Famous Australians

Sir Mark Oliphant:(scientist/politician)
Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant was born in 1901 in Kent Town, South Australia.
In 1919 he began studying at the University of Adelaide and after working with various research organizations in the field of nuclear physics gained his PhD in 1929.
In the early 30’s, Oliphant discovered newer forms of Hydrogen and Helium, which laid the foundations for the development of nuclear weapons. In the 1940’s he became a tireless campaigner against weapons of mass destruction after having led a team, which worked on the development of the atomic bomb.
In 1950, on his return to Australia, he was appointed the founding Director of the Research School of Physical Sciences at the Australian National University in Canberra, a post he held until 1963.
After taking on the role of President of the Australian Academy of Science and Head of the Department of Particle Physics at ANU, Sir Mark Oliphant was appointed to the role of Governor of South Australia from 1971 until 1976.
Sir Mark Oliphant passed away on the 17th July 2000 after making a tremendous academic, scientific and public contribution to the Australian way of life.

Henry Lawson:(writer)
Henry Lawson was born on the rural goldfields of New South Wales in 1867.
At the early age of just 9 years Henry had an ear infection, which caused almost total deafness by the time he was 14.
With his family almost continually living in the country, Lawson was exposed to the way of life of the bush and the tales and stories that ensued and he soon began penning short stories of the way of life and he became quite a popular writer of his time which encouraged him to devote more and more time to his obvious talent.
As a very quite man by nature, Lawson soon gained confidence from his writing and found he was able to express his feelings in such a way that the general population related to, especially in a day when the reading of poetry and short stories was a most popular pastime. In the late 1880’s Henry became a regular contributor to the Bulletin and he regularly had his works, both poetry and short stories published and he soon built up a very strong following amongst readers.
Eventhough he had a relatively unhappy life, especially in his younger years and later with a broken marriage, he was appreciative of others and often found time to help those less fortunate but never seemed to care for his own health an subsequently passed away at the age of just 55. He was so well thought of even at the time of his death that the Government of the day paid for his funeral service and burial.
Henry Lawson was a great Australian poet and author who was one of the earliest to accurately capture the Australian way of life and portray it in such a way as to be easily identified by ordinary people.

Dawn Fraser:(swimmer)
Dawn Fraser was born in Balmain, Sydney in 1937.
To most, being born with asthma would have been an almost insurmountable hurdle, but to Dawn it was a way of participating in sport by need rather than want initially and so she took up swimming at an early age.
Soon after Dawn was spotted by the well known swimming coach Harry Gallagher who commenced training her for nothing and when Gallagher moved to Adelaide, Fraser followed him and that was the beginning of a very special swimming career.
After perfecting Dawn’s style, Fraser qualified for the Melbourne Olympic Games and she went on to win the 100 metres freestyle.
After winning 2 Gold Medals at the Cardiff Commonwealth Games in 1958, at the age of 23 she went on to represent Australia at the Rome Olympics and again one the 100 metres freestyle. In less than two years, Dawn Fraser went on to become the first woman to swim the 100 metres under one minute and almost gave up swimming on the death of her mother just prior to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics but went on to swim again and won a third time and in doing so became the first athlete to win the same event at three consecutive Olympic Games.
In 1988, Dawn entered politics as the Local Member for her beloved Balmain where she still resides to this day. Dawn Fraser is a truly great Australian.

Albert Namatjira:(painter)
Albert Namatjira was named Elea when born but after moving to an Aboriginal Mission his name was changed by his adoptive parents.
It was not until he was 13 that he had significant cultural influence from his own Aboriginal people when he was taken back to his Arnada tribe for the learning of traditional life and customs.
Like many of his people he took up painting as a part time activity to capture the stories of his forefathers and he soon progressed to making furniture and painting when in 1934 he attended a painting exhibition and was so inspired to take on painting as a full time pursuit.
He soon took on painting outback Landscapes in the Western style of painting which are very different from the traditional Aboriginal painting and he soon became quite famous and certainly the best known Aboriginal artist. His initial exhibition was held in Melbourne in 1938 and was amazingly sold out and so followed further exhibitions in Adelaide and Sydney, which drew similar success.
Albert Namatjira was the first Aboriginal to be granted full citizenship in 1955, which also meant he was able to purchase property, enter a hotel and even build his own home. It was a further 10 years though before the rest of the Aboriginal population of Australia was granted the same rights. Albert Namatjira passed away in 1959 leaving a legacy to his people that they could be inspired to follow.

