t is autumn in Ca& Terence Murray Senior married Elhen berra, Australia's Fitzgerald, daughter of James national capital, and - Fitzgerald of Movida, Co. Limerick.7~0 the millions of exotic 15 year old Denis Murray and his of her sisters also married two brothers trees and bushesthat mother survived thls debacle and fled of Terence Murray. If it was not enovllgh have been planted to Limerick under the protection of to have one lot of rebels and romantics are changing colour General Patrick Sarsfield. Denis settled in the family, Ellen brought the genes in a profusion of gold, brownand red in the Barony of Lower Connelloe, mar- of another set into Terence Aubrey's. leaves. This European landscape exists ried a Miss Creagh, and they had five Terence Murray Senior remembered within a wider Australian one of sons. One of these sons Thomas Mur- having to hold a latern to enable a sur- eucalyptus and blue-grey hills in bright ray of Balliston, married Bridget geon to amputate his father's leg after sunny vistas, yetthe marriage ofthe old O'Brien, and theirson,Terence, wasthe he had been injured in the Rebellion of and the new, the indigenous and the father of Terence Aubrey Murray, pas- 1798. Although determined to make his exotic, works in harmony. toralist and politician of New South own way in life, he always remembered Terence Aubrey Murray, a pioneer of Wales. the injustice his family had suffered these parts, would have been pleased because he was a transplant from Limerick, who had taken root in this dry and ancient land, and, while his heart might have remained in Ireland, he put his mind and his talents to work in developing the new Australian natlon. And harmony was what he sought bet- ween English, Irish and Scots, Catholic and Protestant, with opportunity for all to make what they wanted of them- selves. His aristocratic bearing belied his democratic spirit, although he was not always consistent, but what politician is? + Murray IS a romantlc figure. As a young man of nineteen, he was sent out Into the bush, at the very frontier of civilisation in southern New South Wales, to hack out a pastoral holding for his father, Captain Murray, with only a party of assigned convict servants to help him. He worked hard, driven by family loyalty and a desire to rebuild its fortunes in a new country and, In time, became a magistrate and then the dis- trict's first member of parliament in 1843. He held m~nisterialoffice in the governments of New South Wales, almost became Premier and then set- tled for the position of Speaker of the House of Assembly and, finally, Presi- dent of the Legdative Council. He was knighted in 1869. Two of his talented sons became famous in their own right: Sir Hubert Murray becoming Lt. Governor and Administrator of the Australian Territory of Papua for 32 years, and Gilbert Murray O.M., a clas- sical scholar and disciple of world peace. Like all men, Terence Murray was a product of the myths and legends of his family's past. In his case, the Murray's story was both romantic and tragic. Of Scottish origin, the Murrays had been ardent Royalists, and held estates in Terence Aubrey Murray in 1850. Murray (40) was then the owner of Yarralumla and Winderradeen, two Antrim and Derry.They supported King large pastoral properties in southern New South Wales. He was also the district's first Member of Parlia- Jarnes II, and lost six sons at the Battle ment He was subsequently Speaker of the NSW4egqlative Assembly and President of the Legislative of the Boyne, and all their estates; only Council until his death in 1873. He was knightedin 1869. '-^ because of their loyalty to Ireland and the Catholic faith. He entered the British Army and became paymaster to the 2nd Brigade of Foot Guards in December, 1811. He went to Portugal and advanced with the Army through Spain and France before returning to England. He trans- ferred to the 48th Regiment of Foot in 1815, and joined them at the Naos bar- racks, Subsequently, he sailed with the Regiment from Cork on 22nd March, 1817, for Sydney, New South Wales. Several years later he was posted to lndia and then returned to London seeking permission to retire on half- pay. Then, on hearing that half-pay officers were being urged to settle in New South Wales, he resolved to return there. His wife was dead and he, at 50, had his children's future to think of. Captain Murray sailed for New South Wales with his sixteen year old son, Terence Aubrey, and his daughter, Anna Maria, aged eighteen, on the Elizabeth from Portsmouth on 26 November 1826. Soon after arriving in Sydney, the Captain