The earliest recorded Murnanes to arrive in Australia, in 1817 (less than 30 years after the country's establishment in 1788), owed their emigration to the American colonies winning their independence from Britain. No longer able to send English convicts to America, the British established Australia as a penal colony. The earliest Murnanes were Irish convicts, found guilty by the British of either political or economic crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment in the colony of New South Wales.
The largest group of Murnanes in Australia today trace their origins to William Murnane, a farm labourer born around 1768, and Ellen Keogh, both County Limerick natives who married about 1790.
Three of their sons, John, Michael and Thomas, all born in Limerick and uneducated, unskilled farm labourers, were convicted in 1836 of assaulting a landlord in Solohead, near Tipperary and sentenced to life imprisonment, commuted to life transportation to New South Wales. Another three brothers, Cornelius, Patrick and Jeremiah, and various other family members, including children of the convict brothers, emigrated as free settlers and farmers in subsequent years.
As far as can be ascertained, these Murnanes originated from around Caherelly and Ballybricken, a townland just outside the village of Cahirconlish, in Limerick.
Five of the six brothers' eventually settled as pioneering farmers around Warrnambool , in western Victoria. Their descendants in turn were pioneers in Tasmania, northern New South Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia and some may have moved to New Zealand ( part of New South Wales until 1841).
Today their descendants, numbering in the thousands, are spread around Australia and overseas. They have distinguished themselves in diverse activities including science, agriculture, banking, academia and military service - the Queen of England even awarded a Murnane nun for her missionary services to Australian aborigines.
The 150th anniversary of these Murnanes' arrival in Australia, in 1986, triggered much genealogical research. A family tree database of identified descendants ( so far numbering nearly 8000 names) was established, photographs and paintings collected and recorded, visits to Ireland made, war records, family papers and diaries tracked down and copied, individual oral histories recorded and a family history, tentatively titled "Fruitful Exile", begun.
Much work remains to be done. No direct links have been made to any Murnanes living today in Ireland or America but we feel with more research, that we are close to achieving this. If you would like to learn if you are connected to these Murnanes, contact Paul A. Murnane in Sydney, Australia. Email - pmurnane@compuserve.com or fax 612-9498-6113.
E-Mail: emurnane@murnane.org