Champion Australian lawn bowler Karen Murphy, who started her career at Shoalhaven Heads. Photo: Bowls Australia.
The South Coast’s “queen of the green”, lawn bowler Karen Murphy, was this week inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.
She became only the fourth lawn bowler – and only female bowler – to join the elite of Australian sport on the honour roll.
Murphy, born in Kiama, raised in the Shoalhaven and now living in Shell Cove, retired from the Australian Jackaroos in 2019 after a stellar career spanning more than two decades.
Murphy was one of six athlete members who were inducted during a gala dinner on Monday (18 November), joining three-time world surfing champion Mick Fanning, former Kookaburras’ captain Mark Knowles, Olympic hurdles gold medallist Sally Pearson, motor sport superstar Mark Skaife and dual-sport Paralympics champion Liesl Tesch.
The Sport Australia Hall of Fame organisation describes Murphy, who attended the Illawarra Academy of Sport (IAS) in 1990, as “one of Australia’s greatest lawn bowls players”.
“With gold medal-winning performances at Commonwealth Games and world championships levels, Murphy donned the green and gold at international level on more than 660 occasions – a testament to her durability and resilience,” it says.
“She won five world championship gold medals – two in succession in the singles event, one in triples and one in fours, including the World Champion of Champion Singles in 2013 – as well as winning a silver and three bronze medals in five appearances at the world championships.
“As a measure of the respect and impact she had on the Jackaroos, she was chosen to read the Athlete’s Oath at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
“Karen Murphy was a trailblazer, smashing some of the staid stereotypes traditionally associated with lawn bowls as well as elevating her sport well beyond its usual reach with her success at the elite level.
“What started as a childhood passion which saw her first grace the Shoalhaven Heads Bowls Club greens as an 11-year-old turned into an international career that took her to almost every part of the globe.
“In between, she helped transform the face and direction of lawn bowls, fostering change in age demographic, an aggressive, competitive game style and refreshingly even in the sport’s attire and fashion.”
There were few young girls playing bowls when Murphy started her career, and she later admitted she didn’t tell many of her schoolmates about her passion.
Murphy has paid tribute to the IAS in playing a huge role in her development towards becoming a professional athlete.
“My time at the IAS was fantastic,” Murphy said.
“The IAS had a huge impact on my career and it gave me an opportunity to play competitive lawn bowls against quality opposition.
“We had a great group of lawn bowlers at the IAS, with many of them going on to represent Australia.
“I was the only female of the group, so I enjoyed testing myself against the guys and it brought out the best in me and helped me develop my game.”
The Sport Australia Hall of Fame said the kid from Shoalhaven Heads transformed into an inspirational figure for women’s participation in lawn bowls, and was referred to as “the queen of the green”.
Murphy first represented Australia at the 1997 Asia Pacific championships when she was 23 and the average age of the women’s team was about 60.
The following year Murphy made the first of her five Commonwealth Games appearances, winning silver in the fours in Kuala Lumpur.
A silver in the singles followed in Manchester in 2002 before she combined with Lynsey Clarke (nee Armitage) to win the pairs gold medal in Melbourne in 2006, which Murphy rated as “one of the most fulfilling moments” of her sporting career.
Clarke said of Murphy after the gold medal game: “She is legendary. There is not one bowler in the world like her. She inspires you, she encourages you; she does these amazing shots that I would have thought were not possible.”
Murphy’s most significant achievement came with back-to-back singles gold medals at the world championships.
She won the first in Adelaide in 2012, also winning gold in the triples at the same event.
She backed up her singles success with victory in Christchurch four years later, becoming only the third female bowler – and first Australian – to complete back-to-back world championship singles golds.
She was inducted into the Bowls Australia Hall of Fame in its inaugural 2011 year and elevated to legend status in 2023 and was made an AM in the 2021 Australia Day honours for her services to lawn bowls.
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