Longtime Goulburn butcher, Bill Murray, opts for new pastures

Working at Coles straight out of school, one day he carried groceries to Kathy Welsh's car and changed her flat tyre.

"A few days later she came back and offered me a butcher's apprenticeship with her (then) husband, Graeme Welsh," Mr Murray said.

"At that time you snapped up everything you were offered. I saw it as an opportunity."

It springboarded him into a 49-year butchery career from which he retired on Friday, December 23.

Murrays Quality Meats in Union Street is iconic in the local industry. It is also one of the few remaining small butchers in town.

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Bill said he was initially apprehensive about retirement, given his long involvement in the trade.

"It's a bit nerve-racking to step over to the other side but I'm looking forward to it," he said.

Fortune smiled again when he started at Mr Welsh's Ellesmere Street butchery as a 16-year-old. There he met 15-year-old Louise Dixon, a till operator and packer. It was "love at first sight" and the couple married a year later, in 1974.

After getting established in the industry, Bill and Louise leased Bill Cope's business in Citizen Street. Then, in 1986, they bought the current Union Street building when well known butcher, Archie Hoad, retired.

"I knew Goulburn was a great place to do business...The shop had price, position and potential," Mr Murray said.

"...It's very daunting going into your own business but my advice is to take the step. The hard part is fronting up and learning to cope with the stresses. You put everything on the line...but I loved the trade and took to it like a duck to water."

Days were typically long, without a lunch break. They started with retail preparation, phoning contract workers and suppliers and serving customers all day. Murrays was not only a retail butcher but held a processing licence to supply large businesses in Goulburn and elsewhere.

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Interpersonal relationships, experience in pricing and supply and quality meat were key to success. Mr Murray said he developed this with the help of mentors like Mr Welsh, Bruce and Jack Hollis and Bill Cope.

Son Shane joined him 28 years ago, straight out of school. Louise, their son-in-law and grandsons have also worked in the business.

Along the way, he met some "fantastic people" and developed long-term friendships with customers.

"It's a great city," Mr Murray said.

"...I wouldn't have started a business in any other place. People are so friendly and I think Goulburn is quite underrated. It is the best place in NSW."

Community mindedness was also a core principle. The butchery donated to many causes, including discount meat for Goulburn Legacy's fundraising barbecues.

Bill said he was only too aware of servicemen and women's sacrifice; his great uncle, Lance Corporal Lindsay Murray was killed while serving in Pozzieres with the 53^rd Battalion. The 23-year-old was buried at Wimereux Communal Cemetery in France.

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Bill's contribution to Goulburn was recognised with inclusion in local photographer Tina Milson's highly successful Portraits on Main exhibition this year. He told her his daily goal was to make one person smile or laugh.

"It was a great honour to be included," he said.

Now it's time for a new chapter. Mr Murray has sold the business to a party which, following some renovations, would continue the butchery. Shane will also move on to new opportunities.

Mr Murray said he was comfortable with his decision. He will semi-retire to his Wyangala Farm, while maintaining his Goulburn residence and spending more time with Louise, their three children and seven grandchildren.

"I'm a very lucky man and I feel blessed," he said

"I have a beautiful wife and family... My wife passed on some words of wisdom: To have a happy retirement I have to do what I'm told. She's just bought a new vacuum cleaner!"

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