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Tamara Murdock won one of three 2014 Charlie Perkins Scholarships to pursue postgraduate study at Oxford. She hoped to deepen her understanding of land management and the cultural, social, economic and political settings that shape policy decisions. Her story illustrates one supported path into postgraduate education; it does not show that her individual scholarship changed national university participation rates.
Who is Tamara Murdock?
Edith Cowan University (ECU) reported in 2014 that Murdock was born and raised in Geraldton and worked as a project coordinator at Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation, contributing to Indigenous Protected Area and Carbon Farming Initiative projects. ECU described her as a descendant of Noongar and Yindjibarndi people, and also of Scottish and Japanese descent. The Charlie Perkins Scholarship Trust describes her as a descendant of Noongar people, while Aurora Education Foundation calls her a Noongar woman; these are the descriptions used by those respective sources.
Murdock graduated from ECU in 2011 with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Management with First Class Honours. In 2013, she took part in the Aurora Indigenous Scholars International Study Tour. In 2014, she was named one of three Charlie Perkins Scholars.
What did the scholarship support, and what did she study?
ECU said Murdock planned to undertake an MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management at the University of Oxford. The Trust later records that she completed an MPhil in Geography and the Environment at Green Templeton College, Oxford, in 2016. These are distinct points in the record: the 2014 plan and the later completed qualification.
The 2014 UK government announcement described the Charlie Perkins Scholarship as supporting study at Oxford or Cambridge. It said the award was jointly supported by the British Government’s Chevening Scholarship Programme, the Australian Government and Rio Tinto, and managed by the Charlie Perkins Trust. That announcement described its value as over £50,000 per annum; ECU’s newsletter used a different currency and broader account of supporters. These are dated 2014 descriptions, not current award values.
Murdock said postgraduate study would broaden her understanding of land management and the cultural, social, economic and political environments in which policy and management decisions are made. She wrote, “I will be eternally indebted to the people who took a chance on me and allowed me to pursue a line of research that sat outside the general scope of study in the School of Natural Sciences.”
What do the latest official figures say about First Nations participation?
The latest annual figures cited here are the Australian Government Department of Education’s 2024 higher-education statistics, published in 2025. The department reports that First Nations students made up 2.3% of enrolled domestic higher-education students in 2024. For comparison, First Nations people made up 3.8% of Australia’s population in the 2021 Census, the population benchmark used by the department. These figures refer to different years and denominators.
Commencements tell a related but separate part of the picture. The department counted 10,840 First Nations commencing students in 2024, up 6.9% from 10,142 in 2023. First Nations students represented 2.6% of all commencing students in 2024. A rise in the number commencing does not erase the gap between their share of enrolments and the cited population benchmark.
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- Two-Sided. One side allows you to track College/University Application deadlines. The other side tracks Scholarships.
- Colorful. Each side uses a different color pallet in order to be easily distinguishable.
- Sturdy paper stock.
- 6 pack. There are six two-sided sheets per pack.
- Measures 11.5 x 9.5 inches.
In these statistics, “First Nations students” means students who self-identify as being of Australian Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent. That statistical category is broader than “Aboriginal” alone, so the terms should not be treated as interchangeable.
How did Murdock describe the challenges and choices of university study?
In ECU’s 2014 newsletter, Murdock offered advice to Indigenous students drawing on her own experience. Her points focused on commitment, identity, openness to other perspectives, asking for help and remembering why one chose to study:
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- “Make certain that you are truly passionate about your field of study. In some respect passion breeds commitment. I’ve been lucky, I knew from a very young age that I was going to work in the field of environmental science.”
- “Develop a thick skin, remember who you are and those who have come before you.”
- “Have the willingness to try and understand other perspectives before forming an opinion, this takes time.”
- “Don’t focus too much on getting the highest mark in the class. You’re there to learn, so learn and don’t be ashamed to ask for help.”
- “When everything else falls away, you got a bad mark on an essay or you’re missing your family (which happens a lot), remember why you chose to go to university in the first place, it’s well worth it in the end.”
What happened in her career after Oxford?
The Charlie Perkins Scholarship Trust says Murdock received the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation’s Murray Chapman Scholarship in 2015 and served as a Cultural Liaison Officer on the Aurora Study Tour in 2017. The Trust also records roles at Nous Group and Aurora Education Foundation, including National Manager for Aurora’s High School Program and Deputy CEO. Aurora’s profile identifies her as Deputy CEO and Head of Programs. A 2025 Australian Government announcement referred to her as Aurora’s Acting CEO at that time; because these titles are tied to different sources and dates, they should not be read as a verified current title.
In that 2025 announcement, Murdock spoke about First Nations representation in cancer care, calling for greater representation in postgraduate research, clinical practice and health education. It was a later statement in a health-sector context, separate from her 2014 environmental-management study plans.
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Where can students find information about support?
The Charlie Perkins Scholarship Trust and Aurora Education Foundation are official places to look for information about Indigenous postgraduate study and education programs. The available information here does not establish current application dates, eligibility rules or scholarship amounts. Prospective applicants should check the organisations’ current program pages before making plans.
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