On 1 July 2015, during the annual Victoria Day celebrations, she was named Victorian of the Year for her services to music and a range of charities.
[2] She spent summer holidays at her family's weatherboard house (which since has been demolished) on the west side of Durham Place in Rosebud.
From early 1950, the family lived in Taroona, a suburb of Hobart, where Durham attended the Fahan School before moving back to Melbourne, residing in Georgian Court, Balwyn, in 1956.
[4] Durham at first planned to be a pianist and gained the qualification of Associate in Music, Australia (AMusA), in classical piano at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium.
[5] She had some professional engagements playing piano, had classical vocal training as a soprano, and performed blues, gospel, and jazz pieces.
[5] The Seekers consisted of Durham, Athol Guy, Bruce Woodley, and Keith Potger, an ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corp.) radio producer.
[12] On 12 March 1967, the Seekers set an official all-time Australian record when more than 200,000 people (nearly one tenth of the city's entire population at that time) flocked to their performance at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, Australia.
[14] Their last concert before Durham left the band was on a live BBC production on 7 July, where they performed many of their all-time hits.
During her solo career, she released albums titled For Christmas with Love, Gift of Song and Climb Ev'ry Mountain.
She performed six songs; "Oh Susanna", "When Starlight Fades", "Maggie Mae", "Rock of Ages", "There's No Place Like Home" and "The Lord Is My Shepherd".
the Australian National Anthem; the Aboriginal singer/songwriter Kutcha Edwards also contributed lyrics,[23] Durham first performed it in May 2009 at Federation Hall, St Kilda Road.
This project was to benefit charities working with the Lord Mayor's Charitable Fund, including Orchestra Victoria and the Motor Neurone Disease Association of Australia[26] (Durham was national patron).
George Ash, president of Universal Music Australasia, said that "It is an honour to have Judith Durham join Decca's wonderful roster of artists.
[30] On 21 November 1969, Durham married her musical director, British pianist Ron Edgeworth,[31] at Scots' Church in Melbourne.
[37] In 2000, Durham broke her hip and was unable to sing "The Carnival Is Over" at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney with the Seekers.
[38] In May 2013, during the Seekers' golden jubilee tour, Durham suffered a stroke that diminished her ability to read and write both visual language and musical scores.
[46] In the Salvation Army War Cry magazine of November 12, 2016, she revealed more information on her beliefs and spirituality, and added that her "love songs were for the Lord."
"Judith describes herself as a deeply spiritual person with a proud belief in the love of God and Jesus Christ,[46] and feels that many of the songs of her long career reflect that reality.
For me, to this day, God and the Lord are real and I feel safe and nurtured by that ever-present reality…..” [48] She also posted: "A couple of years later, after we moved to Hobart, we started going to "Sunday School" and I learned to sing.
[49] Durham was born with asthma and at age four caught measles, which left her with a life-long chronic lung disease, bronchiectasis.
At the 2022 ARIA Music Awards a special tribute in her honour will have "I'll Never Find Another You" performed by Casey Donovan and "The Carnival Is Over" by Dami Im.