by Kate Holden
Tan, Shaun, Tales From Outer Suburbia, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2008.
Thomas, Keith, Man and the Natural World: Changing Attitudes in England 1500–1800, Penguin Books, Middlesex, (1983).
Warialda and District Historical Society, Legacy of the Years: Notes from the Warialda Historical Society, Warialda, 1973.
Webb, R.J. (ed.), The Rising Sun: A History of Moree and District 1862–1962, The Council of the Municipality of Moree, Moree, 1962.
Young, Ann, Environmental Change in Australia since 1788, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1996.
Judgements
Chief Executive of the Office of Environment and Heritage, Department of Premier and Cabinet v Turnbull [2014] NSWLEC 150, Land and Environment Court, New South Wales, September 2014.
Chief Executive of the Office of Environment and Heritage v Turnbull [2014] NSWLEC 153, Land and Environment Court, New South Wales, September 2014.
Chief Executive of the Office of Environment and Heritage v Turnbull (No. 2) [2014] NSWLEC 155, Land and Environment Court, New South Wales, September 2014.
Chief Executive of the Office and Environment and Heritage v Cory Ian Turnbull [2017] NSWLEC 140, Land and Environment Court, New South Wales, October 2017.
Chief Executive of the Office of Environment and Heritage v Grant Wesley Turnbull NSWLEC 141, Land and Environment Court, New South Wales, October 2017.
Chief Executive of the Office of Environment and Heritage v Grant Wesley Turnbull (No. 3) [2019] NSWLEC 165, Land and Environment Court, New South Wales, November 2019.
Chief Executive of the Office of Environment and Heritage, Department of Premier and Cabinet v Turnbull [2014] NSWLEC 150, Land and Environment Court, New South Wales, September 2014.
Chief Executive of the Office of Environment and Heritage v Turnbull (No. 4) [2016] NSWLEC 66, Land and Environment Court, New South Wales, June 2016.
R v Turnbull (No. 1) [2016] NSWSC 189, Supreme Court of New South Wales, March 2016.
R v Turnbull (No. 23) [2016] NSWSC 802, Supreme Court of New South Wales, May 2016.
R v Turnbull (No. 25) [2016] NSWSC 831, Supreme Court of New South Wales, June 2016.
R v Turnbull (No. 26) [2016] NSWSC 847, Supreme Court of New South Wales, June 2016.
Strange v Turnbull [2017] NSWSC1363, Supreme Court of New South Wales, Sydney, 2017, paragraph 12.
Strange v Turnbull; McKenzie v Turnbull [2021] NSWSC 27, Supreme Court New South Wales, Sydney, January 2021.
Turnbull v Chief Executive of the Office of Environment and Heritage [2015] NSWCCA 278, Court of Criminal Appeal, Supreme Court of New South Wales, October 2015.
Turnbull v Director-General, Office of Environment and Heritage (No. 2) [2014] NSWLEC 112, Land and Environment Court, New South Wales, July 2014.
Turnbull v Turnbull [2017] NSWSC 1316, ‘Statement in the Matter of Ian Turnbull’, Supreme Court of New South Wales, September 2017.
Witness statements
Bailey, Terrence, ‘Statement in the Matter of Ian Turnbull’, 2016.
Joseph, Sylvester, ‘Notice of Intention to Adduce Tendency Evidence’, 2016.
Snook, Arthur, ‘Statement of Arthur James Snook in the Matter of Ian Turnbull’, 2014.
Strange, Robert, ‘Witness Testimony’, Supreme Court of New South Wales, 2014.
Transcripts
Holden, Kate, ‘Excerpts from OEH Correspondence Relating to Management of Turnbull Investigation’, Supreme Court, New South Wales State Archives, March 2018.
——, ‘Notes from Typed Edition of Glen Turner’s Compliance Notebook Concerning Turnbull Illegal Clearing Investigations’, Supreme Court, New South Wales State Archives, March 2018.
——, ‘Notes from Victim Impact Statements’, Supreme Court, New South Wales State Archives, March 2018.
——, ‘Notes on Autopsy Report on Glendon Eric Turner by Dr Rexson Tse at Northern Hub, Newcastle Department of Forensic Medicine, August 2014’, March 2018.
——, ‘Notes on Court Debate on Holding Turnbull Trial in Moree’, Supreme Court, New South Wales State Archives, March 2018.
——, ‘Notes on Defence Case for Provocation and Notice to Adduce Tendency’, Supreme Court, New South Wales State Archives, March 2018.
