Maverick songman Neil Murray originally sprang from Victoria's western district, but in the late 1970s he set course for the Northern Territory, emerging at Papunya in 1980 as a founding member of the pioneering Warumpi Band, which over three albums (Big Name No Blankets, Go Bush and Too much Humbug) and twenty years of performing, thrust contemporary indigenous music into mainstream Australia, yielding such classic songs as My Island Home, Blackfella Whitefella, and Waru.

In 1995, Neil Murray was awarded the APRA song of the year for 'My Island Home' originally written for the Warumpi Band and rerecorded by Christine Anu. He lives in Melbourne.