Born in Nambour, Queensland, Murphy was the youngest of nine children and went to an all boys Catholic school, St Joseph's Nudgee College.
[2] Murphy married Gwendoline May Butcher in 1959 and one year later went on to teach in the United Kingdom coaching a senior cricket team until he returned to Brisbane in 1961.
[1] In 1966, Denis Murphy began his career as a tertiary educator and worked at the University of Queensland (UQ) as a tutor in Australian History.
[3] Costar and Saunders note that Murphy acquired this position after "completing a masters' qualifying thesis on Queensland's state enterprises".
[2] Two years later, as Murphy became increasingly active in the Australian Labor Party (ALP), he subsequently joined the Queensland Central Executive.
[2] Bradley Bowden attributes Murphy's rise to his heavy involvement in the Australian Labor Party as he received access to archives by the State Secretary at the time, Tom Burns.
[2] Whilst at UQ, Murphy oversaw an increase in learning opportunities within the history department as enrolments were raised 96 to 870 in 3 years by his efforts.
[4] Bradley Bowden recounts that, during this period, Murphy was also Chair of the Departmental Assembly at UQ as well as Queensland Central Executive member and "Labor's candidate in the 1972 federal election".
[4] Critics scrutinised Murphy's publications at one point due to an "absence of theory... and providing syntheses of the work of others without checking its veracity".
[2] During this time Murphy led a push for a restructure in the ALP and attained a pilots license in order to fly statewide to share his message.
"[1] A story in the Sydney Morning Herald stated that "Murphy believes that the reforms he is seeking are the only way future historians will be able to talk about Labor in Power''.
[2] Albanese claims that Murphy positioned the ALP to overcome the problems caused by Joh Bjelke-Petersen, the conservative premier at the time.
[2] Not long after his election into the Liberal Seat of Stafford in 1983, Denis Murphy was diagnosed with an unspecified cancer and was ill for eight months before he died on the 21st of June 1984.
[5] The Sydney Morning Herald reports that in Mr Beattie's speech he said "As a close personal friend of Denis Murphy I want to pay strongest possible tribute to him on behalf of the Labor Movement and the people of Queensland.
"[7] After Beattie's speech, over 200 delegates attending the conference stood together and bowed their heads in a minutes silence to pay respects to Murphy.
[8] After Murphy's death, a number of tributes were made to commemorate his life and the work that he did during his time as an historian and Labor Politician.
[9] The dedication was co-authored by a number of Murphy's former colleagues at the University of Queensland such as Kay Saunders, Murray Johnson and Brian Costar.