Turner, James "Jim" Hurst

   Cause of his death was Heart Attack.

  General Notes:

Although George's eldest son, James did not follow in his fathers footsteps. He was not the "citified type" and preferred to work with his hands.

He left home young to do a builders apprenticeship, and went to Brisbane to build houses about 1910. He built several houses.

The last one was 54 Laidlaw Pde.East Brisbane (Whitevale), commissioned by his parents forJames's grandparents (parents of Tini). This house stayed in the family until Muriel (George and Tini's unmarried daughter) moved into an aged care facility in the late 1990s. The new owners said they would restore it to its original state and were given photographs to assist them.

Whilst James ("Jim") was working on his grandparent's house he noticed a girl who walked past the building site every morning. Mary was working for O'Donnell's as a domestic on the corner of Lytton Rd and (Road running to Laidlaw Pde). She used to walk past the house he was building, in the mornings, to pick up the shopping for the family. She was daughter of Irish Shafferys who had migrated from Ireland, in about 1880s. He asked an employee to drop a hammer as a signal when he saw her approaching, so he could go down to the street to contrive a meeting with her.....

James Turner and Mary Ann Schaffery wanted to marry. She was 18 yrs old and parents strict Catholics. Jim was Presbyterian. She had been approached sexually by the local priest and wanted to leave the area. So they arranged for her to run away to Bowen.

James went from Brisbane to Bowen by push bike to prepare. (The trip took 11 days. There was only a 2 wheel buggy track in the bush - no formed road.) Mary went by boat. James bought a cane farm in Proserpine, and wrote to Mary to tell her to come up. She couldn't get permission to marry so she ran away from home. She was too young to marry without parental permission and so stayed with friends in Proserpine until she could marry (Blair family).

The farm is situated 7 miles north of Proserpine on the Bowen Road. After crossing Myrtle creek, about 5 miles (8km) north of Proserpine, go another 1.5 km and turn (R) into Morranino Road. At the end of Morranino Rd the farm on the Right is Morranino's and on the left is now (2001) Dougherty's, formerly Turner's. The house is not the original Turner house, but has been rebuilt at least twice. The original farm is 150 acres, but Dougherty's have added another two blocks to the back of the farm.

Although Jim did not follow his fathers occupation, leaving his younger brother George Baden Powell Turner to carry on the auctioneering business and help with the fruit co-operative, there was no friction between George (Snr) and Jim. In fact George helped with the development of the farm. William remembers that George gave Jim 3 pounds per acre to pay for clearing of the 5 acres at one stage. This was "scrub" i.e. thick rain forest which had to be cleared by hand.

William was concieved in wedlock (we think) but only barely. He was born in the family house on the farm. When Mary went into labour Jim rode a horse to get the midwife (about 2 km away on the next farm). There was a cow bell around the horse's neck so he could find it easily, and he forgot to remove the bell in his hurry. So Mary could hear him galloping all the way to the midwife's home. The midwife also heard him coming and left for the Turner farm. She was afraid of dingoes and blew a cow horn all the way to the Turner's place. So Mary was well informed of the progress of her helpers until the midwife arrived.

When Bill was young just before he was old enough to remember, they had an aboriginal employee on the farm. His name was Herbert Emmerson. The tribe lived on the Turner property, in thatched huts from bladey grass or palm leaves, or huts made of corrugated iron). Herbert's parents lived there too. Herby came to work one morning and after a couple of hours said he had to stop work because he was "crook in the guts". On questioning Herby added "my old man bin die this morning". His father worked at Proserpine Station about 40 miles away, and Jim asked how Herby could know this. Herby said "something bin tell me my old man bin die". So Jim said "ok you silly blackfella, you go and have a day off". A couple of hours later a trooper rode onto the farm and asked for young Herby. Jim explained that he had sent Herby home. The trooper said that he had to give Herby and his mother the news that old Herby had been killed on Proserpine station that morning. He had been mustering and his horse fell and rolled on the old man and killed him. They had no explanation how Herby could have known.

There aboriginals were "dispersed" from the land when the Turners sold it, by the new owner. i.e. they were forcibly removed from the property. At about the same time (around 1940) at another farm up the road an aboriginal man molested a white girl and instead of taking the man to court the father of the girl herded the blackfella out onto the road and followed him on horseback with a stock whip and told him never to return to the area. He never did come back.

