Tom H Turner's Survey Party at the 36th Parallel, in Mallee country Victoria 1884. 

Tom is in the centre wearing a tie!  His brother George is on his right.

The 36th Parallel between Lake Hindmarsh and the SA Border, when it was defined by Tom H., was almost wholly through sandhill country, dunes interspersed with occasional small crabholes or loamy flats covered with small or large matter, stunted crooked stringybark on the rises and extensive, open, gently undulating heath plains, spinifex etc. It was across country generally waterless, excepting after rain when a little surface water would lie awhile in the clay flats.

Tom H Turner established his camp of half a dozen tents near the north-eastern corner of Lake Hindmarsh. It was to that camp Mrs T H Turner (Eva) was want to drive a buggy and pair carrying the mail and necessary stores from Nhill via Lorquon, a distance of nearly 40 miles.

The marking of the 36th Parallel by Tom H Turner was perforce a winter job, because of the lack of water problem. He sometimes found it necessary to cart water as much as 15 miles from the nearest available water supply; water for men and horses; food for the survey party and forage for horses had to be carted long distances also, additional to the transport of equipment, wooden and iron posts etc.

Surveyor Turner found that his task was not finished when he reached the portion of the South Australian border line which had been marked in 1849 by Edward R White. Tom H Turner could not find the mounds, or the poles, which had been established by E R White on the tops of the sand ridges. Therefore he had to re-establish White's survey from 22 miles south of the 36th parallel, - from the oak country where selections had recently been surveyed. He also measured connections from his boundary survey to Sheoak Well and Gum Tree Well so that their positions could be shown on the maps of the colony

The demand for selection surveys did not increase in the 2nd half of 1884 and Tom H. went to Sydney to investigate the prospects for a survey in New South Wales. Thinking that he would have better prospects there, he decided to return to Nhill and dispose of all his assets excepting personal effects and surveying equipment.

The sale was advertised for 25th February 1885; an advertisement which also gave some indication of the tastes of the Turner family.

Young Bros. Nhill were instructed to attend to the matter, and described the assets to be offered for sale in considerable detail:

"Clearing Sale of Properties of T H Turner Esq.", who is leaving the colony, having accepted an appointment under New South Wales Government, the whole is for "Positive Sale" at Mr Turner's house on 25th February 1885.

§  Lot 1 Allotment 3 Parish of Peechember - Eldorado pre-emptive right, together with Mallee allotments adjoining and containing 4,200 acres of box and oak country.

§  Lot 2: Freehold Allotment in Nhill - 70ft frontage to Victoria Street, upon which is built three shops and two offices, bringing in a rental of £5 per week.

§  Lot 3: Freehold Allotment in Nhill - 33 ft frontage to Victoria Street by depth of 88 ft, adjoining the Union Hotel. The best business site in Nhill.

§  Lot 4: Allotment 6 Section 1, Township of Nhill - half an acre - upon which is erected the 6 roomed cottage at present occupied by Mr Turner, also store, harness and chaff houses, buggy shed and man's room.

§  Lot 5:  Three roomed WB cottage, occupied by Mr Tregonning

§  Lot 6:   Three roomed WB cottage, occupied by Mr Shortall

 §  Lot 7: Allotment 6 Section 11 Township of Nhill, having a frontage of 103 ft 6 inches to McPherson Street, upon which is erected a 2 roomed WB

cottage. This property is opposite Messrs Young Bros Sale yards, and adjoins W. Alexander's foundry site, a portion of which was lately sold at £15- per foot.

§  Lot 8 Four half-acre allotments Nhill, fronting Nelson Street, directly opposite proposed railway station site.

§  Lot 9: Seventy allotments in various parts of Nhill, suitable for business or residence site.

§  Lot 10: Twenty freehold allotments in North Lillimur and two freehold allotments at Goroke.

§  ALSO a quantity of splendid household furniture, consisting of handsome walnut piano ( by Archer Freres), morocco suite of furniture, chest of drawers, clock, tables, bed spreads, mangle, two sewing machines, watercolour drawing book etc.

§  ALSO Seven horses, one buggy, one dray, two express wagons, 400 gallon tank, 100 gallon tank, one ton of Sampson wire, quantity harness, saddles etc etc.

Before the advertised date for the auction sale of his possessions, Tom Heppingstone Turner saw fit to give further consideration to his acceptance of a position in New South Wales. He did so in consequence of an advertisement in the Victorian Government Gazette, which invited tenders for the survey of upwards of 5,000 square miles for the Mallee country. It was of country with which he was well acquainted and he decided to submit a tender. He was one of nine surveyors to do so and one of two who were notified on 27th February of acceptance of their tenders.

