JM ‘Maurie’ Turville (1914-1961)

Maurie Turville was born at Brunswick in Melbourne on 6 November 1914. Thanks to the generosity of Geoff Newman of Red Tag Fly Fishers, we are fortunate to have biographical information about him and his family from Geoff's unpublished manuscript The Tale of the Red Tag Fly Fishers and Friends.

"Maurie Turville as a young fellow became interested in the pursuits of tennis and angling. The Swordfish and Tunny Club had formed on Montague Island in February 1934. The following month Maurie joined a party of big game anglers bound for Bermagui led by George Hosford of Alcock & Pierce. This experience stood him in good stead and within two years, Maurie acted as ‘rod-man’ for American game fishing legend Zane Grey.

"On finding employment as a salesperson with Hartleys in Melbourne during 1939, his duties included trimming tennis racquets and repairs to fishing rods under the gaze of Reg Lyne.[1]

"Enlisting in the Australian Army during 1941, Maurie served in the Middle East with the 2/13 Field Company. It was shortly after his discharge in 1945 that he began his own business repairing fishing rods and tennis racquets for various Melbourne wholesalers and retailers in a shed at the rear of his in-laws’ home in Coburg.

"In 1947, word was received that premises at 376-378 Victoria Street North Melbourne were available for lease – his dream of starting his own fishing tackle shop was beginning to be realised. Before long, along with his brother Ralph, they designed, manufactured, repaired, and sold fishing tackle from this address.

"The business flourished, and with top quality fly rods such as the Victoria, the Patsy Tee and the Rex on offer, it attracted fly-fishers from all over to sample his wares. It was now possible to purchase top quality split cane fly rods at one third of the price of English imported rods.

"Among an impressive list of clients was Melbourne restaurateur, entertainer, and radio personality Geoff Brooke and American actor and big-game fisher Lee Marvin.

"Although competition within the trade was becoming more intense and they were business rivals, Maurie enjoyed close friendship with fellow rod and tackle manufacturer Jarvis Walker.[2]

"On joining the Red Tag Club in 1956, Maurie was an extremely active member, filling many positions including secretary, publicity officer, and handicapper. An accomplished tournament fly-caster, he featured well at the top level during his short career. His notable achievements included: Runner-up Australian Champion of Champions 1960, Australian Dry Fly Accuracy Champion 1960-61, Australian Wet Fly Accuracy Champion 1960 and Victorian Wet Fly Accuracy Champion 1960.

"Tragically, in October 1961 while competing in a Red Tag fly-casting tournament at Yarra Bend Park Fairfield, Maurie suffered a heart attack and passed away in his 47th year.

"As he was held in high esteem at the Red Tag club, an interclub teams event bearing his name was introduced using a trophy donated by Jack Joyner and George Sawyer. The inaugural Turville Shield tournament was conducted at Yarra Bend Pool on 2 October 1962 – fittingly the successful club on this occasion was Red Tag. The Turville fly-casting tournament continues to this day.

"The business was maintained with his widow Patricia (Patsy), a mother of six young children, at the helm. Maurie’s nephew Jack Turville, who had joined the company in 1954, now found himself as manager. Jack entered into partnership with Patsy Turville in 1972 and eventually gained full ownership in 1989. During the same year, the building was sold, and fortunately another suitable site was found just a block away at 420-422 Victoria Street, North Melbourne.

"The Turville involvement remained strong over the years with Maurie’s eldest son Robert and Jack’s sons Michael and Peter being employed. Peter later became Victorian sales manager for the Jarvis Walker Company. In addition, Jack’s wife, Kath, toiled for approximately 15 years as the JMT company secretary.

"Following in Maurie’s footsteps, Jack (1981), Robert (1966), Michael (1981), and Peter (1981) were members of Red Tag. During this period, Red Tag members Alec Wallace (1957) and Ted Whittam (1976) worked part time at the shop[3] and Phillip Jones (1977), an excellent fly-fisher and budding fly-caster, carried out his rod building apprenticeship at Turvilles’, later to remain in the trade as a tackle sales representative with Daiwa and Shakespeare.