——, ‘Notes on Ian Turnbull Witness Statement’, Supreme Court, New South Wales State Archives, March 2018.
——, ‘Notes on Ian Turnbull’s Psychiatric Testimonies’, Supreme Court, New South Wales State Archives, March 2018.
——, ‘Notes on OEH Prosecution of Ian Turnbull for Landclearing: Transcript of Interview with Gary Spencer of OEH, Roger Butler and Ian Turnbull, and Glen Turner, Interview 22 March 2012’, March 2018.
——, ‘Notes on the Crown Case Statement for Glen Turner’s Murder’, Supreme Court, New South Wales State Archives, March 2018.
——, ‘Notes on Transcript of Robert Strange Police Walk-Through’, 30 July 2014.
——, ‘Notes on Witness Statements in Trial of Ian Turnbull’, Supreme Court, New South Wales State Archives, March 2018.
Turnbull, Ian, ‘Audio Recordings from Cessnock Correctional Centre, Long Bay Correctional Complex and Long Bay Hospital’, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions NSW, June 2020.
Interviews and correspondence
Anderson, Alaine, interview with author, 3 September 2018.
McKenzie, Alison, open letter to the Premier and Minister for the Environment, August 2017.
McKenzie, Alison, correspondence to author, 11 August 2020.
Rendell, Trish, ‘Re: Clearing Vegetation for High-Value Agriculture at [Redacted]’, letter to [redacted], 10 December 2015.
Mitchell, Ranald, correspondence to author, 18 November 2019.
Nadolny, Chris, interview with author, 18 February 2018.
——, interview with author, 19 August 2019.
——, correspondence to author, 15 October 2020.
——, correspondence to author, 24 October 2019.
——, correspondence to author, 31 October 2019.
Slater, Leslie, correspondence with Peter Dunphy, executive director of SafeWork NSW, July 2016.
——, correspondence to New South Wales State Coroners Court, Glebe, 20 October 2018.
——, reproduced correspondence, various dates, sent to author July 2020.
——, correspondence to author, 17 December 2020.
Smith, Simon, interview with author, 24 October 2010.
Spark, Phil, ‘Submission Requesting a Coronial Investigation Into the Circumstances That Led To Glen Turner’s Murder at Croppa Creek on 29th July 2014’, file 2014/224477, May 2017, sent to author December 2017.
——, interview with author, 27 November 2017.
——, correspondence to author, 31 March 2019.
——, correspondence to author, 8 May 2020.
Strange, Robert, interview with author, 24 July 2020.
Turner, Glen, ‘Correspondence to Managers Regarding Turnbull Threat’, Office of Environment and Heritage files, 2012.
Reports
Auditor-General, ‘Referrals, Assessments and Approvals of Controlled Actions under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999: Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment’, Auditor-General Report No. 47 2019–20, Performance Audit, Australian National Audit Office, Canberra, 2020.
Blanch, Stuart; Sweeney, Oisín; Pugh, Dailan, ‘The NSW Koala Strategy: Ineffective, Inadequate and Expensive. An Assessment of the NSW Koala Strategy Against Recommendations Made in the Independent Review Into Decline of Koalas in NSW’, WWF Australia, Sydney, pp. 1–17.
Bombell, Alec & Montoya, Daniel, ‘Native Vegetation Clearing in NSW: A Regulatory History’, Briefing Paper No. 05/2014, NSW Parliament, Sydney, 2014.
Byron, Neil; Craik, Wendy; Keniry, John et al., ‘A Review of Biodiversity Legislation in NSW: Final Report’, Independent Biodiversity Legislation Review Panel, 18 December 2014.
Ecologically Sustainable Development Steering Comm
ittee, ‘National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development’, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, Australian Government, Canberra, December 1992.
Environment, Energy and Science, ‘Biodiversity Assessment Method’, Department of Planning, Industry & Environment, New South Wales, 2020.
General Purpose Standing Committee No. 5, ‘Examination of Proposed Expenditure for the Portfolio Areas Environment, Heritage’, Budget Estimates, Australian Government, Canberra, 11 October 2012.
Lee, Derek, ‘Inquest Into the Death of Ian Turnbull’, State Coroner’s Court of New South Wales, Sydney, file number 2017/95138, October 2018.
Natural Resources Commission, ‘Land Management and Biodiversity Conservation Reforms: Final Advice on a Response to the Policy Review Point’, NSW Government, Sydney, July 2019.
No author, ‘Compliance Policy’, State of New South Wales and Office of Heritage and the Environment, Sydney, 2018, p. 4.
