Also Known AsIan Athol MurrayOne-shot MurrayAdditional InformationIan Athol Murray was born in Toowoomba in 1921. He grew up on the family property near Bell and was educated at Toowoomba Prep and Toowoomba Grammar. When World War II broke out, Ian was working as a jackaroo at various places around Queensland.
In 1941 Ian and a friend set off for Brisbane to enlist in the navy. They stopped for a beer en route at Wyreema on the Darling Downs and met a recruiting officer for the RAAF and they changed tack and signed up to become airmen.
A year later, Ian started training in Sydney and flew his first solo in a Tiger Moth in November 1942. In August 1944 he was posted to 455 RAAF Squadron, based at Dallachy, North Scotland. Flying as a single pilot with the Coastal Command Beaufighters, he and navigator Don Mitchell carried out attacks on enemy shipping in Norwegian waters, flying in formation, 60 to 70 planes at or below 50 feet, to escape German radar.
On one strike, after bombing a ship in Sognefjord, Ian was intercepted by six German fighter planes. After dodging the enemy fighters for 10 minutes by hugging the sides of the fjord, he was able to escape, but Ian then discovered he had no instrument panel and no radio receiver. Ian and Don managed to fly the crippled plane back to their Scottish base, where they made a dangerous but successful belly landing at more than 200 miles per hour.
After the war, Ian returned to Australia and settled on a property at Texas (Queensland) where he raised a family with his English-born wife. Ian became active in the Graziers’ Association, the Cattlemen’s Union and local politics as an Inglewood councillor.
He was a single man again when a young nurse, Judith, recently returned from working overseas, took up an appointment at the Texas hospital, where Ian served as a board member. It transpired that Ian’s parents and Judith’s had owned adjoining properties at Bell, so Ian introduced himself to Judith, offering her a lift to Toowoomba, if ever she should need one. They started seeing each other and fell in love.
They were married in 1974 and stayed on in Texas until 1980 when Ian sold the property and the couple moved to a holiday home at Little Cove in Noosa that Judith’s parents had built in 1959.
Ian started taking photographs at Texas for the agricultural show and became more serious about photography after moving to Noosa. He created a darkroom so he could print his pictures at home in the evenings. He met Julie Lake from the Noosa News and started doing jobs for the paper.
Ian’s wife describes that “It was perfect for Ian because he was a watcher, not a mixer. He rarely left home without his camera. Even when he was in care in his final years he’d have his camera by the bedside and take photos of the TV screen, just to keep his eye in. And he loved taking photos of the staff, in fact he was still taking photos the week before he died.”
Ian was known for his ability to capture the moment in just one frame, earning him his nickname: One-Shot Murray. As his wife describes: “He had an artistic eye, so he’d compose the picture in his head, press the shutter once and save on film. He was Scottish, you see.” Ian is also remembered for his humour, which often came out in the funny captions that appear on some of his photos.
Ian passed away just shy of his 99th birthday in 2020.
Images from his photographic collection that appear on Heritage Noosa have been donated to Noosa Council.
SOURCES:
Interview with Judith Murray, October 2021
Jarrett, Phil, Remembering ‘One-Shot’, 5 December 2021, Noosa Today
