Murray Thompson graduated from the Victorian School of Forestry in 1935 and was awarded the Diploma of Forestry Victoria in 1952, following submission of his thesis on Forest Fire Prevention and Control in the Cann Valley Forest District. After graduation he was posted to Beaufort then Bendigo, Yarram to Taggerty as Assistant Forester in 1937. He was in Narbethong during the 1939 fires, then in Echuca, Forest Assessment (in Orbost), Tanjil Bren, Cohuna and Kinglake where he supervised a POW camp. Murray was promoted to District Forester in Cann River in 1945, and was then DFO in Beechworth in 1951, Heathcote in 1953 and Beaufort in 1955. He was promoted to Assistant Divisional Forester in Healesville in 1959 and to Divisional Forester in Ballarat in 1966. He retired in 1975.