No author, ‘NSW Biodiversity Reforms 2016: Issue 2 – Offsets and Ecologically Sustainable Development’, Environmental Defenders Office, Sydney, 2017.
No author, ‘NSW Woody Vegetation Change 2017–18 Spreadsheet’, Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, Australian Government, Canberra, 2019.
No author, ‘Paradise Lost – The Weakening and Widening of NSW Biodiversity Offsetting Schemes, 2005–2016’, Nature Conservation Council of NSW, Sydney, 2016.
Office of Environment and Heritage, ‘Biodiversity Legislation Review: Submissions Report’, New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage, December 2014.
OzArk Environmental & Heritage Management, ‘Newell Highway Heavy Duty Pavements, North Moree: Aboriginal and Historic Archaeological Survey Report’, Roads and Maritime Services, May 2018.
Pain, Nicola & Wright, Sarah, ‘The Rise of Environmental Law in New South Wales and Federally: Perspectives from the Past and Issues for the Future’, National Environmental Law Association Annual Conference, Broken Hill, 2003.
Samuel, Graeme, ‘Independent Review of the EPBC Act: Interim Report’, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, Australian Government, Canberra, June 2020.
Smith, Peter; Wilson, Brian; Nadolny, Chris et al., ‘The Ecological Role of the Native Vegetation of New South Wales: A Background Paper of the Native Vegetation Advisory Council of New South Wales’, Native Vegetation Advisory Council of New South Wales, Sydney, January 2000.
Taylor, Martin F.J. & Dickman, Christopher R., ‘NSW Native Vegetation Act Saves Australian Wildlife’, WWF Australia, Sydney, April 2014.
Taylor, Martin F.J.; Booth, Carol; Paterson, Mandy, ‘Tree-clearing: The Hidden Crisis of Animal Welfare in Queensland’, WWF Australia, Sydney, 2017.
Television, film and video
Brewster, Kerry, ‘NSW Government Accused of Failure to Act on Alleged Illegal Land Clearing’, Lateline, ABC-TV, 14 November 2016.
Miller, Gregory (dir.), Cultivating Murder, Film Projects and Sensible Films, Australia, 2007.
Pennells, Steve, ‘Cultivating a Murder’, Sunday Night, Channel 7, 2 October 2016.
Pauly, Daniel, ‘The Ocean’s Shifting Baseline’, TED Talk, YouTube, April 2010.
Piatek, Alix, ‘Witness Part 1’, Insight, SBS, season 2, episode 8, April 2018.
NOTES
Prologue
‘If it wasn’t help, he didn’t want to see what was going to happen’: Robert Strange’s actions and thoughts, including the realisation of Turner’s death, paraphrased from Holden, ‘Notes on Transcript of Robert Strange Police Walk-Through’, and Strange, 2014.
Chapter 1
‘Turnbull himself is known for his quiet generosity’: Slater, July 2020.
‘… the Environmental Protection Agency had written a letter …’: Bailey.
‘Flinders, Kangaroo, and perennials … edible herbs once grew between the clumps’: Rolls, 2011, p. 111.
“The plains are like flat, black ocean …”: ibid., p. 42.
‘Moree is wealthy …’: Back in 1965, the Freedom Ride, led by Charles Perkins, came to Moree to protest the segregation of the baths. Black children had been forbidden to bathe alongside whites. Fifty years later, there is a lavish Dhiiyaan Aboriginal Centre, and an Aboriginal art gallery and café in the centre of town. Ten years ago, the first corroboree since 1938 was held, gathering clans from Tamworth to Taree to dance, smoke the grounds and speak languages once forbidden. Tools were made, stories told, spears thrown. It was broadcast on local radio and live-tweeted. At the same time, there is tension in Moree. Ice and young black people are blamed for vandalism and violence. Their elders lament. Though of course it is impossible to tell a person’s heritage from sight, the prosperous landholders gathering in Moree district pubs appear overwhelmingly white.
‘The Moree Plains Shire produces an average of a million tonnes of wheat’: ‘Agriculture’, Moree Tourism.
“At different times of the year …”: ibid.
“disposed of in one determined engagement”: Rolls, 2011, p. 94.
‘It was the year of a grasshopper plague …’: Madden, p. 157.
“The way was now open …”: Madden, p. 43.
“My happy childhood …”: Robeena Turnbull in ibid., p. 161.
‘By the 1940s Croppa had houses and a railway line’: ibid., p. 114.
