When Gisborne’s Elaine Murphy was asked how she felt when she heard she’d been appointed a member of the Order of Australia, she said “overwhelmed”.
“It’s the last thing in the world I ever expected to have happened,” she said.
Ms Murphy received an Order of Australia medal (OAM) for her service to education and the arts.
She started her teaching career 50 years ago in the Mallee region of Victoria in 1973, at Birchip Primary School. From 1980 until 2009, Ms Murphy worked as a junior, middle and senior teacher at Swan Hill Primary School, and served as assistant principal from 2009 to 2011.
Her career in community arts has been expansive too, taking on various leadership positions at the Swan Hill Theatre Group up until 2011, as well as organising local eisteddfods and teaching at Swan Hill Highland Dancing Group where she was a life member.
All in all, she spent 40 years in education before retiring in the Macedon Ranges.
When she arrived, she enmeshed herself in the local theatre community, and has been a member of Macedon’s Mount Players Theatre Group and the Kyneton Theatre Company since 2011.
“Everything I’ve done has been in supporting others in their learning and that’s really important to me, and we just need to keep doing that as a community – it’s so rewarding,” she said.
“[It’s all about] getting in and helping where you can, using the skills you have to help other people I think is [important].”
Despite so many successes, when asked what she felt her greatest achievement was to date, she said “having my four daughters”.
Ms Murphy said her husband, Gary, was proud of her.
“You can only do these things when you’ve got the support of your family. He’s been incredibly supportive… the girls have been amazingly supportive too,” she said.
“That’s allowed me to help other people.”
Elsie Lange
