People Australia

Qld shearers strike leaders, 1893 [Murphy is seated at the right end of front row]

State Library of Qld, 64845

Daniel ('Smiling Dan') Murphy (1858-1936) 

Birth: 1858 in Cork, Ireland, son of Daniel Murphy, labourer later farmer at Helidon, Queensland, and Catherine, née McAuliffe. Marriage: 15 August 1916 in Brisbane, Queensland, to Johanna Mary Curran. Death: 14 January 1936 at Brisbane hospital. Religion: Catholic. 

• Arrived in Queensland about 1862.
• Active in Queensland Shearers' Union during the shearers’ strike. Assaulted by manager of Retro station at Clermont in February 1891, taking successful court proceedings against assailant, who received a £5 fine. Was arrested, with others, in March 1891 for engaging in 'riot' at Clermont. Committed to Rockhampton Circuit Court, but discharged for lack of evidence. Arrested, with others, in connection with Peak Downs 'riot' in March 1891. Convicted at Clermont on charge of molesting hired servants and sentenced to three months imprisonment.
• Convicted at Rockhampton on 30 April 1891 of rioting at Peak Downs station, on 20 May he was sentenced by Judge George Harding to three years imprisonment with hard labour.
• Prison records on his admission to St Helena Island gaol describe him [wrongly] as a native of Queensland, able to read and write, stout, 5 feet 9 inches (152.4 cm) in height with a fresh complexion, brown hair and brown eyes and a long scar on his right thigh. He received numerous cautions in prison for disobedience or disorderly conduct and one sentence of 48 hours half rations. He was released from gaol in November 1893.
• He worked as a labourer at Mountain View, near Winton in the early 1900s; later lived at Paddington, in Brisbane.
• Was a pensioner in 1936. Cause of death arteriosclerosis and cerebral hemorrhage.

Resources
Stuart Svensen, The Shearers' War: the story of the 1891 shearers' strike (Brisbane, 1989).