When young Tom arrived at Miss Turner’s farm, Ochiltree, he was promptly put to work to earn his keep. Miss Turner was a no nonsense person who was very strict with him and life on the farm was far more physically demanding and relentless than anything Tom had experienced before. There were cows to be milked, wood to be chopped, chickens and pigs to be tended and paddocks to be worked with the horse drawn plough, just to name a few.
Miss Turner, or “Aunt Merrin” as Tom called her, worked him very hard, for little reward, to “teach him the value of money”. She also made a point of taking him along to church with her each Sunday which was a rough buggy ride of about 25 kilometres. When he asked why he had to go, her answer was very direct “To make a decent God abiding man out of you!”
Despite what Tom considered overly severe or unfair treatment of him at times by Miss Turner, he always called her his “guiding angel”, never forgetting the hopeless destitution of the orphanage she had saved him from. For the first time, he had a sense of meaning and usefulness in his life and he was determined to prove himself a worthy citizen.
Living mostly off the land, Miss Turner cured her own bacon and made butter to sell, along with any surplus eggs and other produce. She would make the journey over the Serra mountain range through Turner’s Gap in her horse and buggy to the old Gold Mining area of Mafeking or to the small township of Glenthompson where she would sell her produce.
Old gold mining area of Mafeking Marion Turner in her buggy at Ochiltree
There was no electricity or refrigeration back in those days so meat and perishable foods were kept in the ‘cool house’ - a small building outside in a shady place. The cool house usually had sides made from hessian bagging and could be sprayed with cool water in hot weather to keep the produce from spoiling.
Miss Turner was known to fly into a wild rage if the mice or rats had fouled up her bacon or butter in the cool house, and would immediately set about lacing a few strips of bacon with strychnine poison which she would hang up on the curing wire right next to her fresh meat. The following day, Tom would help gather up the dead rats and mice and bury them well away from the house so that her dogs would not accidentally eat one.
Miss Turner’s two real loves were dogs and horses. Her horse handling skills were well respected in the district and she had quite a reputation for breaking in the most stubborn ones. She was the only female member of the Dunkeld Hunt Club, riding side-saddle, and she was awarded a trophy after winning a men’s horse racing event.
Hunt Club with women riding side-saddle