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Dr Gordon Murray

BScAgr (Hons II) (Sydney), MS, PhD (Wisconsin)

Position Adjunct Associate Professor, Field crop pathology
Phone 02 6921 1803
Fax 02 6938 1666
Email gordonmur@gmail.com

 

Career Brief

After completing a BScAgr (Hons) at the University of Sydney, specialising in plant pathology, with a traineeship with the NSW Department of Agriculture, Dr Murray began as a field crop pathologist with the Department in Sydney in 1969. He was awarded a scholarship with the Australian Wool Corporation which enabled him to undertake postgraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, in plant pathology and plant breeding and genetics. He completed requirements for MSc and a PhD, which involved research on ultrastructure of fungal spore germination and breeding for disease resistance.

Dr Murray returned to NSW Agriculture (now Industry & Investment NSW) as a field crop pathologist, transferring to the Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute in 1976, where he remained until his retirement in 2007.

Research undertaken by Dr Murray covered epidemiology and crop loss assessment of foliar, inflorescence and root diseases of the major field crops in southern and central NSW. He collaborated with colleagues in breeding for resistance and management of major diseases affecting field crops in southern NSW, specifically developing control strategies for stripe rust, Septoria tritici blotch, take-all and wheat streak mosaic in wheat, blackleg and Sclerotinia in canola, Phytophthora root rots of subterranean clover and lupins. As well as research, Dr Murray provided a disease diagnostic and advisory service to field crops in southern and central NSW.

With Dr Murray's considerable experience with wheat diseases and their impact on yield research, he and NSW DPI economist, Dr John Brennan, assessed the economic losses caused by wheat diseases (1988 and 1998) and ranked the relative importance of diseases for all crops managed by the Grains Research and Development Corporation.

Dr Murray was an Australian partner on a European Union project (2000-2004) that assessed the quarantine risk of the Karnal bunt fungus to wheat. He has developed national contingency plans for the exotic wheat pathogens Tilletia indica , cause of Karnal bunt, and Tilletia contraversa , cause of dwarf bunt.

Research and Teaching

Professional Links

Interests

Selected Publications

Murray GM, Brennan JP (2009) Estimating disease losses to the Australian wheat industry. Australasian Plant Pathology 38, 558–570.

Sansford CE, Baker RHA, Brennan JP, Ewert F, Gioli B, Inman A, Kinsella A, Magnus HA, Miglietta F, Murray GM , Porta-Puglia A, Porter JR, Rafoss T, Riccioni L and Thorne F (2008) The new pest risk analysis for Tilletia indica , the cause of Karnal bunt of wheat, continues to support the quarantine status of the pathogen in Europe. Plant Pathology (in press). 9 pp.

Murray GM and Wright DG (2007) 'National Contingency Plan for Tilletia contraversa , the Cause of Dwarf Bunt of Wheat. Part I: Pest Risk Assessment'. (Plant Health Australia, Canberra, ACT, Australia.) vi + 16 pp.

Tan M-K and Murray GM (2006) A molecular protocol using quenched FRET probes for the quarantine surveillance of Tilletia indica , the causal agent of Karnal bunt of wheat. Mycological Research 110 , 203-210.

Wright D, Murray G and Brennan J (2006) 'Draft National Contingency Plan for Karnal bunt of Wheat. Part I. Background and Importance.' (Plant Health Australia: Canberra, ACT.) vi + 50 pp.