden at the rear of the property covers an earlier garbage tip, possibly used by residents over many years. (Note: the information above has been provided by the current owners of the property, John and Wendy Coggon, February 2001).

History

The allotment was granted to Andrew Leahy (Mine Manager of Kalgoorlie) as Kalgoorlie Town Lot 494 in October 1900, purchased for £111. Sir Alexander Campbell Onslow, Knight and Administrator witnessed the transfer of ownership. Subsequent owners have been Richard Henry Pilmore (Corporal of Police) 1905; Frederick Charles Robert Bye (Engine Driver) 1918; John McGovern (Retired Civil Servant from Albany) 1921; Richard Wright-Hill (Mine Foreman) 1924; Vina Amy King (Married Woman) 1939; Robert Hector Stewart (Investor) 1966; Kevin John and Deborah Sim (Surveyor) 1981; and John and Wendy Coggon (Geophysicist and Teacher) 1983 - present. The following anecdotal information has been gathered informally by the present owners, Mr and Mrs Coggon, through conversations with Kalgoorlie-Boulder residents during their years of occupancy: Margaret Lacey (Holyoake worker) visited the house in December 1988. She related the following: she lived in the house from 1942 to 1946, sent here from Perth after her mother, who was separated from her father, died when Margaret was 10 years old. She did not know her father at that time. He was Irish, always wore a hat, and he was a successful gold smuggler - for a while. Apparently he melted down gold in the backyard and stored it in an underground room (no evidence has been found of this); as a child Margaret was made to sleep with gold bars under her pillow and instructed to scream or cry if anyone came into her room (especially the gold detectives). She also had to carry a school satchel to the top end of Victoria Street, where the Loopline had a busy station. She was told to carry the bag as if it was light, and then leave it as if by accident, at the station. Her father was caught eventually and did time in prison for gold dealing. Sister Kath Day (Infant Health Centre nurse and neighbour since the 1930s) relayed that the residence has been a boarding house for may years, and that it was named 'Deep Dene' which she thought was from a suburb in Melbourne. The current owners have since reinstated the house name, and there is a plaque by the front door. The only reference to 'Deep Dene' the current owners have found is in a short Sherlock Holmes story published in 1903, 'The Adventure of Norwood Builder' by Arthur Conan Doyle, in which a house of that name was the scene of an alleged murder. According to several former residents, the Kalgoorlie Deep Dene was also a boarding house in the 1960s. Lil Turner (a Boulder identity who had lived her life in Boulder) instructed the current owners always to maintain two geraniums on either side of the front door. Before the C Y O'Connor pipeline, people took it as a sign of prosperity if you had enough bottled water left over to keep two geraniums going. There are two geraniums on the verandah, either side of the front door, in Lil Turner's memory.

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity: High Authenticity: High

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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