Tom H was allotted the task of marking the boundaries of Mallee "blocks" and Mallee "Allotments" estimated at 2643 square miles, a task expected to keep a surveyor busy for a period of about twelve months. His tender was 45 shillings per mile for the marking of "block" boundaries - attended with greater difficulties of transport and greater scarcity of water, - and 35 shillings per mile for the definition of the boundaries of Mallee "allotments".

(The other successful tenderer was surveyor R.Nankwell; his task was to effect Mallee surveys similar to those of Tom H Turner, but at the west of 142nd Meridian and for an area estimated at 2581 square miles. The location of the 142nd degree of east longitude through the West Wimmera can be loosely defined as from about 1.5 miles east of Lake Natimuk a line bearing true north, and being about one mile east at Lake Hindmarsh.

Tom H Turner's contract was for survey of Mallee country east of the 142nd meridian, but he also marked most of the "Mallee allotments" and the "Mallee Blocks" between the 142nd Meridian and the South Australian Border. There was great demand for the completion of the subdivisions and the 31 year old surveyor was compelled to seek assistance. He could not satisfy the demand without it; the doing alone all the fieldwork as well as the plans; the computations; and the copies of the notes of the measurements made in the field.

 Tom H Turner chose as partner a man whom he knew to be reliable. He was Henry Ince Farrell who had been employed by Turner in the Benalla district for nearly two years, 1877 and 1878, constantly on field work and most of the  period as a Licensed Assistant Surveyor. H I Farrell’s ability was greater than that of most surveyors of that time. In January 1875 he and 25 others sat for an examination in surveying, and only four were approved for Certificates of Competency.

Henry Ince Farrell did most of the lesser government contract surveys in the West Wimmera in the 1880s (between 1885 and 1890) - for example he subdivided the township reserves at Gerang Gerung, Netherby and Salisbury. Tom H Turner, senior partner in the firm Turner and Farrell, during the same period chose to do the outback work, both personally and by directing the work of other authorised surveyors employed by him. One such was Walter Joseph Crowther who in 1885 marked out many of the "Mallee Allotments" in the Little Desert. Another in the same period was William D'Alton - in the Warracknabeal district. He was the younger brother of St. Eloy D'Alton who was engineer of the Lowan Shire

(St. Eloy D'Alton was authorised as a surveyor under the Transfer of Land Statute in 1883, but he was not a government contract surveyor.)

For greater convenience, Tom H Turner changed his place of residence from Nhill to Horsham; H I Farrell continued to reside in Nhill. At that time, many of the Mallee subdivisions made by Tom H. here in Karkarooc, north and north-east of Horsham.

It was whilst living at Horsham in 1890 that a serious accident occurred in the Turner household. Tom Langford Turner, seven year old son of Tom H Turner, was playing with another lad of the same age and they managed to get possession of a gun and some cartridges. Most of the latter were empty with the caps ready for filling. The boys amused themselves by firing the capped shells, but unfortunately a fully loaded cartridge was among them, and it's contents lodged in Tom Langford Turner's right hand. It necessitated the amputation of the right arm above the wrist.

There were five children, two sons, and three daughters in the family of Tom Heppingstone Turner:

-          Eva Emily Heppingstone Turner b. 1877 Benalla

-          Rockley Leahy Turner  b. 1879 Benalla

-          Thomas Langford Turner b. 1883 Nhill

-          Stella Russell Turner b. 1885 Nhill

-          Hazel Victoria Turner b. 1887 Horsham

Tom H Turner relinquished most or all of his land acquisition interests when he transferred his home from Nhill to Horsham. He concentrated on matters relating to surveys but for several years he left most of the West Wimmera government contract surveys to his Nhill partner - Henry Ince Farrell; that applied more particularly to other than mallee subdivisions which Tom H Turner preferred to do personally.

Tom H  continued to effect all the contract surveys in the Horsham district, also other land boundary definition surveys, irrigation surveys, land transfers etc independently of the Turner-Farrell partnership.

He did not make any great impact on the public affairs of Horsham, but his interest in the surveying profession evinced itself in more ways than one. For his 1884-5 Mallee block surveys

 He used a 200 link steel tape, twice the length of that generally used by other surveyors of that period.   

