Tuesday, 3 May 2022

William ‘Bill’ O’Kane and Ross Turnbull

Ms SHEED (Shepparton) (14:12): In March this year we lost two of Shepparton’s significant community leaders in the fields of resource management and horticulture who enriched our community greatly, Bill O’Kane and Ross Turnbull.

As the former chair of Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority, Bill became a national leader in the field of natural resource management. We often spent time discussing local issues, especially when it came to water reform and the environment. In the early 1990s Bill took on the chief executive officer role of the Salinity Program Advisory Council and faced the growing salinity threat to our agricultural sector. Then the millennium drought took hold, and Bill had to tackle a whole new range of water issues. In retirement Bill took on leadership roles in a range of community organisations and went on to establish Shepparton Foodshare in 2007. Bill leaves behind his wife, Marian; twin daughters Alannah and Bridget; and three grandchildren.

Ross Sugden Turnbull died at 82 years of age. A male choir of 52 Samoan men who harvested fruit at Turnbull Brothers Orchards sang at his funeral service. He was well known for his role as chairman of Ardmona Fruit Products. He spent time working for the company in England and then spent time in the United States studying fruit growing innovation there. Ross led Turnbull Brothers Orchards, which was the largest pear orchard in the Southern Hemisphere. Ross, in his later years, became involved in community work and helped raise $2 million for a new high-care aged care facility in Shepparton and more than $2 million for an oncology unit at Goulburn Valley Health.