Denis M. Long, Pioneer and Early Priests, Archdiocese of Brisbane, Deceased or retired by 1929, 2021, p 132:
Very Rev Dean Charles Frederick Murlay

Charles Frederick Murlay was born in the diocese of Arras in French Flanders on 13 November 1831. His parents were Pierre Francois Murlay and Angela nee Prangy. Seminary studies were undertaken at the Arras diocesan seminary and he was ordained a priest in 1855.(1) Fr Murlay was teaching French at Quinn's St Laurence O'Toole's school in Harcourt Street School Dublin when he accepted an invitation to come to Queensland. He sailed from Queenstown aboard the Chatsworth, as the chaplain, in April 1862 to reach Brisbane on 6 August.(2)

He arrived in Brisbane in August 1862 and in the following November was appointed to Rockhampton. This mission was larger than the present Rockhampton diocese; and comprised all of Queensland north of Maryborough, excluding the area covered by Fr William McGinty around Bowen. After McGinty's death, he became responsible for these areas also. All told it was some 350,000 square miles in extent. In this region he did work single-handedly and became famous for his long journeys. He remained there for twenty years.(3)

When he arrived in Rockhampton he followed Fr Jeremiah Moynahan who had opened the first church, St Joseph's in Alma St. The church was later named St Patrick's. Murlay purchased Dr William Callaghan's house in Kent St as a presbytery. When the sisters of Mercy arrived he presented this home to them as their convent. A month after his arrival he set out for the Burdekin district. Between 1863 and 1871 he made several visits to Townsville.(4) Prior to his visit to Europe in 1869 Bishop Quinn appointed Murlay as Dean and Vicar Forane for the Rockhampton deanery.

In 1872 he built the first convent in Bowen. He made regular visits to isolated railway and mining camps. On one of them, he rode as far as Springsure, with his altar boy. He used visit Gladstone, where there was a foundation of the Sisters of St Joseph, approximately once a month.(5)

In June 1882 Fr Murlay led the welcome to Dr Cani to Rockhampton as its first bishop following his consecration in Sydney in May.

Fr Murlay had become acquainted with the Society of Mary in his seminary days. While priest-in-charge of the Rockhampton mission, he was filled with the desire to further consecrate his life to God by entering the religious state.(6) In 1865/1856 he was looking to join the Marists in New Zealand. Bishop Phillipe Viard of Wellington, advised him to stay with "good Bishop Quinn".(7) Later also applied to the Australian provincial Father Jolly sm, but was refused. Soon after Bishop Cani's arrival in Rockhampton Fr Murlay joined the Marist Order in 1883. He made his religious profession on 5 October 1884.

Fr Murlay SM visited Rockhampton for the opening of St Joseph's Cathedral. At the invitation of Bishop Higgins he returned to the diocese in 1901. The Marist order was given care of the new parish of Gladstone. Fr Murlay, as parish priest, purchased a house which later he gave to the Marist Sisters when they arrived. Fr Murlay died on 5 October 1908.

Footnotes
1. Catholic Press, Marist Priests in Queensland, Sydney, Jun 17, 1937, p. 15.
2. Chris Hanlon, Notes on Fr Murlay, BAA.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Catholic Press, op. cit.
7. L Keys, Philip Viard, p. 197.

Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Long.