Luckily for Murray, his friends and family noticed his situation and his sister put him in touch with a coach, who helped him get back on his feet.
"That started the transition for me learning how to better believe in myself."
Murray decided that he wanted to farm differently, including how he worked with his team.
This led to a Nuffield scholarship studying businesses with high-performance team cultures in places like Silicon Valley.
While Silicon Valley is a long way away from Clarence River Valley, both businesses were based "around people," so he started from there, Murray said.
"What can be translated to our businesses? How do they operate? How do they do things slightly differently? What makes them attractive and what can be translated farming situations?"
Currently, Murray's operation includes 5500 merino ewes, 950 Angus and Hereford breeding cows and 750 beehives. He also has a team of seven full-time staff.
He found he was able to use what he'd learned from Silicon Valley and use it to help his team back home, especially with "soft skills".
Soft skills can include how you talk to people, give feedback and make decisions together, he said.
"[It's] not necessarily about working more efficiently, better and faster at jobs, but how to understand each other.
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"Those soft skills that are tied up with ... just how we get along with each other."
Creating a culture of belonging was also important.
"When you think about a farm and you've got a team of people who know each other well and get on in the good times and the bad. When you get to those tricky situations then everyone's pulling together because they've got a shared vision and a shared purpose."
Murray also found rural wellbeing organisation Farmstrong helpful in working out how to build effective teams and to create "the best environment on-farm".
"I think it's a great initiative. The more we talk about these things the more small light bulbs flick on and more and more people are becoming more aware and more comfortable in talking.
"I'm very keen to support it and see it become more mainstream."
For more on team work and other wellbeing advice head to Wellbeing topics - Farmstrong - Live Well Farm Well
Hamish Murray's tips for teamwork
• Leadership means dropping your ego and getting out of people's way. Before you can work on your team, you need to work on yourself.
• Leadership isn't about making every decision, it's asking the questions that help others decide. It's a coaching role.
• "Soft skills", how you talk to people, give feedback and make decisions as a team are vital.
• Every team needs a shared sense of purpose. Murray's team's purpose is "stand together, celebrate success, back yourself, own it and have fun".