He became a member of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors and in 1891-2 he was elected a member of the Council, despite the inconvenience of him having

to travel to Melbourne to attend the Council meetings, thus interrupting the survey practice which brought him his livelihood. He was one of the first, if not the first to use invar. tapes for his surveys in the Mallee and he addressed an Institute of Surveyors meeting  on the subject of those tapes.

Tom H interested himself in Horsham's water supply and urged a Taylor's Lake water storage scheme; a scheme which later was to be implemented on the lines originally planned by him. He was so well known for his surveying practice that frequently municipal councils consulted him on Crown Land survey matters, instead of officers of the land Department.

Tom H Turner trained his two sons: Tom Langford Turner and Rockley Leahy Turner in the practice of surveying, and in 1906 the Land Surveyors' Board granted both of them licences to practice surveying, to the former despite his disability due to the amputation of his right hand and wrist when he was seven years of age.

Until the end of 1909 Tom Heppingstone Turner continued to effect Wimmera Crown Land surveys as a government contract surveyor. The work was either done by himself or by his sons - for example a June 1907 survey of Allotment 42, Parish of Banu Bonyit for A.T. Roberts by Rockley L. Turner. The government contract survey work gradually became less and less as the available Crown Land was selected or reserved.

It was after Tom H Turner ceased his contract survey work that both of his sons left Horsham to practice their surveying profession ion Queensland. Subsequently he, Tom H Turner, also left Horsham to make his home in Melbourne. It is recorded that in 1913 he resided in Marine Parade St Kilda and that in 1916 he had an office in Bank Place Melbourne. His sons were still in Queensland.

He was elected vice-president of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors in 1914, and president in 1915. On 12th April 1918, he was made a Fellow of the Institute. At this time he was involved with a scheme for the water supply of Melbourne.

The death of Tom H Turner was noted in the Horsham newspaper "Wimmera Star" in it's issue of Friday 15th April 1918: " Mr Tom H. Turner, at one time well known in Horsham as a licensed surveyor, died at his residence "Aldinga" 73 Ormond Esplanade, Elwood on Wednesday last, aged 64 years. He leaves besides a widow, two sons  -Rockleigh (sic) (Rockley) and Tom, surveyors in Queensland, and three married daughters. "

And in the Melbourne "Argus" on Thursday 18th April:

"Death: Turner - On the 17th April 1918 at his residence "Aldinga" 73 Ormond Esplanade, Elwood, Tom H Turner, aged 64 years. No flowers by request. Funeral from his home 2:30PM on 18th for Springvale Cemetery

 References

Nhill Historical Society and John Parsons

"Dimboola Banner"

Victorian Government Gazettes

Institute of Surveyors Victoria minute books

Alan J Middleton  (deceased) - Surveyor

Thomas Langford Turner (Tim)

Nancy Wade (deceased)

Philip N A Leahy

Here is an interesting Wikitree  link, with many sub-links on Tom H Turner:

1. His trip to WA and interview with a newspaper reporter.

2. His farewell dinner when leaving Horsham for Melbourne.       

3. His Death Notice.

4. His obituary

5. Alan Middleton's Paper on Tom's Iron Survey Posts.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Turner-27950

Abstract

Tom H Turner was a member of the well-known family of Contract Surveyors descended from Thomas Turner of Augusta, WA and Victoria.

He was responsible for the subdivision into Mallee Blocks during the late 19th century of 5 million acres of northwestern Victoria and must rank as one of the most resolute and tough Crown surveyors of the era.   His best known survey is that of the 36 parallel of Latitude South across Victoria’s Big Desert.

This paper is a tribute to Tom H Turner’s part in the

development of the Wimmera and Mallee regions

INTRODUCTION

An iron survey post stands in the foyer of the Victorian Surveyor General’s Office bearing a plaque which states ‘Survey marker post placed by Mr T H Turner, Authorised Surveyor, in July 1884 on the 36 parallel of Latitude South between Lake Hindmarsh and the South Australian Border’.

The Surveyor General’s Office houses three leather bound volumes, 7, 8 and 9 of T H Turner’s Field Books.

Knights (1994) of the Examining Section of Survey and Mapping Victoria wrote that, when considering the exploits of early Crown surveyors, Turner must rank as one of the most resolute and tough.   Knights asserts ‘It is regretted that the valuable contribution made by Tom Turner to the development of this most inhospitable part of Victoria late last century has not been acknowledged’.

The author’s interest in the contribution of Tom Turner dates from 1965 when pushing his way through thick Mallee scrub on a resurvey of part of the 36 parallel he found one of Turner’s iron survey posts still standing.