Dame Joan Sutherland:(singer)
Joan Sutherland was born in Sydney, Australia in 1926.
Her move into Opera was prompted by listening to the great Dame Nellie Melba, also an Australian and was attracted by the glamour of the music even though it was not until she was 19 when she first received singing lessons that her potential was recognised.
In 1951 Joan Sutherland finally had saved enough money to sail to London where she was employed at Covent Garden with the Covent Garden’s Opera Company for 10 pound per week. After marrying in 1954 and receiving further training she set about a new International career where in Italy she was referred to as “La Stupenda.”
Her success continued to grow when in 1975 Joan Sutherland was named a Dame in the Queen’s Honour’s List. Her World wide recognition now complete, her career of almost 40 years ended by her own choice in 1990.

Caroline Chisholm:(charity)
Caroline Chisholm was born in England in 1808.
In 1830 she married Archibald Chisholm a British Army Officer whom she accompanied to Australia landing at the convict town of Sydney. Because of her upbringing which was one of charity to others, Caroline Chisholm sought out others less better off and soon became aware of the many people, especially women who were living on the streets of Sydney. She very soon became known as the emigrant’s friend offering what charity she could to those landing on the crowded ships from England.
Caroline Chisholm very soon commenced providing a charitable home for women and even sought help for a house from the Governor of the day and was eventually given the Immigration Barracks for her use. After just two years, the Female Immigrant’s Home as it became known had found homes initially and then jobs for in excess of 1,000 women and she soon set up an employment office and became the first in Australia to introduce work contracts. It was in 1846 that Caroline returned to England to seek Government approval for the families of transported convicts to be brought to Australia free of charge.
Caroline Chisholm passed away in 1877 in England but having left an indelible imprint of her charitable way in Australia.

Sir Douglas Mawson:(explorer)
Sir Douglas Mawson was born in England in 1882 and moved with his family to Australia at the age of just two years.
At the age of 16 he commenced his Engineering and Science Degree at the University of Sydney and after graduating commenced work at the University of Adelaide lecturing in the origin and structure of rocks and often visited the Flinders ranges as part of his field studies.
At the age of 26 Mawson joined the expedition by the well-known British explorer Ernest Shackleton to the Antarctic. The Team was to climb the Antarctic’s active volcano, Mount Erebus and also to trek to the Magnetic South Pole. After the success of this expedition, Mawson then returned to the Antarctic with his own expedition in 1911 to explore and map the Northern most coastal area.
After nearly dying himself and the rest of his small expedition passing away Mawson managed to survive what has been termed one of the great Antarctic expeditions and made two more trips to the bleak continent, which resulted in the claiming of almost half of the known mass of Antarctica as Australian Territory.
Sir Douglas Mawson passed away in 1958 at the age of 76.

Nancy Wake:(spy)
Although Nancy Wake grew up in Australia she was in France when the second World War broke out and it was there that she became so very well known for her work as an allied spy who quickly rose to the top of the Gestapo’s most wanted list. Her work for the French Resistance lead her to assist many hundreds of people escape capture from the Germans.
Nancy soon became known by the Germans as “The White Mouse” a name that referred to their inability to catch her and after realising how dangerous it was to remain in France finally escaped to London and convinced the British Government of her worth to be trained professionally as a spy and was then returned to France where she was to distribute weapons to the resistance fighters.
Nancy Wake’s heroism has been recognised by many high level awards and she continues to live out her life in France today.

