Barry Alan Murphy is a former Australian politician.

Murphy was born in Bairnsdale

Bairnsdale, Victoria

Bairnsdale is a small city in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. With a population at the 2006 census of 11,282, it is a major regional centre of eastern Victoria along with Traralgon and Sale....

 to labourer Alan George Murphy and Nancy Loisa Eastwood. He attended local state schools before becoming an apprentice butcher from 1953 to 1958. In 1960 he became a form setter with the State Electricity Commission at Morwell

Morwell, Victoria

-Transport:The main form of transport in Morwell is the automobile. The Princes Freeway now bypasses the town to the south while the old Princes Highway which once passed through east-west through its centre is now Princes Drive and Commercial Road. The highway connects Morwell with other...

. On 11 February 1961 he married Denielle Hughes, with whom he would have two children; that year he also joined the Morwell branch of the Australian Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

. He served in the Citizen Military Forces from 1961 to 1966 and was branch vice-president of the Federated Engine Drivers' and Firemen's Association from 1964 to 1967. In 1970 he was appointed country organiser of the Victorian Labor Party, leaving in 1973 to become a contractor for Victorian Railways

Victorian Railways

The Victorian Railways operated railways in the Australian state of Victoria from 1859 to 1983. The first railways in Victoria were private companies, but when these companies failed or defaulted, the Victorian Railways was established to take over their operations...

. He sat on Morwell Shire Council from 1968 to 1971 and was chairman of the Mcmillan federal electorate

Division of McMillan

The Division of McMillan is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Victoria. It is located in the western part of the Gippsland region, which extends for the length of Victoria's eastern Bass Strait coastline. It includes the outer south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Pakenham, and also...

 assembly in 1979. In 1982 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council

Victorian Legislative Council

The Victorian Legislative Council, is the upper of the two houses of the Parliament of Victoria, Australia; the lower house being the Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit in Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The Legislative Council serves as a house of review, in a similar fashion to...

 for Gippsland Province; he resigned from the Labor Party in 1988 and was defeated for the Legislative Assembly

Victorian Legislative Assembly

The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the Parliament of Victoria in Australia. Together with the Victorian Legislative Council, the upper house, it sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Melbourne.-History:...

 seat of Morwell

Electoral district of Morwell

The Electoral district of Morwell is an electoral district of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. It covers the regional centres of Morwell and Traralgon as well as the surrounding rural areas in the middle of Gippsland....

 as an independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

.