SURVEY OF THE 36 DEGREES PARALLEL OF LATITUDE SOUTH

(Chappel 1966)

On 20 May 1884, Authorised Surveyor Tom Heppingstone Turner set an 18-inch geodetic transit over the wooden survey post at the intersection of the 36 degrees parallel of Latitude South with the 142 degrees meridian of Longitude East.   Authorised Surveyor A C Allan had placed the post in 1880, when he had surveyed the 36 degrees parallel westerly from the Murray River.   Turner as a Contract Surveyor was to extend the parallel in a series of chords six minutes of longitude long to the South Australian Boundary.   See Figure 1.   

Background:   By 1884, selection of the Wimmera plains had advanced north of Nhill and Dimboola towards the Mallee region or Big Desert.   Much of the settlement was by Lutheran selectors from South Australia seeking arable land, timber for shelter and water.   In 1878/9 the Crown Lands Commissioners had made the following finding about the Mallee (Longmire, 1985)   ‘the aspect it presents is that of a wilderness in the strictest sense of the term – sand, scrub and mallee below, the scorching sun and bright sky above, and not a sound of life to break the solemn silence.   In a journey of 100 miles not one solitary bird or living creature was to be seen.   Even the scream of the paroquet was not to be heard.   The only evidence of animal life was the barked stems of stunted scrub and bushes where the rabbits had been feeding, and the dead carcases of a few dingoes.’   The Victorian Government determined that it should give long leases to induce people to take up the land, and with the passage of the Mallee Pastoral Leases Act  of 1883, the Mallee became Victoria’s new frontier, receiving separate legislative attention from the rest of the Colony.   The Mallee was to be divided into allotments and blocks by Surveyors.   The 36 parallel was to form the framework of the subdivision, together with the South Australia border and the 142 meridian. 

The survey:   Tom H Turner was then 29 years old and had been authorised to carry out surveys under the Land Act 1869 for nine years.

In February, he had tendered for the approximately fifty-eight mile survey at £10 per mile and £2 pounds per mile for connections.   Because of Turner’s reputation as a competent and experienced Contract Surveyor, the Lands Department did not ask for other tenders, as was the usual practice.   In the last week of April 1884 he received instructions to proceed with the survey.   It being impracticable to mark a continuous curve along the latitude parallel, the Government Astronomer provided Turner with computed data for marking out a series of chords of one tenth of a degree of longitude in length.   The chordal angles at the ends of these chords were at geographical points on the 36th parallel.   The Government Astronomer lent Surveyor Turner an 18-inch geodetic transit to ensure much greater accuracy than was possible with the five-inch theodolite used by Turner on selection surveys.   Posts of specific size were to be put in at specified intervals, the longest posts at chordal angles.   In that respect, Tom H Turner bettered his instructions by substituting cast iron posts for the specified wooden posts seven inches square and six feet long.   The country of the survey was subject to frequent bush fires which would have burnt the wooden posts.

The first major difficulty was to carry the survey over the waters of Lake Hindmarsh.   This was effected by triangulation with a measured base of 15482.7 links and computed length across the lake of 19683.3 links.   The end of the initial chord fell within deep water and could not be marked: from then on every six minutes of longitude were to be marked at a computed distance of 5 miles 4823 links.   Miles were to be marked with wooden posts.

By mid June, Surveyor Turner and his party of six were camped on the western shores of Lake Hindmarsh.   Swans and ducks by the million covered its surface, while plovers and other wild fowl lined the shore and banks. (A report in the Dimboola Banner "Around the Lake". See story above)

of June 27 described his camp of half a dozen tents as extremely comfortable, notwithstanding that everything had to be carried from Nhill, forty miles away.   On the day the journalist arrived, Mrs Turner had driven a buggy and pair across from headquarters, no mean feat considering the loneliness of the country and the roughness of the roads.   The report stated that Mr Turner and his party were working as rapidly as the difficult nature of the country permitted, hoping to get over the fifty miles to the border by the beginning of July.   Food and water for his party and horses as well as the substantial number of iron and mile posts had to be conveyed across the scrub and sand hills as the survey advanced.   The journalist went on to say ‘the life of a surveyor in the mallee is not exactly a bed of roses’.   

