[1] Murray was born in Mount Lawley in 1950, and grew up in the eastern Perth suburb of Guildford in the Swan Valley.
His father, Keith Murray, was a journalist at The West Australian for a decade from 1948[2] and his older brother Kim was a reporter at the Daily News.
[3] He initially studied geology at the University of Western Australia, then worked as a mine geologist in Kalgoorlie before changing career.
[3][4] He took a cadetship at The West Australian in 1970 and through the 1970s worked variously from its Fremantle, Kalgoorlie, Perth, Sydney and Melbourne offices.
He quit The West ten years later to become a morning talk-back announcer on Perth commercial radio station, 6PR, before leaving in 2006 over a contract-renewal disagreement (he rejoined in 2011).