“The phone was connected in 1952”, “Often a storm had been across the road”: Robeena Turnbull in ibid., p. 164, p. 160. Despite the growth of the community, parts of Moree remained undeveloped through this period. Deirdre Magill, a co-author of the Croppa Creek history, remembers arriving in the area in the 1960s as a newlywed, to camp in the scrub with her husband as they cleared their property with the help of two friends. It was a scene appreciably little different from a century earlier, something from a Frederick McCubbin painting.
‘Ran … began to love his small patch …’: Mitchell.
‘Now in 1987’: Robeena Turnbull in Madden, p. 161.
“land of an equal richness …”, “Nobody could think himself injured”: Locke, Chapter V, paragraph 33.
“[T]he earth, in its natural, uncultivated state …”: Paine, paragraph 11.
“… is always subordinate to the right which the community has over all”: Rousseau, Book I, Chapter IX.
‘… the ineluctable mark of a British citizen was land ownership’: The dilemmas of humans in the landscape are of course older than Enlightenment arguments. Not expecting to find a sophisticated culture in Australia, most Europeans made few records of First Nations concepts of property. But the Cadigal people of the Eora Nation in Sydney, though judiciously practising communal arrangements of resources, had their own system of ownership rights. ‘Strange as it may appear,’ David Collins of the First Fleet wrote, ‘they also have their real estates.’ Eora man Woollarawarre Bennelong told Collins that Me-Mel (Goat Island) in Sydney Harbour was ‘his own property’, inherited from his father, and that such hereditary arrangements were common. Proof of entitlement was through knowledge of song. Access was controlled and exclusive; hunting and fishing rights were assumed. And these rights were passed from generation to generation. Was it so very different from the Europeans?
‘Suffrage was only granted to British men …’: Universal male suffrage wasn’t given in Britain itself until 1918, sixty years after a form of it was bestowed on British male subjects in most of the Australian territories.
Chapter 2
‘First named scientifically in 1864 …’: Nix, p. 203.
‘… almost everything about the plant is designed to impede fire …’: Flannery, pp. 227–28.
‘They house biodiversity … they work on the land as surely as farm labourers’: Smith, Wilson & Nadolny.
‘… conversion of grazing to cropping land was where the money was now’: Years later, it was noted in court that ‘a primary practice that the Turnbull family had engaged in was to identify a cheaper property that was not being cultivated effectively and then acquire the property at the best p
rice possible’. They ‘would try to identify underdeveloped farming properties that had either been poorly developed or had a mixture of grazing and farming, then acquire such properties and try to increase the level of cultivation’. See Turnbull v Turnbull, 2017, paragraph 57.
‘… it swallowed whole herds’: Croppa Creek man Stan Bischoff remembered the ‘Mungle Scrub’ east of Croppa Creek at the start of the twentieth century: 40,000 acres thick with prickly pear as high as a man’s head. It was home to dingoes, wild turkeys and reptiles. A term arose: scrub cattle, tracked by Aboriginal experts, legends for their dauntlessness: Billy Uglymug, Black Albert Williams, Old Gunta, Ginger Lang, Jack Tommy Tommy. See Madden, pp. 81–82.
“a massive suckering response”: Nix, p. 204.
‘At the surface the roots are braided and set …’: ibid.
‘Turnbull, in exchange for mortgaging his own place …’: Turnbull v Chief Executive.
‘… a developer could buy a block now and double its worth in a couple of years’: Country in that district could be bought for $800–900 per acre, and sell after conversion for $3000. See Smith, 2019.
‘… the crop’s failure baffled the colonists’: Barr, Chapter 2.
‘Australian soils are formed in the crucible of a very dry, hot environment …’: Massy, pp. 16–17.
‘… cut Panicum (panicgrass) with stone knives, tossed it to be winnowed by the wind and ground it for flour’: Mitchell, 1848, entry dated 19 Feb 1846.
‘They stored seeds in granaries and baked bread … for many thousands of years’: Muir, p. 91.
‘… to confirm James Cook’s scanty impressions from decades earlier …’: Where were the demarcated fields, the fences, the captive stock and domesticated companions, the tidy rows of crop? Cook’s scant investigation served as a pretext for Britain to argue within international law that – in the words of the Swiss lawyer Emer de Vattel, the pre-eminent legal sage of the eighteenth century and author of The Law of Nations (1758) – ‘unsettled habitation in these immense regions cannot be accounted a true and legal possession’ (see McQueen, p. 259 and Muir, p. 92). In addition, Aboriginal peoples were patently not Christian, so the prohibition in British law against seizing the lands of Christians didn’t apply. There need be no legal impediment to seizure and possession of what seemed a radiant instance of that rare and remarkable phenomenon, terra nullius.