Upon reaching the Border, Tom Turner could not locate the marks placed by Surveyor Edward White in 1849.   He had to produce the line of the western terminal of Surveyor Tuxen’s 1874 Main Base Line 21 miles to the south and a peg at the southeastern corner of Section 471S, Hundred of Tatiara, as defined by South Australian Surveyor Cornish in 1874, a datum of 22019 links.   In effect, Surveyor Turner was producing Cornish’s eastern boundary northwards (Kean, 1993).   The intersection of this line with the parallel was at 21 miles 7254.7 links north of the Base Line.

The measured length of the parallel was 57 miles 5974.2 links, which was chained in both directions.   In addition, Tom Turner traversed a total of 26 miles 380 links of the South Australian Boundary and 13 miles 4790 links of connections to surveyed Allotments to the south.

By 28 August 1884, the survey was completed when Surveyor Turner was back in Nhill, computing his astronomical observations.

Based on a six day working week, an average of 2.5 miles was chained each day, all in cleared lines through mallee scrub and over steep sand dunes.

Observations for Latitude were made as he proceeded along the chords of the parallel with the line varying between 13.3 seconds to the north and 7.9 seconds to the south.   The examiner’s comments on 18 January 1885 were that the 7.9 seconds or 1.7 links difference ‘might be considered satisfactory’.

Aftermath:  A five-foot high Vermin Proof fence was erected along most of the line from 1885 onwards to protect settled country from wild dogs.   This fence of pine, box and gum posts, netting and barbed wire symbolised the common view that the land to the north of it was fit only for vermin (Longmire, 1985).

The 36 parallel has stood the test of time.   It forms the Boundary between the Counties of Lowan and Weeah and the Parishes between Lake Hindmarsh and the Border.   See Figure 2. 

Eighty years later most of the iron posts were intact.   Basil J Marshall, Licensed Surveyor, in his subdivision of the Big Desert Australian Mutual Provident Society Lease, located five of them.   The posts included those at Turner's SA boundary intersection (by then 1094 links east of the Vermin Proof fence adopted as the Border), 141 degrees, 141 degrees 6 minutes, 141 degrees 12 minutes and 141 degrees 18 minutes.   The posts at 141 degrees 30 minutes and 36 minutes were fixed by Duncan A McKellar L.S. in Crown surveys of 1968 and’69.

In 1993, the Surveyor General of Victoria, Mr John Parker, recovered the post at 141degrees 6 minutes which had rusted through at ground level and was lying on its side in a paddock.   It is now on display in the Surveyor General’s Office, see Figure 3.

 MALLEE BLOCKS

The 36 degrees parallel of Latitude South, South Australian Border and 142 degrees meridian of Longitude East formed the framework for a subdivision of the Mallee into blocks and allotments, undertaken by Tom H Turner between 1885 and 1887.   In 1885 he effected an east west base line just south of the Murray River.   In 1886 he produced his 1884 line on the Border northerly and at 8.64 km north of the base line located one of Surveyor White’s stone border cairns, with a second one 3.09 km further north and 800 metres from the River.    A line produced southerly through the stone border cairns intersected his base line 497 links (100 m) east of his long line from the south (Kean, 1993).   The 100 metre step was subsequently introduced into the subdivision of the Parish of Olney, see Figure 4.   Tom Turner’s subdivision of the Mallee extended right up to the Murray River, a distance of 139 miles along the Border from the 36 parallel.   The Blocks included eleven with areas over 200 square miles with the longest boundary 52 and one half miles.

Total area of the Mallee Blocks surveyed by T H Turner was 7498 square miles 509 acres or 4.8 million acres.   

For his Mallee Block surveys he used a 200 link steel tape, twice the length of that generally used by other Surveyors of the period.   

WIMMERA MALLEE SURVEYS

Three of Tom H Turner’s Field Books, Volumes 7, 8 and 9, are held in the Victorian Surveyor General’s Office.   Each leather bound book contains up to 380 pages of detailed field notes of surveys effected from 23 September 1902 to 6 April 1909.

The surveys extend across seventy-nine Parishes, from Areegra to Yellangip.   Many of the Parishes extended along the parallel including Hindmarsh and Warraquil.   About 1200 Crown Allotments were surveyed, to a total area of 685,664 acres.   

Geographically, the scope of the land under survey ranged from the South Australian Border to west of Warracknabeal, about 100 miles and southerly from Lake Albacutya to the Grampians, over 70 miles.   The distances travelled between surveys were huge in the days of horse drawn transport.

Allotments varied in size between 1600 acre Mallee blocks to quarter acre township lots.   By 1906, Surveyor Turner was placing ‘permanent reference marks’. 12-inch iron pegs, on his Township surveys.   See Figure 5.

