| Again like his father, Tom had a passion for horses. He bred 'grade Arab horses', with some from Arab stallions imported 'direct from Arabia.'((//Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser//, 13 December 1902, p.4; A. Yarwood, //Walers. Australian Horses Abroad//, Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1989, p.154.)) During a visit to India, he 'canvassed the prospects for Queensland horses in the remount [army horses] trade'. He followed this up by bringing together a number of fellow horse breeders during the 1892 Brisbane Exhibition week, advocating that they become regular traders for remounts. Also like his father, he deplored the emphasis on sprint events for horses, designed to maximise gambling, which meant a reduction in Queensland horses' stamina.((T. de M. Murray-Prior, 'The Horse in Australia - Breeding with Arabs', //The Australasian Pastoralists' review: a monthly journal and record of all matters affecting the pastoral and landed interests throughout Australasia//, 2:10, 15 December 1892; when at the races in England, TLM-P wrote in his diary: 'What can be the good of a horse even if it could fly a few hundred yards? now a horse that can go and has staying power is worth having; racing people do not agree with me.//', 24 May 1882)). Tom also wrote advocating a tax on stallions in order to weed out weaker horses and improve the breed overall.((It was republished in //Waikato Times//, 24 November 1894, p.15, see https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WT18941124.2.55?page=2&phrase=2&query=Murray-Prior.)) He was a founding member of the Belyando Picnic Race Club's Committee of Management which organised the first race meeting at Lanark in 1884. He was also Chairman of the South Kennedy Picnic Race Club's Committee of Management from c.1887: his horses won prizes at the Club meetings. In 19-20 July 1892, the Belyando Picnic Race Club held its races on an unfenced course at their President's (Tom's) home Bulliwallah: they continued to race at Bulliwallah until at least 1896 before a permanent course was built.((ch 3 'Picnic Racing on the Belyando', from book? pp.9,10.)) Fox's History of Queensland summarised Tom as having "enjoyed a wide reputation as a breeder of prize stock, his shorthorn cattle and Arab horses carrying off many of the most coveted honours of the day. He owned the Arab stallion "Pathfinder," at the time one of the best-known horses in Queensland, and also imported from India "Trojan," another noted Arab sire, both of which accounted for prize stock of the highest quality."((Matthew Fox, //The history of Queensland: its people and industries: an historical and commercial review descriptive and biographical facts, figures and illustrations: an epitome of progress//, Brisbane: States Publishing Company, 1919, vol.1, p.173)) For details of sales etc of Tom's stock, see Andrew Darbyshire ((//A Fair Slice of St Lucia//. Thomas Lodge Murray-Prior, St Lucia History Group research paper no. 8, pp.76-79.))\\ | Again like his father, Tom had a passion for horses. He bred 'grade Arab horses', with some from Arab stallions imported 'direct from Arabia.'((//Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser//, 13 December 1902, p.4; A. Yarwood, //Walers. Australian Horses Abroad//, Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1989, p.154.)) During a visit to India, he 'canvassed the prospects for Queensland horses in the remount [army horses] trade'. He followed this up by bringing together a number of fellow horse breeders during the 1892 Brisbane Exhibition week, advocating that they become regular traders for remounts. Also like his father, he deplored the emphasis on sprint events for horses, designed to maximise gambling, which meant a reduction in Queensland horses' stamina.((T. de M. Murray-Prior, 'The Horse in Australia - Breeding with Arabs', //The Australasian Pastoralists' review: a monthly journal and record of all matters affecting the pastoral and landed interests throughout Australasia//, 2:10, 15 December 1892; when at the races in England, TLM-P wrote in his diary: 'What can be the good of a horse even if it could fly a few hundred yards? now a horse that can go and has staying power is worth having; racing people do not agree with me.//', 24 May 1882)). Tom also wrote advocating a tax on stallions in order to weed out weaker horses and improve the breed overall.((It was republished in //Waikato Times//, 24 November 1894, p.15, see https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WT18941124.2.55?page=2&phrase=2&query=Murray-Prior.)) He was a founding member of the Belyando Picnic Race Club's Committee of Management which organised the first race meeting at Lanark in 1884. He was also Chairman of the South Kennedy Picnic Race Club's Committee of Management from c.1887: his horses won prizes at the Club meetings. In 19-20 July 1892, the Belyando Picnic Race Club held its races on an unfenced course at their President's (Tom's) home Bulliwallah: they continued to race at Bulliwallah until at least 1896 before a permanent course was built.((ch 3 'Picnic Racing on the Belyando', from book? pp.9,10.)) Fox's History of Queensland summarised Tom as having "enjoyed a wide reputation as a breeder of prize stock, his shorthorn cattle and Arab horses carrying off many of the most coveted honours of the day. He owned the Arab stallion "Pathfinder," at the time one of the best-known horses in Queensland, and also imported from India "Trojan," another noted Arab sire, both of which accounted for prize stock of the highest quality."((Matthew Fox, //The history of Queensland: its people and industries: an historical and commercial review descriptive and biographical facts, figures and illustrations: an epitome of progress//, Brisbane: States Publishing Company, 1919, vol.1, p.173)) For details of sales etc of Tom's stock, see Andrew Darbyshire ((//A Fair Slice of St Lucia//. Thomas Lodge Murray-Prior, St Lucia History Group research paper no. 8, pp.76-79.))\\ |
| One of Tom's claims to fame is that in 1872, he and Peter Pears, a tutor at nearby Unumgar Station, were the first Europeans to climb [[wp>Mount_Lindesay_(Queensland)|Mt Lindesay]].((e.g. N.C. Hewitt, 'Early History Recalled', //Northern Star// [Lismore], 9 January 1940; //The Brisbane Courier//, 18 May 1872, p.6.)) His second wife Mary believed that the pair were actually the second, with the first ascent in the 1840s: that claim is uncertain. Tom passed on his fascination with climbing Mt Lindesay to his son [[thomas_bertram_and_lizzie_m-p|Thomas Bertram]], who, with his cousin Standish Lightoller, climbed it in September 1902.((Robert Thomas, 'The First Ascent of Mt. Lindesay - A Climbing "Whodunit"', //Queensland Review//, 8:1, May 2001, pp.1-20.)) {{https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/Mount_Lindesay_Queensland.jpg/280px-Mount_Lindesay_Queensland.jpg}}\\ | One of Tom's claims to fame is that in 1872, he and Peter Pears, a tutor at nearby Unumgar Station, were the first Europeans to climb [[wp>Mount_Lindesay_(Queensland)|Mt Lindesay]].((e.g. N.C. Hewitt, 'Early History Recalled', //Northern Star// [Lismore], 9 January 1940; //The Brisbane Courier//, 18 May 1872, p.6.)) His second wife Mary believed that the pair were actually the second, with the first ascent in the 1840s: that claim is uncertain. Tom passed on his fascination with climbing Mt Lindesay to his son [[thomas_bertram_and_lizzie_m-p|Thomas Bertram]], who, with his cousin Standish Lightoller, climbed it in September 1902.((Robert Thomas, 'The First Ascent of Mt. Lindesay - A Climbing "Whodunit"', //Queensland Review//, 8:1, May 2001, pp.1-20.)) {{https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/Mount_Lindesay_Queensland.jpg/280px-Mount_Lindesay_Queensland.jpg}}\\ |