Western Australia
Spence/Turnbull
My Grandmother and step Grandfather came from Prudhoe Northumberland England to the group settlement at Cowaramup. Tom Spence the step / G was a coal miner in Prudhoe not a soldier . They came to Perth Western Australia in Dec. 1925 then on to Cowaramup where they were allocated a block on Group 62 which was on Treeton Rd.as well as group 122 . My father was 12 yrs old when he came here with the family , his father was killed during WW1 and my Grandmother who had 2 children to him and 2 to Tom Spence before they came here.
As children we spent a lot of our holidays in this area ( Mum also came from there ) with friend of Mum and Dad who were also part of the group settlers , sadly they have all died now so the stories from them have now been lost .
During my Family Tree search I found a P. E. M. Blond who wrote a short history of the area and he knew both my mother and father as his parents were also Groupies .
From his book I have copied 3 pages showing Cowaranup , group 122 which also show the Spence farm and a list of settlers on 122 .
Dad started of as a Spence at this time but must have gone back to Turnbull while there as a note in a diary of Mum said he wanted to be known as Joe Turnbull .
Ted Turnbull
