One of Tasmania’s most familiar faces has delivered his final TV weather forecast after four decades on air.
Peter ‘Murph’ Murphy closed out a remarkable career that made him Australia’s longest-serving commercial TV weather presenter.
Born on October 22, 1960, Murph’s media journey began in his hometown of Moree in New South Wales, where he landed a casual radio job at 2VM while still in Year 12.
“We all went down and had a bit of a read, trained up as the radio announcer and in a couple of months time I was doing five nights a week while going to school every day,” Murph told Seven Tasmania news anchor Kim Millar in a special farewell interview.
After stints at 2WG in Wagga Wagga, Murph moved to Tasmania to work at Radio 7EX in Launceston.
Within a couple of years, he transitioned to television weather presenting with TNT9, now 7 Tasmania, though he initially thought his future would be in radio.
Murph became known for his larrikin personality, colourful fashion choices and notorious dad jokes that became a staple of his weather segments.
“At some point in time doing the weather just got so boring that I had to think of something to do at the end to brighten it up a little bit for people,” he explained.
His jokes often referenced current events and local happenings.
“I always look forward to … the shows where you can talk about the sheepdog trials and if they were guilty or not,” Murph said.
While Tasmania has experienced numerous extreme weather events during his tenure, Murph said some stood out as his most memorable.
“The ones that I remember most are the ones that give you great feelings – the snow events that we’ve had,” he said, recalling the August 2020 snowfall that blanketed Launceston.
Murph joked about his post-retirement plans, saying he would be going out on his own and “doing personal weather forecasts for people.”
“You know they open the door and here I am [saying] how would you like a weather forecast?”
Millar praised Murph as “one of the nation’s most natural broadcasters” and a genuine mate to those who’ve worked with him.
Murph paid tribute to his colleagues, friends and loyal viewers.
“The memories of all the people I’ve worked with over the years is enough for me to remember,” Murph said.
“Gotta acknowledge Kim Millar and Jo Palmer for being great workmates and pretty fine people too, not to mention their resilience and patience over the years which I’m sure was pretty well tested.”
“To the viewers, look at you all, for all your recent comments everywhere on the line, it’s been really heartwarming and thanks for being onboard for the past 41 years and 12 days.”
“Goodnight and goodbye, you stay classy Tasmania.”
Murph’s final bulletin was closed with a shot of him taking his microphone off and placing it on the news desk.