Neville Bonner:(politician)
Neville Bonner was the first Aboriginal to be elected to the Federal Parliament as a Senator for Queensland in 1971 continuing until 1983.
Having been born on Ukerebagh Island never knew his father who was an Englishman and had returned to England prior to Neville'’ birth.
Prior to her death Neville Bonner’s mother had always insisted that Neville devote himself to his education although many aboriginals were not allowed to attend state schools until they had attained years often into their teens.
In 1943 he met and married Mona Banfield and moved to Palm Island where they remained for the next 16 years bringing up a family of five sons.
In 1967 after a National Referendum on Aboriginals there were major changes in how the indigenous natives were treated and in fact it was also the first time they were given the vote and actually counted as part of the population in National census statistics. At this time Neville Bonner decided if things were going to continue to change for his people he would need to do it from the inside and so he entered politics, joined the Liberal Party and was elected to the Senate in August 1971.
He was the first ever Aboriginal to be elected to the Federal Parliament and the first with the voice at this level in which he had the ability to influence Government.
In 1998, Neville Bonner announced that he was dying from lung cancer a disease, which was ultimately to claim his life on the 5th January 1999 at the age of 76.

Sir Donald Bradman:(cricket player)
Sir Donald Bradman is arguably the greatest australian sportsman.
Sir Don was born in 1908 and although he left school at the age of 14 he didn’t commence playing the game of cricket until he was 16 years of age and in 1928 at the age of 20 was selected to play for Australia against our old adversary England and although we lost that Series, Bradman scored a century in his Third Test. It soon became apparent to all good judges that Bradman was an extremely gifted batsman indeed for in one State game he hit a brisk 452 in World Record time.
In 1930 Bradman was again selected in the Australian team which took six weeks to sail to England, the Series itself was a most successful one with Bradman scoring 974 test runs.
In 1932 at the age of 24 "The Don" as he became known as married Jessie Menzies a girl from his hometown.
In 1936 "The Don" was made captain of the Australian team a fine achievement considering his lack of experience in the job at State level. After the War, Bradman was back in England again playing cricket and soon after retiring with the incredible Test average of 99.94 runs.
Donald Bradman was knighted in 1949 and although he has taken on some public roles especially associated with the Australian Cricket Board, he has in the main sought and achieved a very private life.
Sir Donald Bradman passed away peacefully in his home on the 25th February 2001, the Nation mourns the loss of this great cricketer and even greater Australian.

Dr Victor Chang:(doctor)
Dr Chang became Australia’s greatest and arguably the best heart surgeon of this country. Born in China in 1936 and emigrating to Australia in 1951 after losing his mother to cancer when he was just 12 years of age, Chang had already decided at that tender age to become a doctor. After graduation and specialisation in heart surgery, Dr Chang began working at St Vincents Hospital in Sydney where he set up the first Australian heart transplant speciality centre. In 1984 a young girl by the name of Fiona Coote who herself became well know as a community ambassador came to the fore after Dr Chang carried out a most successful heart transplant on her. Chang spent many hours in the redevelopment of artificial hearts and the introduction of new surgery techniques in an effort to increase the success rate of heart transplants . Unfortunately Dr Victor Chang was killed before the introduction of his new artificial heart. Although there can be no way of replacing Dr Chang there is a little of him that lives on in the many people whom he helped.

Sir Edward "Weary" Dunlop:(soldier/surgeon)
Weary Dunlop became known as a great compassionate Australian because of his untireless support to Australian Prisoners of War during World War Two.
Edward Dunlop grew up on family farms in Victoria and on leaving school commenced work at a local pharmacy.
In 1927 where he began studying medicine at Melbourne University and on graduating took up a role as a ship’s surgeon and sailed off to London. At the outbreak of the War, Weary enlisted in the Australian Army.
During the War Weary and his fellow troops were captured and transported to Burma and then on to Thailand where the Japanese used the prisoner to construct the infamous Burma rail of over 400 kilometres in length.
As the Force Commander, Weary Dunlop had the unenviable job of deciding on those who were capable of working whilst at the same time was required to treat those who were unable to work so that they could be returned to the work force at the earliest time as demanded by their captors.
On the completion of the War Edward Dunlop continued his work as a surgeon both within Australia and in Asia. Weary Dunlop was knighted in 1969 in recognition of his services to medicine.
This great Australian who touched and saved the lives of many passed away in 1993 at the age of 85 years at which time his State funeral was attended by tens of thousands of people.

