AustLit

Murrells was born in Heybridge, Essex. In 1846 he skipped on board the ship 'Peruvian' bound for China from Sydney, Australia with a cargo of hardwood. When the ship became shipwrecked,Murrells with 20 other passengers spent forty-two days adrift on a raft before seven remaining survivors reached land on Cape Cleveland. For the next seventeen years Murrells lived with Aboriginal tribes before returning to “civilization” in January 1863. Murrells settled in Bowen, Queensland having been offered a position in the Custom House there and it was in Bowen that he died in 1865.