Born and raised in Southern Highlands, New South Wales, she came from a large family of 6 children and lived on a dairy farm.

The 1993 City2Surf made Turland reassess this situation, as with no training regime she ended fifth in the high level women's race.

First she won the Sydney Half Marathon, beating Commonwealth Games medallist Tani Ruckle and gaining sponsorship from Puma as a result.

This brought her international selection for the first time and she managed to finish 49th out of 88 runners at the 1994 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships (second among Australians, behind Susan Mahony).

[4] She competed in races in Asia, Europe and North America the following year and by the time she entered the 1996 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships she was a much improved runner.

[2] There, she finished in a time of 72:46 minutes for ninth place (later upgraded to eighth due to Cristina Burca's doping ban).

[7] At the end of the year she represented Australia at the Chiba Ekiden and also set a personal best in the 10,000 metres track distance with 33:28.40 minutes for fourth at the Zatopek 10,000.

[8] At the World Championships she could not match her previous performances and was among the first to drop out of the marathon race, soon after crossing the halfway mark.

[12] The last major win of her career came at the 2002 Sydney Marathon, where she topped the podium at the age of 42 to take the Australian national title over the distance.