Community & Business
29 April, 2025
65 up for the Scheuerles
It’s been 65 years since Kulpi couple Kenneth and Betty Scheuerle were married in Toowoomba.
Betty (nee Szepanowski), now 85, was born under a tree on the Acland-Sabine road, before her mother was able to make it to the hospital. Educated at Kulpi State School, she attended the technical college in Toowoomba until her mother became ill and she had to return home to look after her younger siblings.
Betty then worked at the Oakey Hospital with her sister Joan, under Matron Allen as a domestic worker for five and a half years.
Husband Ken’s family grew up near Nobby and the 92-year-old prepared some thoughts on paper before being interviewed.
“I first met Betty when I came to Kulpi in September 1950,” he wrote.
“My father purchased a 640 acre dairy farm, which is still in the Scheuerle family.
“After many neighbourly visits, her parents (the Szepanowskis) treated me as if I was their son. In 1957, our relationship blossomed and we were married.”
During married life, the Scheuerles worked in partnership with Ken’s brother Ron on a dairy farm until around the time of the deregulation of the dairy industry in the 1990s.
“In 1997, after all the families left and started their own lives, we decided to split the partnership up,” he said.
“Ron kept the home block and I took a block each side.
“It was then we decided to build a house in Kulpi from where we could work our two farms. About five years ago, the family said I was too old to driving tractors, so we transferred the farms to our sons.”
Outside of farming, the Scheuerles have been involved in just about everything in the town with Ken acting as Hall Secretary for seven years, and Betty coaching tennis, to name just two of many examples.
In their retirement, Kenneth and Betty have lunch every Wednesday at the Kulpi Hotel and, with four other players, play canasta all evening.
Every second Friday, Ken plays indoor bowls with the Kulpi Indoor Bowling Club.
The Scheuerles have four children (Carolyn, Gregory, Steven and Kenneth) nine grandchildren and fifteen great-grandchildren.
They are believed to be Kulpi’s oldest residents.
