A. B. Murray

Alexander Borthwick Murray (14 February 1816 – 17 March 1903) was a Scottish-born sheep breeder and parliamentarian in the early days of South Australia.

Murray was born at Langshall Burn, in the parish of Eskdalemuir, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. After spending six years acclimatizing Cheviot sheep to the highlands of Inverness and Ross-shire he emigrated as a full fare-paying passenger in the Lady Lillford to South Australia, arriving at Holdfast Bay on 27 September 1839.

He was contracted by Sir James Malcolm, a distant relative, to assist his eldest son William Oliver Malcolm (died 19 August 1865) in the care of sheep on his Barossa property, where he worked for fifteen months with considerable success, got them into such fine order that they took a prize at the first pastoral show in South Australia. This exhibition was held at the Horseshoe (Noarlunga), under the auspices of the South Australian Company. In 1842 he married Charlotte Murthwaite Scott in Sydney, and on his return with his new wife and her sister (who later married brother P. M. Murray), began wheat farming on the property "Murray Vale" he had purchased by "special survey" at Mount Crawford. His efforts were met with problems of smut, cost of transport to the mill at Kent Town, and low prices brought about by the then recession, and he decided wheat farming was not for him. The sheep, cattle and horses he bred at Murray Vale were successfully exhibited at country shows.

In partnership with his sister-in-law (afterwards Mrs. P. M. Murray), Murray purchased merino ewes and a ram from Duncan McFarlane, of Mount Barker which had been bred in New South Wales by James and Duncan McFarlane. These sheep formed the nucleus of the celebrated Murray flocks. His brother, John Murray, who arrived in South Australia on 5 September 1841, purchased part of his brother's land in the Barossa and half of his brother's share of the livestock.

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