He resurveyed sections of his 36 parallel in many of these surveys, for a total length of 15 miles 5227 links.  See Figure 6.   In 1903 and 1907 he connected to the iron posts at 141 degrees 48 and 42 minutes in surveys of Crown Allotments in the Parish of Perenna.

Tom H Turner was one of the first, if not the first, to use invar tapes for his surveys in the Mallee and he addressed an Institute of Surveyors’ Meeting on the subject.

SON OF A SURVEYOR

(All names in bold print were or became qualified surveyors)

(Tom Turner, 1956)

Thomas Heppingstone Turner was born between five and six in the morning of 11 July 1854 at Taradale in central Victoria.   He was the second son of Thomas Turner, farmer and later Contract Surveyor.   Thomas Turner, was born in London on 31 July 1813, eldest son of James Woodward Turner, Builder and Architect.   In 1829, the Turner family of nine with twenty-one servants, labourers and their families sailed for the Swan River Settlement in Western Australia on the SS Warrior.   After a voyage of four and a half months, they landed on 13 March 1830.   By this time, no land was left for settlers in the Swan Bay district and they moved onto Augusta, in the Cape Leuwin district, with two other families, the Bussells and Molloys.

By 1838, Thomas Turner was engaged in surveying the Blackwood River and in 1846 he married Elizabeth Heppingstone at Busselton who had also arrived on the Warrior.  Thomas Turner and his family sailed for Victoria in 1852 and journeyed up country to the Forest Creek diggings.   By 1854, they had made their home at Taradale where Thomas took up Allotments 11, 13, 14, 17 and 18 of Section 10, in the Parish of that name, comprising 29 acres.   In 1858, he relinquished his farm and set up business in the town as an Architect.   In 1860 he was appointed a Mining Surveyor.   On 19 September 1861 Thomas was issued a certificate of competency as a Licensed Surveyor and was given license to act as a Contract Surveyor in 1865.   He was employed in the Lands and Survey Office from 1874 to 1880 and died in Melbourne in 1895.    Since he signed his name as Thomas Turner, Tom H Turner chose that signature when he too became a Contract Surveyor in 1875.   

A FAMILY OF SURVEYORS

Thomas Turner had four sons, three of whom, Edwin Woodward, Thomas Heppingstone and George Russell became Surveyors.   Grandsons CL Turner, Tom Heppingstone Turner, Leonard Wilton Leahy Turner, and Vivian Paul Turner, (sons of Edwin), Rockley Leahy and Tom Langford Turner, (sons of Tom H), G Turner, (son of George) and Jack S Turner, (son of John Rockley) all 14 qualified as Surveyors in New South Wales, Victoria or Western Australia.   Obituaries of some of the third generation were found in The Australian Surveyor.

EARLY LIFE OF TOM H TURNER  

Tom H Turner was bought up in Taradale and followed his older brother Edwin Woodward to Stockyard Creek (Foster) in 1872.   On 4 July 1872 he was appointed temporary Assistant Mining Registrar at Foster and on 17 July acting Clerk of Petty Sessions during the absence of his brother.   In 1873, Tom H Turner was appointed Warden’s Clerk, again during the absence of E W turner.   Edwin Woodward Turner was authorised as a Surveyor whilst living at Benalla in 1874.   Tom H was trained by his brother and obtained his certificate of competency as a Contract Surveyor on 14 May 1875, also resident at Benalla.   On 19 May he was authorised to effect surveys under the Land Act 1869.

On 23 September 1876 Tom Turner was married at St Peter’s Church, East Melbourne to Eva Catherine Mary Leahy from Crover, Northern Ireland.   His older brother, Edwin had married her sister, Josephine.   Their brother, Alfred Leahy, who was best man at Tom’s wedding, was a Contract Surveyor.   His sons, Alfred James and Harold Patrick Langford Leahy both became Licensed Surveyors.   Alfred James (Jim) Leahy won the Military Medal in the First World War by repeated acts of bravery in surveying the details of No Man’s Land as a member of the 10th Field Engineers.   Both trained, practised and qualified as authorised Surveyors with the Turners in NSW and western Victoria.