"When Jack and Kath chose retirement in 1996 the business changed hands, the new proprietor being John Cramer. Jack Turville passed away in 1999. John sold the business in 2002 to George Kolliou. In 2003, the link with Victoria Street North Melbourne was broken when the business was moved to 126 Franklin Street Melbourne. After 66 years of trading, in 2013 the business closed its doors for the last time."

[1] A renowned fly caster, Reg Lyne was one of the organisers of the first Australian Fly-Casting Championships, along with Theo Brunn and John Brookes. They were held at Queenscliff Lagoon, Manly, in June 1951. In the mid 1930s he had been the general manager for the Melbourne sporting goods store Hartleys, and his success in competition fly casting and in freshwater and deep sea fishing was a fine advertisement for their rods.

[2] He was also a friend and collaborator of Malcolm Gillies. We know from Peter Wilson inThe Cast – From Cane to Carbon that Turville collaborated with Gillies on the design of rod tapers and that Gillies imported cane rod blanks from the UK for himself and for on-selling to Turville. He and Gillies also sold rod blanks to amateur rod finishers.

[3] After Maurie's death, Pat Wraith and Alex Wallace continued to make rods for the business. Alex Wallace was also a renowned tournament caster, Australian Fly-Casting Champion of Champions in 1963 and 1964. He donated his Southam one-piece Alpha Trout medium line tournament rod, 9'2", to the Salmon Ponds Museum of Trout Fishing at Plenty, Tasmania. 

The Turville Fly Rods

The Turville rod inventory includes the following rod type and their variants:

·      the Fiery Brown (8'6", 3/2, 4 oz)

·      the Geehi (8'9", 3/1)

·      the Hume Special (3/1)

·      the Jenny Anne (7', 2/1, 3½ oz, #4).

·      the Jenny Anne Special (7'4½", 2/1, 5 oz)

·      the JMT Dry Fly (7’10”, 2/1, 4 oz, staggered ferrule)

·      the JMT Dry Fly (8', 2/1, 4¾ oz, equal lengths)

·      the Lake Side (3/2)

·      the Mercury (8'3½", 2/1, 5½ oz, staggered ferrule)

·      the Mitta (9’, 3/1, 6 oz) 

·      the Patsy Tee (8'6", 2/1, 5½ oz, staggered ferrule)

·      the Patsy Tee R#43 Special Tournament Rod (8’6”, 2/2, 5¼ oz, staggered ferrule)

·      the Perfection (8'9", 2/1, #4)

·      the Rex (8'9", 2/1, 5¾ oz, #5)

·      the Rex (8'9", 2/1, 6½ oz, #7)

·      the Rex Special (8'9", 2/1, 6 oz)

·      the Rex (9'6", 2/1, 6¾ oz, #7)

·      the Venus (8', 2/1, 5¼ oz. #6)

·      the Venus (8’4” 2/1)

·      the Victoria (8’6”, 2/1, 5¾, #6-7)

·      the Victoria Special (8’4’, 2/1, #6-7)

·      the Victoria Royal Presentation Rod 1954 (8'8", 2/1)

An example of the Victoria Royal Presentation Rod 1954 has surfaced recently, and images are included below. The rod was created by Turville's to coincide with the 1954 Royal visit to Australia. It is not known if examples of it were presented to the Royal party, but it is likely, given that the inscription on one flat reads “Built for Royal Party 1954”. The recipient of this example, W L McKeand Esq, may have been a Royal equerry, but we have not been able to confirm this. It is interesting that the rod was fitted with a typical Hardy "W" reel fitting (shown below) and adjustable ring (although not with a housed butt cap, but a more ungainly rubber button). This reel fitting is quite unlike those on other Turville rods.

The Turville's rod price list from the early 1950s, though not complete, shows their more popular rods. The price range of these Turville rods was roughly similar to that of UK rods by Millwards, Allcocks and Edgar Sealey listed in an advertisement by Langlands' Sports Dept of Horsham, Victoria in the Horsham Times on 21 August 1951. The Turville rods included in the advertisement, namely the Hume De Luxe, Fiery Brown and Lake Side, were advertised as "English cane made in Australia". All priced at around £10, they would cost about $500 in today’s prices.

