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of cancer on 1 September 1993. He was survived by his widow, Tricia, and two sons, Rennison and Carl and
stepchildren Jo-Ann, Rodney and Peter. A service according to the rites of the Anglican Church was held at Christ
Church Cathedral, Darwin. He was cremated at Thorak cemetery and his ashes returned to Melbourne. A memorial
was erected at the Bees Creek property where his work still continues.
During the sittings of the Legislative Assembly on 21 October 1993 the Chief Minister, Marshall Perron,
paid tribute to Renn’s work, saying: ‘He had personal knowledge of what alcohol abuse can do to a person and a
family... He did not start with a round of community consultation leading to yet another submission asking for a
government grant. Renn Murray used whatever money he could earn to offer a cup of coffee, food and a caring
word to people whom most of us do not choose to pass the time of day with. He was that rare human being, a man
who did not lecture and did not censure. He cared genuinely about people and realised the value of a kind word
and a little caring and sharing to those who really need it’.
Centralian Advocate, 9 December 1988; family information; Northern Territory News, 9 December 1986, 7 December 1988, 13 December
1988, 9 June 1990, 21 June 1990, 3 September 1993, 15 November 1993, 3 April 1995; Northern Territory Parliamentary Record, 14 October
1993, 21 October 1993; Sunday Territorian, 24 March 1985.
TRICIA FOURRO-MURRAY and HELEN J WILSON, Vol 3.
MURRAY, WILLIAM GEORGE (1884–196?), policeman, was born at Yark in Victoria in 1884, the son of
William Henry Murray and wife Mary Jane, nee Mills. He served in the Australian Imperial Force during the First
World War, winning renown as a marksman at Gallipoli and being discharged in 1919 as a Sergeant. He joined
the Northern Territory police in 1919, being posted almost immediately to Rankine River. In subsequent years in
postings at Lake Nash and Arltunga he built up a reputation of being tough and effective. Tall and powerfully built,
he enjoyed the often harsh outback life.
In 1926, he was appointed Constable in charge of the Barrow Creek police station, a position that carried with
it the title of Chief Protector of Aborigines.
In August, September and October 1928 he led three patrols to bring to ‘justice’ Warlpiri Aborigines who
had killed the pastoralist Fred Brooks on Coniston Station. Thirty-one Aboriginal people were later officially
acknowledged as being killed during these expeditions but the real number was at least twice that figure. Men,
women and children were shot without discrimination. Wounded Aborigines were chained to trees and left to die.
Two Aborigines Murray arrested were later tried in Darwin and acquitted.
On 13 December 1928, following widespread national criticism of what became known as the ‘Coniston
Massacre’, the federal government appointed a board of three to inquire into Murray’s actions. The board concluded
on 7 February 1929 that the patrols and shootings were justified. Murray was hailed among some as ‘the hero of
Central Australia’, but there were many other observers who condemned the board’s methods and findings.
Soon after the inquiry, Murray was posted away from Barrow Creek ‘for further training’. He died in Adelaide
during the 1960s, survived by his wife. An admiring Sidney Downer wrote in his history of the Northern Territory
Police that ‘he successfully conducted the final war between white men and Aborigines in Central Australia’.
Among the Warlpiri, however, Murray was vividly recalled as a vicious murderer. For them the ‘Coniston Massacre’
is the ‘time of killing’.
J Cribbin, The Killing Times, 1984; S Downer, Patrol Indefinite, 1963; J & P Read, ‘A View of the Past’, 1980, Northern Territory University
Library.
DAVID CARMENT, Vol 1.