Dame Elisabeth Murdoch AC DBE (1909–2012), philanthropist, was the widow of Sir Keith Murdoch and mother of the publisher, Rupert Murdoch. Over her life Dame Elisabeth contributed unstintingly to Australian artistic, cultural, educational, medical, environmental and community causes, particularly in her home state of Victoria. She endowed the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, the Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Sculpture Foundation, the Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Arboretum, and the Australian Ballet. Dame Elisabeth served on committees and boards of many public institutions including the Royal Children's Hospital, the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, and the National Gallery of Victoria. She provided scholarships for research into childhood deafness, funded digitisation projects and supported programs to help troubled and ill youth. In 2003 she received the Great Australian Philanthropy Award and in 2005 – at the age of 96 – she was named Victorian of the Year. Dame Elisabeth died at her home Cruden Farm near Langwarrin, Victoria at the age of 103.
Dame Elisabeth was a founding member of the Victorian Tapestry Workshop's Board of Management (now the Australian Tapestry Workshop). Its founding director, Sue Walker, recalls that Murdoch took great interest in the process of her own portrait, enquiring into each of the weavers and 'exhibiting her famous exuberant excitement at the completion of weaving'. The image is appropriately set in Dame Elisabeth's lovingly tended garden at Cruden Farm.
Commissioned with funds provided by Marilyn Darling AC 2000
© Australian Tapestry Workshop
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