High Steaks: Part owner of the Brisbane Broncos Phil Murphy reveals rags to riches story

He grew up so poor he was once gifted nothing but a can of condensed milk for Christmas, but through 12-hour days, seven days a week Phil Murphy toiled away. WELCOME TO HIGH STEAKS

Anooska Tucker-Evans sits down with Broncos co-owner Phil Murphy at the Spanish Garden Restaurant inside the Breakfast Creek Hotel for High Steaks. Photo Steve Pohlner

When Brisbane welterweight champion Jeff Horn is inducted into the Australian Boxing Hall of Fame this August, there’ll be few people cheering louder from the sidelines than Phil Murphy.

The jockey-turned-businessman and entrepreneur became the major financial supporter of the champion boxer after meeting him in the dressing room of an undercard fight about a decade ago.

Murphy, despite having no prior background in boxing or sports management, funded Horn, along with fellow Brisbane boxer Alex Leapai, as both athletes trained for a world title.

The fiscal aid helped turn former school teacher-Horn into a household name, with Murphy even sponsoring the clash that would win Horn the world title – an epic stoush against Filipino fighter Manny Pacquiao dubbed the Battle of Brisbane, in which the local hero claimed victory in front of a sold-out Suncorp Stadium crowd in 2017.

Jeff Horn with Broncos co-owner Phil Murphy. Picture: Jamie Hanson

To this day, Murphy considers Horn a surrogate son, and when Jeff Horn Snr – Horn’s father – calls during our High Steaks interview at The Brekky Creek to discuss the Hall of Fame induction, Murphy becomes almost emotional.

“It’s the best news I’ve had for a long time,” he says down the phone, eyes teary.

“He’s as close to being a son without adopting him.”

Murphy went on to sponsor more young boxers after Horn retired. He had 14 on his books before making the heartbreaking decision to move out of the sport two years ago due to the difficulty dealing with overseas managers and promoters setting up fights.

“The amount of time I was spending at two or three o’clock in the morning trying to arrange fights, it was hard work and I’d come to work and I was just stuffed,” he says.

“But I was in tears when I made the decision (to pull out of boxing) because I had all these young kids – young boxers that were very talented, but I said, ‘I’m just going to stop it, I can’t take it anymore’.”

It’s one of the only things Murphy has ever walked away from, with the 74-year-old the posterboy for resilience.

New Broncos part owner Phil Murphy. Picture: Darren England.

He has dogged determination, an incomparable work ethic – still grinding out 12-hour days up to seven days a week at his property development company Oxmar Properties in Brisbane’s north; and a passion to take on the biggest challenges and win.

It’s no doubt how this kid, who grew up so poor he once lived in a horse stable, sleeping side-by-side with his four brothers and gifted nothing but a can of condensed milk for Christmas by his parents, overcame a string of tragedies to become a multimillion-dollar success story.

Murphy grew up largely on the road, moving from country town to country town across regional NSW as his father Roley took on multiple jobs, mostly training horses, trying to “get his kick in life”; while his mother, May, worked as a cleaner and in hospitality.

It was while working alongside his dad as a boy that Murphy fell in love with those of the equine variety and discovered he was somewhat of a natural in the saddle.

He rode show horses and won 400 ribbons in the ring, before switching to thoroughbreds and the racetrack, claiming second place in his first ever race at just 13 years old.

“I got jumped up and down like a yoyo and got beat by this much,” he recounts of his ride in Tamworth, NSW, gesturing less than a foot.

At 14 he rode his first winner, a horse called Son of Mar at the then high profile races in Come By Chance, west of Coffs Harbour.

A host of wins followed before his promising career was cut tragically short just three years later.

In August 1968, a then 17-year-old Murphy suffered a catastrophic fall during a race that left him with severe neck and spinal injuries. He required a half body cast, more than three months in hospital and two years of rehabilitation in Brisbane.

“I actually cried a lot because it was so hard because that was my life,” he says, still audibly upset almost six decades later. “It was my dream and it was a good dream because it was real. But there was nothing you could do about it. It’s just life. You have to take it.”

Broncos co-owner Phil Murphy at the Spanish Garden Restaurant inside the Breakfast Creek Hotel.- Photo Steve Pohlner

At 21, his life once again changed forever when his parents were in a head-on car accident near Miriam Vale that killed his father and severely injured his mother.

