Retiring veteran reporter Sean Murphy looks back on 45-year career as journalist
Sean Murphy reporting on oyster farming in the Hawkesbury River. (ABC News: Oliver Junker )
Sean Murphy's big break into journalism came while catching a break at a surf beach.
He was a rising surfing talent with ambitions of becoming a journalist.
While at Trigg Point in Perth he learned the surfing columnist for the Sunday Independent newspaper was finishing up.
Seizing the opportunity, the 18-year-old submitted a handwritten article to the sports editor.
"He was this gnarly old, cliched character with a rolly [cigarette] hanging out the side of his gob and a big red nose," Murphy says.
"And he looked me up and down and he said: 'Bring it typed from now on. Thirty bucks a week. You're hired.'
Sean Murphy was a cadet reporter at the Esperance Express in 1981. (Supplied)
"And that feeling of when he said, 'You're hired'. I never lost that.
"I still feel excited when I hit send on a new story. I don't think you ever lose that if you're a story teller."
The beginning of an international journey
This passion has served Murphy well during the distinguished 45-year career that has taken him around Australia and the world.
He has turned out hundreds of stories for the past 22 years as a reporter for Landline, the ABC's award-winning rural and regional program.
"If you take the time to listen, everyone has a story to tell," Murphy says.
"I learnt that working for the Esperance Express, where I did my cadetship. It's a matter of just being open and listening."
At the West Australian in 1984, Sean created a round for Rottnest Island. (Supplied)
In the 1980s, Murphy progressed to the West Australian newspaper in Perth, where he created a round for nearby Rottnest Island, his early childhood home.
It was that round that provided a front-page scoop that propelled his career.
Murphy got a tip-off controversial businessman Laurie Connell had paid to have a reef on Rottnest removed illegally using explosives so he could put a mooring in.
"So, I went over there and dived on the reef and had the evidence," Murphy says.
The story, with its graphic photographs, was big news.
"This was the first story where a bit of shit stuck to him," Murphy says.
"People realised he was a bit of a shyster. That launched me as a sort of hard news, front page reporter."
Later, during the WA Inc. Royal Commission, Connell was jailed for conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
Sean Murphy working at Channel Ten in Perth in 1988. (Supplied)
Murphy shifted to television reporting news for Channel 10 in Perth, then moved to the ABC, first to TV's The Investigators then 7.30 Report, which led him relocate to Sydney.
"The marriage of words and pictures and sound is a wonderful challenge," he says.
"It's that trifecta of elements that you have to bring together."
'An absolute master'
Murphy achieving that trifecta was epitomised in his story of Korean War veterans revisiting their old battlefield.
Among the war veterans was John Murphy.
It was only at the end, when the aging veterans solemnly attended the Kapyong memorial service, did Murphy reveal that John was his father.
Sean (left) at Rottnest with mum Nora and brother Wayne in 1963. (Supplied)
It was masterful story telling.
"I didn't want to prejudice the story where people would make a judgement," Murphy says.
"How often do you get to tell a story about your Dad?"
Working for Landline gave Murphy the editorial freedom to exhibit his broad knowledge of Australian agriculture.
"Your imagination was your only limitation," he says.
The program's executive producer, Cathie Schnitzerling, says Murphy brought "more than agricultural stories" to Landline.
"Many were of the land, its health, wealth and history, but most memorable were those of the waterways and seas and the people who fish and farm them," she says.
"He is an absolute master of his craft and a pleasure to work with."
A Landline legacy
His stories about the under-reported fishing and aquaculture industries became his trademark.
Sean's work has been recognised with international, national and state awards.
He had the ability to juggle numerous stories at once, often in Western Australia, travelling to remote regions for weeks at a time, managing travel times, camera crews and logistics.
Sean has travelled far within his journalism career. (ABC News)
But even in the crammed crew car, he'd find space for one more thing.
"And you could just snugly fit a surfboard in its cover in there so that no one saw it," Murphy says.
He says he was once collared by an ABC boss who demanded: "On those Landline trips do you take a surfboard?"
"Well, yes, I do," Murphy confessed.
"Oh, that's great. I'd rather you go surfing after work than spend your time in the pub,"the boss said.
After more than 30 years at the ABC, Murphy will leave another important legacy.
Sean has made the most of his career at Landline, covering both hard-hitting news stories and tasty ones too. (Landline)
Some years ago he suggested on-screen place names on the program should also include the names given by the traditional owners.
He helped spearhead a wider push within the organisation to standardise traditional place names.
In his last week at the ABC, his abiding emotion is gratitude.
"Gratitude for the wonderful people that I've worked with and been able to learn from, but also for the people who've honoured us with their trust, who've given us their stories, trusted us to be faithful to the truth and that's a responsibility that I always bore heavily, because it's a real privilege this job," Murphy says.
He'll go from chasing stories and meeting deadlines to chasing waves.
At his own pace.
Sean is looking forward to having more time to ride the waves in retirement. (Supplied: Dedi Jubaedi)