leased Erskine Park, to the west of the town, while looking about for a grant of land for himself to which he was entitled as a retired military officer. On 20th September, 1827, Captain Murray was given permission to take possession of 2,560 acres of land, but unfortunately the land he selected in the Southern Tablelands of NSW in 1828 had already been promised to another. He did not discover this until after he had despatched his son Ter- ence and a party of assigned convict servants to clear the land, plant crops and pasture stock. He was unwittingly trespassing on a grant made earlier to James Meehan, the Deputy Surveyor- Captain Terence Murray. He arrived in New South Wales in 1817 as paymaster of the 48th Regiment and General, who was an ex-convict, trans- remained untilhe wasposted to lndia in 1825. He retired to Englandsuffering ill-health butreturned to New ported in l800 for his minor part in the South Wales in 1827 with his son, Terence, to take advantage of a colonial offer of free land to officers who Irish rebellion of 1798. Captain Murray agreed to settle in NSW. He and his son establishedapropertyat Collector, where he was buried after his had no option but to remove his men death in Sydney in 1835. and select another parcel of land in the Southern Tablelands, but within six months of his men developing a prop- erty at Mangamore he was told to quit Captain Murray had earlier given the family property while his father yet again. An acrimonious correspon- his daughter Anna Maria a dowry of remained in Sydney at Erskine Park. dence with the Colonial Secretary fol- that amounfon her marriageto Captain Terence built a small stone homestead lowed but before he chose another site George Bunn, but the opportunity was on a rise beside the track to Goulburn for his grant, his other son, Dr. James too good to pass up and he agreed to and near permanent water, always a Fitzgerald Murray, aged 23, arrived in give his younger son a flock of sheep, consideration in the dry inland areas of Sydney from Portsmouth on the cows and horses said to be worth more New South Wales. The building still Elizabeth. than that value. stands today and is a private residence The father and two sons then rode off Subsequently, in 1829, the father and within the village of Collector that has into the new country south west of Syd- son's adjoining grants, totalling 3,840 grown up beside the Goulburn Road. ney to find and nominate not one, but acres, were established at Collector, Alone, save for the company of his four sites for the Surveyor-General to north of Lake George and about 150 convict servants, Terence Murray read consider. As compensation for the dis- miles from Sydney. In the same year and re-read the classical books he had locations, he had twice been forced to Dr. James Murray took up an appoint- brought with him from Ireland, and suffer, Governor Darling offered to ment at the Civic Hospital, The Rocks, developed a particular interest in grant Murray's son, Terence, an addi- on the western side of Sydney Cove. philosophy and science This interest, tional 1,280 acres on condition that he Terence Murray, 19 years of age and and his boyhood experiences in Ireland, - was supplied with capital of one six feet four inches in height,-W%" -.-led him to reject some of the dogmas of thousand pounds. given the responsibility of managing the Catholic Church and turn him towards Unitarianism although he was to end his days in the Anglican Church. the majority of Murray's assigned convicts were Catholics and Irish, as was John Hurley, a free man from Limerick, who had arrived in NSW with a letter of introduction to Terence's father. Hurley later became an inn- keeper outside Sydney and a success- ful pastoralist. Terence kept a journal during these days in the bush, but was to destroy it years later on the grounds that it revealed the 'utter inanity of an event- less existence'. Within four wars of settling at Col- lector, Terence and his father were able to purchase additional land from the Crown: a necessity since free grants to gentlemen with capital and retired officers had been discontinued, Ter- ence built a second Homegtead over- looking Lake George which he called Ajamatong, after the Aboriginal name for the area' By this time, Sir Richard Bourke of Limerick had succeeded Darling as Governor of New South Wales and Captain Murray called upon his fellow officer and Limerick man, to present his son, Terence. Afterwards, Terence was appointed a magistrate for the lawless southern districts, then infested with runaway convicts turned bushrangers.