Mr Murphy was a court clerk in Wodonga when aged 17 and travelled on circuit to Corryong for sittings.

It was 50 years just last month that he made his first work trip to Corryong.

These days he travels there for the sittings as the presiding magistrate and received high praise yesterday for his empathy towards the region.

“He is a true country magistrate,” Victoria’s chief magistrate, Ian Gray, said.

Mr Murphy spent nine years as a relieving clerk before joining the Crown Solicitor’s office for two years.

He became a barrister in 1975 and was appointed a magistrate in Darwin in 1980.

Later he became a magistrate in the ACT in 1988 before returning to Victoria in the role of a magistrate in 1993.

Mr Murphy, 67, began working in the North East in 1995 and has settled in the area.

His brother Graeme was likewise a magistrate in the North East for many years.

It is unusual for two brothers to be magistrates in the same region and between them they have had more than 30 years at Corryong.

Graeme Murphy retired in 1992, aged 54.

Corryong’s Stewart Ross was one of four historical society members at the celebrations.

His maternal great-grandfather, Hugh Harris, was one of the first to select land in the area in 1866.

He was appointed a justice of the peace at Corryong and spent about 25 years in that role.