Sir Robert Menzies:(politician)
Sir Robert Gordon Menzies was and in fact still holds the title of Australia’s longest serving Prime Minister, being for a period of 17 years. He was born in the small country town of Jeparit in 1894.
After High School Robert Menzies attended Melbourne University where he attained class honours at Law, becoming a very skilled lawyer.
He turned to politics though with his initial stint in Parliament being in the Victorian State Parliament. After some years he then entered Federal politics as a member of the United Australia Party.
Robert Gordon Menzies was elected to the position of Prime Minister on the 26th April 1939 on the death of the then Prime Minister Joseph Lyons, this was of course just prior to the commencement of the Second World War. After the breaking up and dissolution of his United Australia Party Menzies created the Liberal Party and made a winning return to politics in 1949 by leading his new Party to a landslide election victory. Menzies then became well known for numerous sayings such as "populate or perish" when referring to the need for Australia to populate the country in order to expand and be competitive internationally.
Robert Menzies was knighted in 1963 just three years prior to his retirement from politics. During his "reign" Menzies was responsible for seven Federal election victories, the building of the National Capital at Canberra as well as his many visits to England.
Sir Robert Menzies passed away at the age of 83 with his funeral being attended by world leaders including Royalty.

Betty Cuthbert:(sportswoman)
Betty Cuthbert was born on the 20th April 1938 and was brought up in the Sydney suburb of Merrylands.
At the age of eight Betty who from a young age sought to be an athlete won 50 and 75 yard races and represented Australia at the Melbourne Olympic Games in 1956 and then at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 1960. Betty Cuthbert won four Olympic Games Gold Medals, one Commonwealth Games Gold Medal and two Silver Medals. In addition, Betty Cuthbert who became an absolute inspiration to a nation and the generations that followed her was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire).

Edith Cowan:(politician)
Edith Cowan was born in Western Australia in 1861 and lived on a property in Geraldton North of Perth.
After the death of her mother when she was just 11 years of age he father sent her to a boarding school. Some time later her father remarried and during a bout of heavy drinking shot and killed his second wife a crime for which he hung.
At the age of 17, Edith married James Cowan and had five children. Because of her own tragic circumstances, Edith tended to take special interest and sympathised with women and children who suffered in a similar way to the way she had and she soon became a pioneer for women’s and children’s rights. She went on to fight for massive changes during a period when women were not treated as equal to men.
Edith Cowan was the first woman elected to an Australian Parliament and during the Great War gave tirelessly all of her time to others and collected food and clothing to forward it to soldiers in the front line. In 1920 Edith Cowan was awarded the Order of the British Empire and in that same year the West Australian Parliament passed a Bill allowing women to be elected. Edith Cowan at the age of 60 stood for and was the first woman elected to an Australian Parliament.
Cowan continued her fight for equality with men and finally withdrew from public life in the late 1920’s and passed away in 1932 at the age of 72. She remains in the memory of many Australians with her portrait depicted on the Fifty Dollar note.

Fred Hollows:(surgeon/charity)
Professor Fred Hollows was born in New Zealand in 1929 and soon became qualified in his chosen field as a doctor specialising in eye surgery and in 1960 came to Australia and five years later was appointed the Head of the Eye Department of a Sydney hospital.
Fred always believed strongly in equality for all people. He was told about the need for Aboriginal health services in Sydney. He took up the cause, and helped set up the first Aboriginal Medical Service. There are now more than 60 across Australia. In the 1070’s he helped launch a national program to attack the eye disease problems now common place amongst Aboriginal Australians. In three years he and his team travelling all over the outback of Australia treated 30,000 people, performing thousands of operations and subscribing approximately 10,000 sets of glasses.
Fred Hollows died in 1993 and was survived by his wife and five children.