John Brookes writes in Lifelong Pleasure – Seventy Years of Fly Fishing that a rod Gillies designed for Turville's became the Victoria (8’6”, 2-piece, 5.5 oz). It and the Venus (8ft, 2-piece, 5.25 oz – see both above) are powerful rods that can put out a long line. The other fly rods listed were the Geehi (8’9”, 3-piece, 6 oz), the Perfection (8’9”, 2-piece, 5.25 oz), the Mitta (8’9”, and 9ft, 3-piece), and the Rex (8’9”, 2-piece, 5.75 oz, and 6.5 oz for a heavier line). [2]  

Turville also made rods on commission for tournament casting. We have photographs of accuracy competition rods, the Victoria Special (8’4”, 2-piece, 5.5 oz), and the Mercury (8’ 3.5”, 2-piece, 5.5 oz), the latter made for Jack Joyner, former Australian Accuracy Casting Champion. John Rumpf, former Australian Champion of Champions, was said to have taken a Turville Venus for accuracy casting to the World Casting Championships in Austria.

Maurie Turville was a real innovator. His Patsy Tee,[4] (8’6”, 2-piece, 5.25 oz), Mercury and JMT Dry Fly Special (7’10”, 2-piece, 4.5 oz) were ‘staggered ferrule’ rods] with the tip longer than the butt. Invented by Charles Ritz, the underlying concept was to shift the ferrule back towards the butt and away from the zone of maximum flexion for loading the rod in casting. Ritz built this into the Pezon & Michel Super-Parabolic PPP series of rods, of which the most famous was the 8’5” Fario Club, and the idea was picked up by Sharpe's of Aberdeen, Scotland, in their Sharpe's Seventy-Nine (7’9”), Eighty-Three (8’3”) and Eighty-Eight (8’8”) rods, with identical ferrules and tips but butts varying in length from shortest in the Seventy-Nine to longest in the Eighty-Eight. The concept was also adopted in Cliff Constable’s Wallop Brook series of rods, marketed by the UK’s Dermot Wilson, ranging from the Midge (6’6”), through the 6’9” and 7’6” to the 8’2” models.

Turville's rods were marketed as ‘Duracane’ rods, which involved putting the blanks through a process to impregnate the fibres of the completed bamboo blank to repel water. Sharpe's also did this, making impregnated rods under licence from Orvis, marketing their rods as ‘Impregnated’. 

The origin of the Turville's impregnation process is not known (the Leonard Rod Company in the US did import some Sharpe's impregnated blanks for its very well known Duracane line). 

The basis of the Turville's entitlement to use the name ‘Duracane’ is unknown; it might have been suggested to Turville's by Sharpe's. Certainly, it can be imagined that the Leonard company might not have been best pleased to know that there was another rod maker, albeit in Australia, using the name!

Turville’s smallest rod, an outlier in his output though not as markedly as Southam’s John Rollo, was the Jenny Anne (7ft, 2-piece, #4), a fast action taper similar to the great U.S. maker Paul Young’s Princess, also a 7ft 2-piece. An example of the Jenny Anne is included in the images below.

[4] Turville's made a special tournament rod for Jack Joyner called The Patsy Tee R#43. For accuracy casting, it had a second tip section fabricated in fibreglass. The grooved thumb support (see photos of the rod below) was probably added by Joyner, perhaps following the model of Heddon’s ‘Marvin Hedge’ series of rods. The rod probably dates from the 1960s, as by the late 1950s Joyner was making a name for himself in tournament  fly casting, particularly in accuracy competitions.

Turville The JMT Dry Fly Rod 2/1 7’10” (JJ - Max Stokes rod)

Turville The Victoria 8’6” 2/1 6 oz  (MS)

Turville The Fiery Brown 8'6" 3/2 4 oz  (AFFM)

Turville The Rex Special 8' 9" 2/1 6oz  (AFFM)

Turville The Jenny Anne 7' 2/1 #4 3,1/2oz  (FvR)

Turville The Victoria 8'8" 2/1 Royal Presentation Rod 1954  (AM)