A Fascinating Life in Clubs and Politics

“There’s a Board meeting at the Labor Club and they want you there.”

The voice belonged to an old football colleague and Labor Party associate who had hastily tracked down Ken by phoning his wife.

After ripping off his pads, the lower-grade cricketer was whisked down the road to the Labor Club’s premises — still dressed in “dirty old shorts and a t-shirt” — where the Board had gathered following the recent passing of their President.

“And they said, ‘well, we have to get a replacement for him (on the Board) and we've decided here that you're going to be it’,” Ken reflects on the latest episode of the ClubLife Podcast.

“It was the shock of my life — I went out to cricket practice and came home a member of the Labor Club!”

The offer to join the Board began a proud 42-year association with the institution later known as The Randwick Club.

Ken served as President for 38 of those years until his retirement aged 80 in 2023, overseeing decades of innovation and holding a front-row seat to many defining moments in NSW Labor Party history.

He was also former NSW Premier Bob Carr’s campaign director for the Maroubra state electorate for more than 20 years and moved in the same circles as other political luminaries such as Bob Hawke, Gough Whitlam, Paul Keating, Neville Wran and Peter Garrett.

Born in Alexandria in 1942, Ken moved to Maroubra aged six when his father Henry bought land and built the family home after winning the second draw of the newly increased £12,000 NSW lottery. Ken still lives within a kilometre of where he grew up.

The windfall also enabled Henry to establish the HG Murray transport business and meant Ken was able to receive a Catholic education at De La Salle College, Coogee.

Politics weren’t discussed at length around the Murray dinner table, but Ken was raised in a firmly pro-Labor household.

“It was just sacrosanct that they supported the Labor Party,” Ken says of his parents.

“They were working-class people.”

However, Ken’s first real exposure to politics came on Sydney’s rough-and-tumble waterfront in the 1960s, first working on the wharves in a clerical role before being enticed into a career change. 

“I could see there were people coming down there with nice suits on and driving nice cars,” Ken says.

“I made an enquiry and they were union officials. They ran the stop-work meetings, day shift only. And I thought to myself, this is a step up from what I'm doing with shift work. I enquired… ‘how do you become a union official?’

“Well, I was advised, first thing you must do is join the Labor Party.”

That he did around 1966, when Carr was secretary of his local Maroubra branch, setting in motion a fascinating journey intersecting the club and political worlds.

As well as sharing compelling personal anecdotes involving Carr, Hawke and Whitlam, Ken explains how he set The Randwick Club up financially by shrewdly investing in property at a time when it wasn’t commonplace for clubs to diversify their income.

“When I started off as President, we had an asset value of $6 million,” he says.

“When I retired in 2023, it was $55 million.”

Ken also oversaw amalgamations with two nearby clubs — the Randwick Bowling Club (now known as The Avenue Randwick) in 2010 and the Coogee Bowling Club (now known as the Coogee Beach Club) in 2017 — which proved prudent.

Two years after Ken’s departure, the tough call was made to close the doors of The Randwick Club to ensure the future viability of the Randwick Group of Clubs.

“I can see the predicament they were in, and if I was there, I would have had to make the same decision,” Ken says.

“And they didn't sell everything … so there's still an income coming in. They’re now operating through the two bowling clubs. 

“The Club will live on in those two venues.”

Now 83 and sharp as ever, Ken remains an active part of the Eastern Suburbs community, often swimming at Coogee Beach or attending the Randwick races.

Click on the link below to hear the full interview with Ken Murray in Episode 24 of the ClubLife Podcast, which is also available via ClubLife.com.au, Apple, Spotify and wherever else you get your podcasts.

If you have a suggestion on who might make an interesting guest for a future ClubLife Podcast episode, get in touch with the team by emailing [email protected].