He was born in Warracknabeal to farmer Michael Thomas Bourke and Lucy, née Powell.
He left school in 1942 to help his mother run their farm (his father had died in 1939).
He married Ida Jean Brewster on 15 July 1953, and served on Warracknabeal Shire Council from 1955 to 1976 (as president in 1959 and 1967).
[1] Bourke continued in this role until his collapse at a wheat board meeting in 1982.
He died of a dissecting aneurysm on 13 October 1982 in South Melbourne, and was buried in Warracknabeal.