BENALLA SURVEYS

Tom H worked as a Contract Surveyor at Benalla between 1875 and 1882.   Eighteen of his original Field Books remain in the vaults of Land Victoria and cover the period 18 October 1875 to 17 December 1878.   These Books were supplied to Contract Surveyors and returned to the District Surveyor on completion.  October 1875 found Tom H camped at Harrow in western Victoria and surveying the Police Reserve beside the Glenelg River. During the two months covered by the Field Book, he surveyed selections in such Parishes as Connewirrecoo, Kadnook and Wombelano, see Figure 2.  It was whilst in Wombelano that a cryptic note in his Field Book states ‘Oct 27th Camp hands unwell (no work), Oct 28th Completed Survey’.   Since the Parish is just 10 km north of the Hermitage Hotel, Harrow, one can only wonder at the nature of their illness.   The remaining 17 Field Books include surveys in about a 50 km radius of Benalla where Tom H had made his home.   The Field Books are done in double column entry style with Plans of the Allotments on facing sheets.   See Figure 7. Many of his surveys where in steep range country and a comment on a survey in the Parish of Warrembayne says ‘NB The country is very rough & rugged and had to be chained in ½ and ¼ chains generally’.   This would have involved the process of step chaining with the chain kept horizontal to avoid slope corrections.   Given an average height of chaining at eye level, this indicates slopes of around 17 degrees.

The Books cover the survey in forty-eight Parishes of about 534 selections, many of 320 acres and totalling about   99, 000 acres.

NHILL AND HORSHAM

On 17 October 1882, he was licensed as a Surveyor under the Real Property Act.   That year, with his wife, daughter Eva Emily and son Rockley Leahy, he moved to Nhill in western Victoria to pursue his career.   Another son, Tom Langford, and two daughters, Stella Russell and Hazel Victoria were born between 1883 and 1887.

Rockley and Tom Langford both trained as Surveyors with their father and were licensed in 1906, even though at the age of seven Tom Langford had lost his right hand in a shooting accident.   For similar reasons to his father, Tom Langford Turner signed his name as T Langford Turner on his surveys.   He was in practice in Horsham at the time of his death in 1948.   Rockley Leahy died in 1956.

In 1885, Tom H took Henry Ince Farrell as a partner in his surveying practice.   Farrell was well known to Turner and had been employed by him in the Benalla district for nearly two years from 1877.

Tom H Turner also became an investor in land, buying and selling Allotments in many of the Government Townships he surveyed on the Wimmera plains, generally where water was obtainable.

In Nhill, a subdivision by him of fifteen acres forms part of the main residential area.   The Streets carry Turner family names, including Langford, Leahy, Rockley, Russell and Woodward.  

By 1889, contract survey work in the West Wimmera was insufficient for two Surveyors and Turner moved to Horsham.   In 1892, Tom H Turner and his partner, Henry Ince Farrell determined that there was no longer enough work to warrant a Surveyor remaining in Nhill and the partnership was dissolved.   Farrell went to Western Australia to investigate surveying possibilities at Bunbury with Tom H Turner’s brother, George Russell Turner, who was a government Contract Surveyor. 

Tom H became a Licensed Surveyor under the Land Surveyors Act 1895 on 26 March 1896, Number 90. 

He remained in Horsham until about 1910 and carried out contract surveys throughout the Wimmera and Mallee.   Tom H interested himself in Horsham’s water supply and urged a Taylor’s Lake water storage scheme, later to be implemented along his lines.   Government contract work gradually became less and less as the available Crown Land was selected or reserved.   After Tom H ceased contract survey work in the Wimmera, both of his sons left Horsham to practice their surveying profession in Queensland.   

FELLOW OF THE INSTITUTE OF SURVEYORS

In 1910, Tom H Turner moved to Melbourne and in 1916 he had an office in Bank Place.

He had been a Member of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors from as early as 1894 whilst living in Horsham and regularly attended the January quarterly meeting from 1906.   At that meeting he moved ‘That in the opinion of this meeting it is desirable that the marks allotted and awarded at Land Surveyors’ examinations should be available to candidates after examinations on application to the Secretary of the Board of Examiners’.   Mr Turner said that candidates could not at present obtain this information and he thought that it would be of great assistance to unsuccessful candidates.   The motion was amended to ‘That the question of informing each candidate of the number of marks awarded to him in each subject at examination be referred to the representatives of the Institute on the Surveyors’ Board for their consideration’.   The amended motion was carried.   Mr Turner then put a second motion to the effect that examiners should not prepare candidates for examination, which was lost.   His third motion was ‘That as the Surveyors Act provides for the election of four members of the Board of Examiners annually, in the opinion of this meeting, it was advisable to have a change in the personnel of the Board more often than heretofore’.   The motion was lost.   Turner was clearly a man of ethics and integrity for whom obviously justice not only had to be done but had to be seen to be done.   At this time, Turner’s sons, Rockley and T Langford were Candidates before the Board, aged 26 and 23.   The conclusion of the author is that Turner had a difference of opinion with one of the Institute members of the Board, however it was soon resolved.   The Surveyors Board licensed Tom H Turner’s two sons in May of the same year.   

