Bennett George Burwell died when Lilian was still a young child, and her mother married a widower, Henry Turner, a year later.

Lilian and Ethel were educated at Sydney Girls' High School where they ran their own magazine, the Iris, in opposition to the Gazette, edited by Louise Mack.

[1] Lilian's early novel The Lights of Sydney (1896) won first prize in a competition run by a London publisher,[2] but the win lead nowhere.

Her work was soon eclipsed by her younger sister's and, as Brenda Niall states: "Accepting what she saw as a lesser aim, she turned to the 'flapper' novel: stories of love and ambition written for schoolgirls and young women.

"[1] The World's News described Turner as "a simple, wholesome, restful writer, upon whom it is a pleasure to fall back for stories for growing Australian girls to read.