Terence Aubrey Murray

Sir Terence Aubrey Murray (10 May 1810 – 22 June 1873) was an Irish-Australian pastoralist, parliamentarian and knight of the realm. He had the double distinction of being, at separate times, both the Speaker of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and the President of the New South Wales Legislative Council. From 1837 to 1859 he owned the Yarralumla estate, which now serves as the official Canberra residence of the Governor-General of Australia. Early years and background Murray was born in Limerick, Ireland, into a patriotic and politically aware Roman Catholic family. His mother, Ellen Murray (née Fitzgerald), died at Saint-Omer in France in 1812, when Terence was still a child. His father, also named Terence, served as a paymaster in the British Army, enjoying the commissioned rank of captain. Young Terence had two older siblings, Dr James Fitzgerald Murray (who trained as a surgeon), and poet, Anna Maria Murray (who married farmer and grazier George Bunn, of Braidwood, New South Wales). Paymaster Captain Terence Murray (1781–1835) had travelled with his regiment on a posting to the Australian colony of New South Wales in 1817 and later, in 1825, to India. In 1827, Captain Murray, then a single father, decided to move permanently to New South Wales with Anna-Maria and Terence Aubrey, to take advantage of the free land grants being made to military officers by the colonial government. They arrived in Sydney in April 1827 on the Elizabeth and leased a house at Erskine Park as a temporary measure. Capt. Murray's eldest son, James Fitzgerald, joined them after he finished medical school. Around 1829, Murray acquired his first farming and grazing land near the village of Collector, south-west of Sydney. His main property was situated alongside Lake George. He called it Winderradeen. Murray added to his country estates in 1837 when he purchased another large sheep-grazing property, Yarralumla, on the Limestone Plains (in what is now the Australian Capital Territory). Today, Yarralumla is the site of the official residence of the Governor-General of Australia. Murray also acquired the Coolamine outstation, where he could graze his sheep in cooler conditions during the hot summer months.