Peter Murray was one of the great figures in the community life of western Queensland through the last half century.
His was a public career of quiet achievement, totally committed to making his part of the world a better place by striving for steady progress.
Peter was born in 1923, the son of Norman and Everil (Ril) Murray of Beaconsfield, Ilfracombe.
Beaconsfield was one of the great original stations of the central west, and in 1911 it had been acquired from the Fairbairn family by Peter's grandfather, John Murray.
From modest beginnings as the son of a coachman in Scotland, John Murray had done well in Australia. He came with his family to the Victorian goldfields in 1852, and a few years later made his way to the Rockhampton district, where he prospered in mining, pastoral and sugar ventures.
In 1879, the Murray tradition of service to local government began when John became a member of the first Gogango Divisional Board. Then, between 1888 and 1913, he was a member firstly of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, then the Legislative Council. For several years he was Minister for Railways and Public Instruction.
The Honourable John Murray instilled into his family the ethic that Australia had been good to the Murrays, and in return the Murrays should be good to Australia. Grandson Peter kept that trust.
John Murray's other great commitment was to the acquisition of good quality assets that his family should hold in stewardship for the future. The purchase of Beaconsfield was part of that strategy, and the Murray family stills holds the property almost a century later.
Peter's parents settled at Beaconsfield. Ril was a member of the Cory family, who had been among the first white settlers on the lower Barcoo and then the Thomson River watersheds.
She was an accomplished writer, and perhaps it was from her that Peter inherited a love of literature and a great facility to dash off an apt verse or two as commentary on the people and affairs of the day.
Peter's childhood was spent at Beaconsfield, where he recalled that one day he had been out with a horse team delving bore drains, and later that same day watched a Qantas plane land on a clay pan near the homestead. Later, he was one of the first graziers to use light aircraft, then computers, as management tools.
His schooling began at a Church of England parish boarding school in Barcaldine and continued at The Southport School. Then he had almost two years at the Dookie agricultural college in north-east Victoria.
Along the way, Norman Murray took every opportunity to ensure that Peter got a thorough grounding in all the skills that would equip him to take over Beaconsfield's management.
On his 19th birthday, Peter joined the Royal Australian Air Force. He trained as a pilot and showed such aptitude that before long he was promoted to flying instructor.
Much of his training had been on the notoriously difficult Australian Wirraway fighter, about which the old hands said: "If you can fly a Wirraway, you can fly anything".
Late in 1944, Peter was posted to the elite 75th Squadron, and in the last weeks of the war he went into action against the Japanese in Moratai and Borneo. Through the war he had been in touch with Jan Thompson, a young woman from Charleville.
Peter and Jan had met in 1940 and they were married on September 8, 1945.
Peter was discharged from the RAAF in January 1946, with the rank of flying officer.
Then he and Jan came to Beaconsfield. There they were to share the trials and joys of managing the station, first through the severe drought of the late 1940s, then through much better times in the 1950s. They put their own stamp on the historic homestead. Above all, they shared three daughters - Carolyn (Carli) born in 1947, Joanne (Jo) in 1950, and Elizabeth (Lill) in 1951.
The Murrays made Beaconsfield into a place of gracious entertainment. Their hospitality was never flamboyant but it was always stylish, as was the Murray way. Often, the entertainment was designed to introduce people to the district - people who ranged from governors of Queensland, to writers and artists, to students from far-flung countries, or newly arrived public servants.
Always the point was subtly made that Ilfracombe might be a small district, but it was a place with its own personality and its own proud record of achievement - a place where things were done without fanfare, but always to good effect.
To prove this, he would draw attention to Ilfracombe's now renowned outdoor museum and he would smilingly invite comparison with much more costly attractions in nearby places.
In 1956, Peter became a member of the Ilfracombe Shire Council. He was to serve the council for 35 unbroken years, 21 of them as chairman. They were years of steady progress - years through which Ilfracombe was transformed.
Peter Murray would have been the last to claim that he was single-handedly responsible for all the achievements of those years. He would have said that it was all due to the team of people who worked to make Ilfracombe a better place. While true, Peter formed, led and inspired that team. He nurtured the environment that made positive change possible.
He was always mindful of the threat of council amalgamation, which spurred him to prove that in local government, small could be beautiful - that little Ilfracombe could do things better and more effectively than bigger local authorities because its council was closer to its community.
He looked for continuity on the council. He would take promising young people aside and say, "You should be thinking about getting on the council".
He subtly made it clear that if you lived in a community, you had an obligation to put something back. Then, by example and by training, he showed people how they could make their most effective contributions to the place where they lived.
His contributions were not confined to his own immediate district. He served the wider region through directorships of public companies, including the Longreach Printing Company and Longreach Motor Company.
He led the Western Queensland Local Government Association, and he served on the Central Western Regional Electricity Board, as well as the regional library service.
For all these things, in 1981 Peter was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
Peter was grateful, but for him the chief gratification was the clear evidence that his efforts had made his world a better place.
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