Hilda Margaret Morcombe was born in Perth in January 1942.
Her parents had a farm in the wheat belt and she, like many farmer's daughters, attended Methodist Ladies College.
She went on to UWA to study medicine, obtaining a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery.
In her final year of medicine, she married James Turnbull, a registrar at that stage, and came to Collie with him and a three-week-old baby in 1966.
The Turnbulls both worked as GPs in Collie for approximately 25 years, Hilda working around having babies.
Hilda was very involved in the community, being chairperson of the Collie Welfare Council for 25 years and serving as a Shire of Collie councillor for 11 years.
She was also involved in the Child Health Centre, the kindergarten committee, financial counselling, Day Care Support Group, Tidy Towns Committee, Riverview Residence Committee, the Collie Arts and Recreation Committee and was Vice Patron of St John Ambulance.
She was a member and honorary doctor of the Mines Rovers Football Club and a member of the Advisory Committee for the South West Development Authority.
Hilda was Collie's first female MP, being elected in 1989
She was instrumental in obtaining improved services for Collie including full-time radiology and pathology, a shopper bus, Collie Home Support Service and Collie Youth Support Service.
She was elected to the Legislative Assembly as the Member for Collie in 1989, thus breaking a Labor stranglehold on the seat that had been in place since 1908, becoming the first female MP for Collie, and the first female National Party member in the Legislative Assembly.
She was re-elected in 1993 and 1996 but lost the seat (by a narrow margin) in 2001.
In Parliament, she helped form the Health Promotion Foundation, to pass the Tobacco Control Bill, and amendments to the Liquor Control Bill.
She was also a strong advocate for equality of hospital and medical services between metropolitan and rural areas.
She was the only West Australian to be an accredited observer at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Kyoto in 1997 and was the Chairperson of the Centre for Sustainable Mine Lakes from 2001-2007.
In 2011, she was bestowed life membership of the National Party.
