[3] He emigrated to Adelaide in 1839, and founded a drapery business in Hindley Street (at that time Adelaide's foremost shopping precinct) with George Greig as Murray, Greig, & Co. Murray married Jessie Spence, sister of Catherine Helen Spence, in 1841.

[4] In 1841, the business failed, and Murray was able to find employment as a journalist with the Southern Australian, the second newspaper to be established in South Australia.

[5] In 1844, he purchased the Southern Australian from the proprietor, Richard Blackham, and was its editor and proprietor till the exodus of workers to the gold-fields of Victoria severely strained South Australia's economy, and the South Australian, as Murray had renamed it, reverted from bi-weekly to weekly, then in July 1851 was forced to fold.

[9] He published Murray's Prices Current and an almanac book, and also traded in wines,[3] but was forced to declare insolvency in 1874.

He named his house 'Balwyn' from the Gaelic bal and the Saxon wyn, meaning 'the home of the vine'.