About Us
Humble beginnings
During a particularly dry season, Julie found relief in her garden and started producing plants as a hobby. This involved potting self-seeding plants from her garden, taking cuttings and splitting plants. Once she had a collection of healthy plants she listed them on local online selling groups. The people of Roma and District snapped them up and asked for more! Soon enough, Julie was spending long days sourcing and propagating plants; people were buying them as fast as Julie could list them for sale. The requests for specific plants started and Julie decided that she might need a greenhouse. The main greenhouse was built by Brad and, in July 2014, what started as a hobby turned into a fully-fledged business and Moorelands Bush Nursery was born.
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Of course, once people started visiting Moorelands they wanted to stop and enjoy a coffee in the beautiful gardens. This resulted in our onsite cafe ‘The Feed Shed’ being opened in April 2015. By this stage there was serious plant propagation occurring so more green houses were built and the sandpit and play area were installed to keep the kids happy at Moorelands. The next major addition was a grassed area and the cottage as a charming wedding, event and function area. Julie now operates a thriving business that gives locals a beautiful destination for relaxing on their weekends. She has a team who provide choice of hardy plants that are suitable for our climate and offer help for gardeners of all levels of experience. The Moorelands Bush Nursery of today is a far cry from Julie’s original hobby and we look forward to seeing what Julie is planning for the future!
Moorelands – More Than a Nursery, It’s an Experience.
Moorelands Beef
The Murray Family are proud producers of Angus Beef and operate a cattle breeding and trading business across several properties in the Maranoa region including Moorelands. It is a self-replacing herd, and we purchase quality bulls from Bald Blair Angus Stud in Guyra NSW. Our focus is on growth and marbling with our steers being destined for the feedlots and then onto domestic and export markets. Our female progeny are used within the herd and sold as breeding stock to other beef producers.
We grow crops on Moorelands to feed our cattle during harder times and whilst weaning; from the nursery you can look out over the creek flats and supervise the crop growth from April to September. During your drive into Moorelands you will often be greeted along the road by our beautiful, quiet heifers who are busy growing or rearing their first calves. They are often inquisitive about our weekend visitors!
Built on Tradition, Growing for the Future.
Established in 1898
Joesph Murray travelled from Ireland to Roma in 1857, where he worked on Mount Abundance Station and as a teamster conveying goods from the railway. He married Johannah Heffernan, who was a domestic servant at Mount Abundance Homestead. Joesph and Johannah settled on Moorelands in 1898 and this is when they established the second of many generations of Murray's of Moorelands. Gradually the Murray family purchased neighbouring properties to increase their land holding from the initial 400 acres to the size it is today. Members of the Boags, Andersons and Regans families all called the modern day Moorelands their home at some stage. There are reminders of these early settlers scattered around Moorelands, examples include gravesites, fences and house sites.
Thomas Edward (Ted) Murray moved to Moorelands in 1977 and lived here with Julie Murray (of nursery fame) and their two children Kylie and Brad. Sadly, Ted passed away in 1999 and Julie and Brad worked to continue with the beef cattle enterprise on Moorelands. Brad married Leesa at Moorelands in 2010 and Jack and Geoff were welcomed to the family. In 2014, Julie opened Moorelands Bush Nursery and it quickly burgeoned into a full-time job. Brad and Leesa are continuing the 127 year tradition of agriculture on Moorelands. The future belongs to the next generation Murrays of Moorelands but we are dedicated to preserving and improving Moorelands for the future.
Honouring the Lives that Shaped This Land
The Boag Family of Moorelands
Long before the Murray family made Moorelands home, this paddock was part of the Boag family’s story, early settlers who lived and worked on this land in the late 1800s.
Robert and Janet Boag emigrated from Scotland with their young family and eventually settled near Roma. Their son James selected the property now known as Boags Paddock and named it Belle Vue Farm. The Boags were known for their hard work and resourcefulness, improving the land with a dam, a modest home, and even cultivating an orchard and vineyard which were remarkable achievements for that time period.
Life on the land, however, brought both reward and heartbreak. James and his wife, Lexie, lost their two young sons to whooping cough within weeks of each other in 1902. Only months later, James fell ill with cancer and was brought home to spend his final days.
A local story that has since become part of Roma’s pioneering folklore tells of the journey that brought James home. Family friend and neighbour Alfred Waldron travelled to collect him from the hospital in a horse and cart. During the trip, Alfred suffered a severe reaction to bush flies, a condition locals called “bung eye” which left him temporarily blind. Unable to see the path ahead, Alfred relied entirely on his trusted horse, who instinctively guided the cart home, crossing the creek safely. James passed away peacefully in the cart on that journey.
After James’s death, Lexie returned to live with her family. She passed away years later in Roma, while James’s mother, Janet, spent her remaining years nearby with family before being laid to rest here in 1905, the last Boag buried on this site.
In 1989, a group of community members came together to restore the Boag family graves, ensuring their resting place and story would not be lost to time.
Today, Boags Paddock remains part of the working Moorelands property and is home to young breeding stock, a quiet reminder of the generations who came before, and the lives that shaped the landscape we continue to care for today.
