Charles “Chicka" Turner enrolled at Caboolture SHS in 1979, finishing his education in 1983. During this time, sport was his passion. He received medallions for the Year 8 and Year 9 Rugby League Metropolitan Championship winning teams, and captained the Year 10 team. In 1981, Chicka won all the Under 15 sprint events as well as the Boys Under 15 Cross Country. He captained the B Grade Cricket team in 1983, being sadly missed when he left school to take up a boilermaker apprenticeship with the Department of Defence.
Chicka was always interested in an outdoors career based on science and traditional knowledge. He worked as a National Parks Ranger in the Glasshouse-Bribie Island area which led to his enrolling in an Associate Degree in Wilderness Reserves & Wildlife Management. He went on to work in the areas of national and marine park management, cultural heritage protection, natural resource management planning and legislative reform, native title, and indigenous economic development.
As part of his role in managing marine parks, Chicka developed the Traditional Use of Marine Resource Agreement Program [TUMRA] for the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area Traditional Owners, which resulted in his receiving an Australia Day Award in 2006. As a Baduagal and Kulkalgal man from the Torres Strait, he has enjoyed working as Economic Development Director and Ranger Supervisor for the Torres Strait Regional Authority. In 2015, Chicka took on the role of Queensland Regional Manager of Aboriginal Hostels Ltd with 11 hostels and 114 staff, and in 2017, became the Manager of Indigenous Co-ordination with the Commonwealth Ombudsman. During this time, he also attained a Graduate Certificate in Business Management and a Certificate IV in Indigenous Leadership. Having recently worked for the CSIRO in Hervey Bay, Chicka is currently based on Thursday Island where he is the Program Manager for Culture, Arts & Heritage for the Torres Strait Regional Authority.