Scotch College

Country lifestyle just fine for Ian Murray

A busy career in sales and marketing has given way to an idyllic country lifestyle for an Old Boy of ’56.

Words: DAVID ASHTON

It’s a great life for Ian Murray (’56), who now lives on a two-hectare property in the beautiful little Gippsland hamlet of Childers (population 10), about two hours’ drive from Melbourne.

But life hasn’t always been so serene for Ian. After leaving Scotch, he worked as a cadet executive at Nicholas (Aspro) in Chadstone, working with other old boys such as Ian Law in sales administration. In those days Ian Law was a very talented rover and wingman with Hawthorn. Also in the department was Athol Guy. Athol wanted time off to sing, but the boss advised him to settle down and work in a career. He saw his future elsewhere, and went on to sing all over the world with the highly successful Seekers.

Ian Murray’s future took shape in accounting and the sales and marketing of ethical and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals in Melbourne, then Sydney, then Newcastle, with Papua New Guinea as his ‘country’ territory.

In 1963 he was appointed to manage the Nicholas assembly plant in Jakarta, Indonesia, taking the operation from one product to a range of tablets, capsules, injectibles and creams. This proved quite a challenge. The Australian plant was the last foreign asset to be nationalised by President Sukarno and the first to be reinstated by Adam Malik, the Foreign Minister in the then new Suharto regime.

‘Among all this tension many amusing events regularly took place,’ Ian told Great Scot, ‘and I sum up my time in Indonesia as very beneficial. I really liked the people’. He set up joint ventures with USA-based multinationals and created export opportunities for Melbourne’s CSL and others.

‘My help with legislation and regulations to enable remittance of the resulting profits to be converted from rupiahs to dollars was my most satisfying achievement,’ he says. Ian was honoured as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his work in international relations.

He later headed up multinational pharmaceutical companies based in Singapore and Malaysia, covering South-East Asia and Africa.

These days, via the internet, he keeps up with what’s happening in Australia, New Zealand, and in particular Vietnam and China, and swears by the dietary supplements he’s been using lately. ‘I’ve never felt better since using these supplements. I have loads of energy and I’m not far off 70 years of age.’

Ian’s very happy in Childers. ‘It’s north of Wilsons Promontory, located in the Strzelecki Ranges. It has no shops, plenty of cattle and sheep, specialty foods, soothing rural views and clear fresh air. The native bird life is stunning, and there are no worrying mosquitoes or other insects.

‘Red Flanders poppies bloom each year around the dam in memory of our father, Lt John W Murray, who served in World War I, and an ancient Wollemi pine has been planted in memory of our mother, Edith.’

The green hills of Childers form part of the crest of the recently commissioned HMAS Childers, a Royal Australian Navy patrol boat, which operates with 13 others across the north of Australia. A previous HMVS Childers torpedo boat was commissioned by the Victorian Navy during colonial days in 1885. ‘It was named after Hugh Childers, Treasurer of Victoria at the time,’ Ian says. GS