A look at some of the greatest Australians. If you want to complain about Kylie Minogue being number one, you can do so here. Rankings aren’t everything. But, these are some really great Australians. (work in progress)
- Kylie Minogue – Actress
- Sir Donald Bradman – Cricketer who dominated the game in 1930s and 1940s. Finishing with a test average of 99.94 Bradman was so far ahead of his contemporaries, that no one has come close to his dominance. A quintessentially modest Australian rural boy, who drew great admiration from beyond the game of cricket.
- Saint Mary MacKillop – Saint. Looked after orphaned children and Aboriginal children in Australia’s outback.
- Sir Howard Florey – Helped develop Penicillin
- John Curtain – Australian Prime Minister during World War Two.
- Andrew Banjo Paterson – Australia’s Bush poet. Composer of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ popular Australian song.
- Paul Hogan – Actor/ Comedian
- Edith Cowan – Campaigner for women’s and children’s rights. The first women to enter Parliament
- Shane Warne – cricketer
- Sir Henry Parkes – Established Federal Convention in 1891 bringing the different states together as one country.
- Sir Charles Kingsford Smith – Flying pioneer. In 1928, made the first trans-Pacific flight from America to Australia.
- The Rev Dr John Flynn – Founder of Royal Flying Doctor Service – visiting patients in the outback by plane
- Sir Marcus Oliphant. – Inventor who helped develop magnetron for Radar, and the Nuclear Bomb
- Olivia Newton-John – Singer/ Actress
- Naomi Watts – Actress
- Sir John Monash – Military commander who restored pride after initial failings at Gallipoli.
- Bob Hawke – Prime Minister
- Eddie Mabo – Aboriginal who challenged the idea of ‘terra nullius’ and helped eventually win land rights for Aboriginals
- Allan Border – cricketer
- Robert Menzies – Prime Minister
- Sister Elizabeth Kenny – Revolutionised the treatment of polio patients.
- Rupert Murdoch – Media Mogul
- Evonne Goolagong – Tennis Player
- Cathy Freeman – Aboriginal 400m runner
who was face of the 2000 Sydney Olympics - Dame Elisabeth Mudoch – (philanthropist)
- Germaine Greer (feminist, writer) – World famous writer and famous.
- Cate Blanchett (actress)
- Dame Joan Sutherland (singer ) One of greatest bel canto opera singers
- Clive James – (writer, broadcaster)
- John Bradfield (engineer) and designer of one of Australia’s most recognisable structures.
- Greg Norman – golf
- Albert Jacka – Military hero in Gallipoli World War One
- Caroline Chisholm – Helped migrant women to find decent accommodation and better conditions in early Nineteenth Century
- Betty Cuthbert – Olympic track gold medallist.
- Heath Ledger – Actor
- Nicole Kidman – Actress
- Steve Irwin – Crocodile Hunter
- Ian Thorpe – Swimmer
- Geoffrey Rush – Actor
- Rod Laver – Tennis Player
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