People Australia

Jim Murphy, caricature by Dick Ovenden, 1924

Labor Call (Melbourne), 10 April 1924, p 11

James Laurence (Jim) Murphy (1860-1942) traveller, cordial manufacturer, mayor and Labor parliamentarian 

Birth: 6 May 1860 in County Cork, Ireland, son of Laurence Murphy (d.1895), farmer and clerk, and Mary, née Flynn (1833-1888). Marriage: 11 January 1892 at St Joseph’s Church, Port Melbourne, Victoria, to Margaret O'Flaherty (1863-1934), a schoolteacher born in County Tipperary, Ireland. Death: 17 February 1942 at South Melbourne. Religion: Catholic. 

• Reputedly took an active part in the land league agitation in Ireland.
• Arrived in Australia in early 1880s.
• Employed as a traveller and as a cordial manufacturer for Plummer & Murphy, South Melbourne, from about 1895 to 1918.
• City councillor, South Melbourne, for Labor from 1904 to 1942; mayor 1910-11. Associate of J. Liston and John Wren.
• Elected member of the Legislative Assembly for Port Melbourne for Labor on 1 November 1917 and held the seat until his death. Served on the Royal Commission into Fisheries 1918-1919 and on the Public Accounts Committee 1925-32.
• Secretary Fire Brigade Employees Union from about 1917 to 1942. Chairman of Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Brigade Commission, Melbourne Harbor Trust, 1910-1913.
• Founding member of South Melbourne Holy Name Society.
• Sponsored the movement to open up Fishermen’s Bend, which he prophesised would become the “Birmingham of Australia”.
• Cause of death: hypostatic broncho-pneumonia and bronchitis.

Sources
Geoff Browne Biographical register of the Victorian Parliament, 1900-84 (Melbourne, 1985); Australian Worker, 23 April 1924.