Karen Murphy AM was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2024 as an Athlete Member for her contribution to the sport of Lawn Bowls.

Karen Murphy was one of Australia’s greatest lawn bowls players in a career spanning more than 20 years.
With gold medal-winning performances at Commonwealth Games and world championships levels, Murphy donned the green and gold at international level on more than 660 occasions – a testament to her durability and resilience.
She won 5 world championship gold medals – two in succession in the singles event, one in triples and one in fours, including the World Champion of Champion Singles in 2013 – as well as winning a silver and three bronze medals in five appearances at the world championships.
Two of her five appearances at the Commonwealth Games came in her home country, and she won gold in the pairs event in Melbourne in 2006, winning three silver medals at three separate venues.
As a measure of the respect and impact she had on the Jackaroos, she was chosen to read the Athlete’s Oath at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

Karen Murphy was a trailblazer, smashing some of the staid stereotypes traditionally associated with Lawn Bowls as well as elevating her sport well beyond its usual reach with her success at the elite level.
What started as a childhood passion which saw her first grace the Shoalhaven Heads Bowls Club greens as an 11-year-old turned into an international career that took her to almost every part of the globe in more than 660 appearances for her country.
In between, she helped transform the face and direction of lawn bowls, fostering change in age demographic, an aggressive, competitive game style and refreshingly even in the sport’s attire and fashion.
As Murphy recalled when she announced her retirement after more than 20 years at international level, “I started playing bowls when I was 11 years old at Shoalhaven Heads BC … I used to ride my bike down to watch dad play and nagged him to give me a go.”
Her father’s decision to allow his daughter onto the green proved a fruitful one.
It helped to set up one of Australian sport’s great success stories as Murphy went on to become one of Australia’s greatest Lawn Bowls representatives, winning back to back singles championships at world championship level as well as seeing her represent Australia at five world championships and five Commonwealth Games events.
The kid from Shoalhaven Heads transformed into an inspirational figure for women’s participation in Lawn Bowls, known by some as “the queen of the green”.
When she first started, there were few young girls playing the sport, and even fewer brave enough to advertise it.
Murphy would later say that she didn’t tell many of her schoolmates about the pastime she turned into a passion. At an Illawarra Academy of Sport she attended, she was the only girl taking on the boys, something which helped to harness her competitive attitude which would help to sustain her later in her career.
She first represented Australia at the 1997 Asia Pacific championships when she was 23, and the average age of the women’s team was around 60.
She made an instant impression, winning bronze in the women’s pairs and gold in the women’s fours.
The following year Murphy made the first of her five Commonwealth Games appearances, winning silver in the fours in Kuala Lumpur.
A silver in the singles followed in Manchester in 2002 before she combined with Lynsey Clarke (nee Armitage) to win the pairs gold medal in Melbourne in 2006, which Murphy has always rated as one of the most fulfilling moments of her sporting career.
Clarke said of Murphy after that Commonwealth Games gold medal: “She is legendary. There is not one bowler in the world like her. She inspires you, she encourages you; she does these amazing shots that I would have thought were not possible.”
Murphy won silver in the triples four years later in Glasgow, but a true measure of her Commonwealth Games impact came in 2018 when she was chosen to read the Athletes’ Oath at Gold Coast’s Opening Ceremony.
She said at the time: “We are not a very high profile sport … so this is huge for our sport. Just to represent all the athletes is an absolutely huge honour.”
Murphy’s most significant achievement came with back to back singles gold medals at the world championships.
She won the first in Adelaide in 2012, watched on by her family and a roaring parochial crowd in the stands. She also won gold in the triples at the same event.
Importantly, she backed up her singles success with victory in Christchurch four years later in a stunning final delivery that guaranteed her place in history as only the third female bowler – and first Australian – to complete back to back world championship singles golds.
Her overall world championship record ended up being four gold medals in various categories as well as a silver and three bronze medals.
In all, Murphy won more than 300 titles across her career, playing in countless events around the world and helping to foster a younger, more vibrant look to a sport which desperately needed to move with the times.
She played a part in helping to bring through the next wave of girls and boys as well as overseeing the direction of lawn bowls as board member and director of World Bowls.
Murphy announced her retirement from international competition in 2019 but maintained her association with the sport as national assistant coach of the Jackaroos, helping to provide a pathway for the next generation of stars.
She was inducted into the Bowls Australia Hall of Fame in its inaugural 2011 year and elevated to legend status in 2023 and was made an AM in the 2021 Australia Day honours for her services to Lawn Bowls.

Honours & Achievements

• 2000: Australian Sports Medal for services to Bowls post World Championships winning Silver and Bronze medals
• 2011: Inducted into the Bowls Australia Hall of Fame
• 2013: Named Bowls Australia Female Bowler of the Year
• 2014: Named Bowls Australia Female Bowler of the Year
• 2021: Appointed a Member of the Order of Australia
• 2023: Elevated to Legend status in the Bowls Australia Hall of Fame

Photo courtesy News Corp Australia.