Last name:   MURRAY
First name:   JOHN
Gender:   M
Age:   65
Date of death:   04-05-1916
Date of service:   05-05-1916

Grave Location

Area:   PRESBYTERIAN
Row:   31
Grave number:   001
Location:   PRS 31 001
ID: 21339

Interments at location

Notes of interest

A significant grave site and memorial at the Warrnambool Cemetery is that of John Murray, Warrnambool’s most influential and important politician. He was the member for Warrnambool for 32 years and Premier of Victoria from 1909 to 1912.

Despite a background in squatting and pastoral pursuits, John Murray found his sympathies lay with the middle and working class people. He believed that equality for all could be achieved be government legislation that would break down class distinctions and develop a fairer society than that he had found in England.

Murray’s legacy was more enduring than that of being an effective Parliamentarian as his supporters, including Irish small farmers, factory workers, aborigines, women suffragists, teachers and small-salaried town workers, appreciated his efforts to make Victoria and the world a more democratic place.

Among his achievements as a prominent local politician, John Murray was responsible for ensuring that the Framlingham Aboriginal Settlement continued after the Aboriginal Board decided to close Framlingham and relocate the aborigines to Lake Condah. During the 1890s Murray continued to fight for better conditions for the aborigines at Framlingham. In 1910 as Premier, Murray was able to reverse an 1816 law which refused rations and clothing to part-aborigines at Framlingham.

Upon his death in 1916, John Murray was given a State Funeral and is buried in the Warrnambool Cemetery. He was a great man who loved the Warrnambool district.

Source: Warrnambool Historical Society

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