Ned Kelly:(criminal)
Edward (Ned) Kelly was born in Victoria in 1854 to Irish parents and at the age of 12 the family of ten moved to Greta a small town North-East of Melbourne.
Ned was just 16 when he was convicted of receiving a stolen horse and served three years in gaol before being released in 1874. Whether or not he was set for a life of crime is hard to say, but one event had a dramatic effect on determining his future and that was in April 1878 a police officer called Fitzpatrick accused Ned's mother of attacking him and Ned of shooting him in the wrist.
But whatever actually happened, the end result of Fitzpatrick's claims was that Mrs. Kelly was sent to prison for three years and a 100 pound reward was offered for the capture of Ned. From that time on Ned and his brother Dan kept to the bush.
On the 26th October 1878, together with friends, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart, they came across police camped at Stringy Bark Creek. Ned believed the police intended to kill him and Dan so he called on them to surrender. But three of the officers resisted, and in the fight which followed, Kelly shot them dead.
The reward for Kelly and his gang rose to two thousand pounds and would later rise to an amazing eight thousand pounds, the equivalent, today, of nearly two millions dollars.
In June 1880 Ned made his last stand at the Glenrowan Hotel when they were surrounded by police. Prepared to fight, the four bushrangers wore suits of armour made from steel. During the battle, Ned escaped through the police lines. But rather than fleeing into the bush, he returned a number of times to fight police. He was trying to rescue his brother and friends. Eventually, he collapsed with more than 28 bullet wounds to his arms, legs, feet, groin and hands. After Ned recovered he was convicted of the murder of one of the police officers at Stringy Bark, and despite protests by thousands of supporters, was sentenced to death.
At the age of just 25 on the 11th November 1880 Ned Kelly was hanged in the Melbourne Gaol but he has grown to be an admired if infamous figure for the way he stood up to authority and his larrikin ways.

Charles Manning Hope Clark:(writer)
Manning Clark was born in Sydney in 1915 the son of a clergyman and after being educated at Melbourne and Sydney Universities he proceeded to Oxford university.
From 1946 - 1975 he taught history in Melbourne and Canberra and during this time he regularly published papers on Australian history which became study text for students.
In 1956 he commenced writing his masterpiece “A History Of Australia” the six volumes of which were published between 1962 and 1987. Besides religious and political argument he advocated the necessity of Australia breaking free from Britain. His work attracted much following and created much academic debate and criticism of his moralistic style of writing as against factual accuracy. Clark wrote from the heart and in 1980 he was named Australian of the Year.
Clark died in 1991, with his last publications being The Puzzles Of Childhood in 1989 and The Quest For Grace in 1990, both being volumes of his autobiography.

Sir Robert Helpman:(dancer)
Sir Robert Helpman was born in Mount Gambier in April 1909 and began his dance career in Sydney at the Pavlova Dance Company in 1926 and appeared professionally the following year.
In 1933 Helpman joined the Vic Wells Ballet in London a company which was later to become the Royal Ballet where he was principal dancer from 1933 to 1950 and danced opposite Margot Fonteyn in the 1940’s.
Helpmann produced his own ballets - Comus in 1942, Hamlet in 1942, Miracle in the Gorbals in 1946 and Adam Zero in 1946. He took to acting Shakespeare at the Stratford Festival and at the Old Vic theatre company in London. He appeared in many films including The Tales Of Hoffmann.
From 1965-74 he co-directed the Australian Ballet and was sole director in 1975-76, ballets being performed including The Merry Widow, Sun Music and Elektra.
In 1965 he was named Australian of the Year and was knighted in 1968 and passed away in 1986.

Sir William Dobell:(painter)
William Dobell was born in Newcastle on 24th September 1899 and studied art in both London and Holland before returning to Sydney. A three time Archibald Prize winner, he won the 1943 prize for a controversial portrait of fellow painter Joshua Smith. Many considered this entry as a caricature and not a portrait. Court action followed on for two years and unfortunately the portrait was later destroyed in a fire. His painting Wangi Boy sold in 1998 for $497,500.
William Dobell was knighted in 1966 and passed away in 1970.

written by J. Fischer