About 1929 there was bush fire which had been burning for a couple of weeks in scrub and approaching the Turner farm. Jim and his two eldest sons Bill and George went with wet hessian bags to stop the fire at the boundary. They soon realised that the task was hopeless and they were overcome with smoke and heat. Jim said "only one thing will save us now" and he and his two sons knelt down in the smoke and prayed. When they opened their eyes they saw 5 men coming out of the smoke with wet hessian bags, and they immediately began to fight the fire. The fire was stopped at the boundary. However a spark jumped the Turner farm and started burning in their neighbor's paddock a mile away.

Jim was well respected in the cane farming community. He had the contract for hauling the cane from the group of local farmers (Turner farm, Mc Gibbon, McGrath, Higibid, Gunda Singh and John Milne farms) on the "portable" tram line. (The lines were laid into the cane paddocks so the trucks could be easily loaded. They were removed after that paddock was harvested. These were constructed of a light steel. However the track from the farms was constructed of the same material but was never moved. It was a permanant track although still called portable track. Jim took the cane from each farm and took it to the "loco". The cane was carted to the loco by horse team. The horses were hooked onto the 1st truck of the train, which ran on the tracks.)

The contract was re-let each year and soon Jim had a reputation for having few accidents and seldom failing to get the cane to the loco. William remembers that at the Myrtle creek crossing which was the most dangerous part of the trip, Jim would raise his hand in prayer as the cane trucks crossed the bridge. This is why he had few accidents. He was therefore in demand for the contract every year.

The cane was carted on temporary rail lines which were laid out on the ground each year. The trucks were pulled with a horse team, and the cane was taken away each night to meet up with the loco on the permanent line. The trucks returned empty during the night. There were about 20 trucks with 2.5 ton of cane in each one. The temporary line crossed Myrtle creek, a steep descent and ascent over deep water. Bill's job (at age 13 years) was to "sprag the trucks at the right spot on the descent so that the trucks could be started off again when his father gave the signal. To do this he leaned over the front of the trucks and poured sand onto the tracks. He then spragged the second set of wheels which gripped in the sand. His father then took the horses over the crossing first, and up the other side to where the trucks would reach on the ascent. He had a specially made "chock" (a wedge of soft wood about 1 meter long, specially shaped to slot under the truck wheels and to grip on the tracks). When he was ready he would signal to Bill by raising his hand in prayer and Bill would let the sprags off. The trucks would then rush down the descent under gravity. The speed was awesome (at least 25 mile per hour) and a cloud of dust would be raised behind the last truck. When the trucks stopped up the ascent on the other side Jim would get the chock in behind them. They would then hitch-up the horses again and carry on. This crossing often caused derailments with the other contractors.

The next gully was not so steep, and so they would trot the horses down the descent and up the other side. The train weighed about 50 ton, and this was also a dangerous operation. Bill's job was to watch the snig line (the line between the horses and the first truck). He was to unhitch the horses quickly if there was problem. One day they were trotting down the descent when the leader's chain became unhooked. The chain caught in the sleeper and stopped the horses with the trucks coming down behind them. Bill leaped in the air but his leg was caught between the first truck and the last horse. He still has (2001) a scar there. He managed to get off the truck quickly and unhook the snig chain before the horses were dragged backwards down the slope again. There were no broken bones and they lost no horses. But the harness was badly damaged and they missed the loco that day.

Jim suffered a broken neck in 1941 when a horse bolted and the cart tipped. He walked home with Andy, and he said he had to hold his head up by the hair. See letter from George referring to Jim's neck being in plaster. He also had chest trouble "bronchitis".

Jim and Mary moved to Yatalla near Beenleigh when they retired. Jim enjoyed making cement garden ornaments in his retirement. They lived there in their own home till Jim died. He is buried in the Beenleigh cemetery. ¹³

  Noted events in his life were:

• Occupation: Farmer, Proserpine and Bowen. ¹³

• Religion: Seventh Day Adventist. ¹³

• Residence: own home: Yatala, , Queensland, Australia.

James married Mary Ann Shaffery, daughter of Peter Shaffery and (Rosanna) Rose Ann Martin, in Dec 1915 in Bowen. Presbyterian Minister (Gibson) ¹³.^,36 (Mary Ann Shaffery was born on 22 Dec 1894 in Dutton St.Balmoral Brisbane,^13,38 died on 3 Aug 1974 in Brisbane, , Queensland, Australia and was buried in Beenleigh, , Queensland, Australia.) The cause of her death was Breast Cancer.