From 1910 onwards he became an active member and was elected Vice President in 1914 and President in 1915.   There is no evidence that as President, Turner pursued the matters of 1906.   On 12 April 1918 Tom H Turner was elected as a Fellow of the Institute.   He died five days later at his residence, ‘Aldinga’, Ormond Esplanade, Elwood.   At the time of his death, he was involved with a scheme for the supply of water to Melbourne.   The minutes of the July 1918 meeting of the Institute record that a letter of condolence had been sent to Mrs Turner.

Tom H Turner is buried in the Springvale Cemetery and his headstone proudly bears the inscription ‘Fellow of the Institute of Surveyors, Victoria’.   See Figure 8.

Figure 9 shows the survey instruments of Tom H and T Langford Turner.   

FOREVER CHASING THE SHADOW

None of the younger generations of the Turner families followed in the footsteps of their fathers (Turner, 1956).   A passage from Turners of Augusta warrants quoting in full ‘The life of the government contract surveyor was hard; long hours in the field; endless calculations and office work at night; he had little home or social life and was called upon to endure the discomforts of camping in all kinds of weather, and all sorts and conditions of places; he was a sort of professional labourer, both as regards his work and his remuneration; with his experience, training and knowledge thrown in for good measure’.   These words, written in 1956 by Tom Turner, son of Edwin Woodward Turner, are the best epitaph that Tom H Turner could have.   The Obituary for Vivian Paul Turner, a nephew of Tom H, (The Australian Surveyor 1962), says that he was one of the youngest of that old family group who followed Government contract surveying, forever chasing the shadow and seldom catching up. 

REFERENCES

-                      Chappel K.L., (1966) Surveying For Land Settlement In Vic. 1836 –1960. Office of Surveyor General, Vic.

-                      Longmire Anne, (1985) Nine Creeks to Albacutya.  Hargreen Publishing Company 

-                      Turner Tom, (1956) Turners of Augusta.

-                      Paterson Brokensha Pty. Ltd. Perth

-                      Dimboola Banner, 27 June 1884

-                      Institution of Surveyors, Victoria, Minute Books

-                      Land Victoria Records, Department of Natural Resources and Environment

-                      Parsons John, Nhill Free Press ‘In Retrospect’ 24 & 31 March 1999

-                      Nhill Historical Society Records

-                      Knights Peter, Traverse (Institution of Surveyors, Victoria) February 1994

-                      Kean J J, Update on the Victoria/South Australia Border Survey,  9 September 1993 

-                      Victorian Government Gazettes

-                      The Australian Surveyor 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT      The assistance of the following people is gratefully acknowledged:

-                      Mr A J Fennell, Acting Surveyor-General for Victoria

-                      Mr J R Parker, Registrar of Geographic Names for Victoria and former Surveyor General

-                      Mr Jack Dunham, Valuer-General for Victoria

-                      Mr P S Knights, City of Melbourne

-                      Mr P J Millman, Manager, Crown Survey Approvals 

-                      Mr D J Olney, Manager, Crown Land Registry

-                      Mr P K Williams, Survey Manager, Melbourne

-                      Mr R I Templeton, Office Manager, Melbourne Survey 

-                      Mr J Parsons, President, Nhill Historical Society

-                      Mr B J Marshall, Licensed Surveyor , Stawell

-                      Mr Thomas Langford (Tim) Turner

-                      Mr Philip N A Leahy

-                      Mrs P A Murnane, Executive Officer, ISV

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Alan J Middleton has been a Licensed Surveyor in Victoria since 1968 and is currently Acting Deputy Director, Valuation and Survey Services, Land Victoria, Department of Natural Resources and Environment.   He served as an Articled Pupil with Basil J Marshall, Licensed Surveyor, on the subdivision of the Big Desert area held under lease by the Australian Mutual Provident Society in the 1960’s.   In 1969 he joined the Department of Crown Lands and Survey and was based at Hamilton for five years.   He transferred to Ballarat in 1974 and was promoted to Senior Surveyor in 1983.   In 1995 he was appointed Regional Survey Manager for Western Victoria.   He has a keen interest in historical surveying activities.