“That was the worst thing in my life,” recalls Murphy, his eyes welling with tears over losing the man he idolised.

Murphy was forced to take on multiple jobs to support his family, carrying out trackwork at Eagle Farm racecourse, working as a clerk at Brisbane City Council, selling furniture on weekends and working nights at the Hamilton Hotel.

He later moved to Rockhampton where he created a hugely successful furniture sales business, which he sold for a small fortune.

He then travelled to Cairns and set up a similar shop while also working as a bookmaker. But the thrill of the punt became too strong and he quickly gambled away all he had.

“In six months I went through $250,000,” he admits. “I declared myself bankrupt.”

With no money, he returned to Brisbane and talked his way into a job selling cars at a Holden dealership under the promise they would employ him if he could break the monthly sales record.

In just 10 days he had eclipsed the target of 20, moving 36 cars at a pop-up display at the annual Royal Brisbane Show.

“I’d have all these people wandering through eating fairy floss and I’d just simply start with the line, ‘Can I sell you a car?’,” Murphy chuckles.

Over the next decade, Murphy worked his way up through Queensland’s automotive industry. He was involved in establishing Sci-Fleet Toyota in Brisbane’s Kedron and Windsor, selling 6000 cars in the first month and going on to consistently smash records; before buying his own Toyota dealership in Bundaberg.

After a few years in Bundy, he was offered a deal to sell that he couldn’t refuse, so decided to return to Brisbane for a new challenge.

“Two of my brothers were developing land and doing well, so I thought I’d have a crack at it,” he explains.

Murphy’s entry into property development was characteristically bold – he contacted over 2,000 landowners within 20km of Brisbane’s CBD, looking to buy blocks of at least 8000sq m.

“Out of the 2,000 contacts, probably three-quarters of them were junky blocks of land covered in trees you couldn’t remove, powerlines or flooding … but we found some gems,” Murphy says.

One of the steaks on offer at the Spanish Garden Restaurant inside the Breakfast Creek Hotel. Photo Steve Pohlner

His first major project was a 28-lot subdivision at Wellington Point, east of Brisbane, in 1996. Three years later, he developed a 46.5 hectare site at Cashmere, along Brisbane’s northern outskirts. Murphy had found his calling.

Over the next three decades, he would go on to develop thousands of residential lots across 43 estates in southeast Queensland.

Today, his company Oxmar Properties has major developments underway in growth corridors like Narangba, Bridgeman Downs and Griffin, as well as regional areas including Hervey Bay and nearby Burrum Heads.

“It’s always a challenge,” Murphy says.

“Getting approvals are big challenges and I fight tooth and nail with council and state governments and I love that.

“I don’t abuse people or go crook at people, I work with them to try to give them an outcome they’re happy with.”

As for what makes Murphy happy, it’s undeniably work, arriving at the office in Brisbane’s northern suburb of Aspley by 7am most mornings, and following NRL team the Brisbane Broncos, which he is a 22 per cent shareholder after becoming involved with the club back in 2004 when then-player Shane Webcke organised to have two jerseys signed for him by the team for a charity auction for his daughter’s school.

Brisbane Broncos and Maroons great Shane Webcke in 2004.

But perhaps bringing him the most joy is his family. He is married to Diane, 68, who was one of his customers years early when he was selling cars; and has four adult children, two of whom work alongside him at Oxmar Properties, which he says he is eternally grateful for. He also has four grandchildren.

Murphy and Diane live on a 1.2 hectare property in Brisbane’s north where he enjoys walking his beloved golden retrievers, Teddy and Daisy, each morning.

Health issues in recent years, including unexplained weight loss and fatigue, have forced him to slow down slightly. But retirement is certainly not on the cards.

“I couldn’t do it,” he says adamantly. “If there’s something out there to have a crack at that might become something, it’s worth pursuing.”

It’s an attitude that has served Murphy well for over five decades in business and as he looks to expand his property empire into areas including Narangba, Ripley Valley, Southern Logan, Caboolture West and the Sunshine Coast, it’s clear this consummate deal-maker still has plenty of fire in the belly.

Breakfast Creek Hotel

The Creek main with a petite eye fillet steak, prawns, scallops and bugs in a garlic cream sauce – 8/10

Originally published as High Steaks: Part owner of the Brisbane Broncos Phil Murphy reveals rags to riches story