Famous Australians
Not all of our famous folk started out as Aussies, but we love them and welcome them all the same! Following are just a few...

• Air Supply – musicians Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock
• Bananas in Pyjamas – irresistible entertainment for preschoolers (Australian Broadcasting Commission)
• Bee Gees – musicians Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb (born on the Isle of Man)
• Arthur Boyd – master painter, potter and graphic artist
• Sir Donald Bradman – greatest batsman who ever lived and the greatest cricketer of the 20th century
• Caroline Chisholm – extraordinary social achiever recognised for her social work with women in early New South Wales
• Marcus Clarke – novelist and poet, best known for his novel "For the Term of His Natural Life"
• Russell Crowe – actor and musician (born in New Zealand)
• Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop – remarkable surgeon and WWII POW known for his medical skills, compassion and dedication to duty
• Dame Edna Everage – some say she is a character played by Australian comedian Barry Humphries, but Edna is a real woman and extraordinary performer known for her lilac hair and over-the-top glasses
• Sir Howard Florey – a pharmacologist who shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Ernst Boris Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming for his role in the extraction of penicillin
• Errol Flynn – a swashbuckler who starred in many Hollywood classics, including "The Adventures of Robin Hood"
• Cathy Freeman – an athlete particularly associated with the 400 m race, and regarded as a role model for Aboriginal people
• Mel Gibson – actor, who rose to fame as the star of "Mad Max" (born in the USA)
• Fred Hollows – humanitarian, known for his work in restoring eyesight for countless thousands of people in Australia and many other countries (born in New Zealand)
• Robert Hughes – art critic and author, "The Fatal Shore" was an international bestseller
• Steve Irwin – wildlife conservationist nicknamed the Crocodile Hunter and co-owner of Australia Zoo
• Ned Kelly – Australia's most famous bushranger, and, to many, a folk hero for his defiance of the colonial authorities
• Nicole Kidman – one of Hollywood’s leading actresses (born in Hawaii)
• Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith – early Australian aviator who completed the first non-stop crossing of the Australian mainland, the first flight from Australia to New Zealand, and the more difficult eastward Pacific crossing from Australia to the United States
• Henry Lawson – writer and poet during Australia’s colonial period whose main focus was the Australian bush and considered to have produced some of the first accurate descriptions of Australian life as it was at the time
• Norman Alfred William Lindsay – prolific artist, sculptor, writer, editorial cartoonist and scale modeler, widely regarded as one of Australia's greatest artists
• Elizabeth Macarthur – generally acknowledged as being at least jointly responsible for founding the wool industry in Australia, and her letters provided an important record of the early convict transports and life in the colony
• Dame Nellie Melba – opera singer, and the first Australian to achieve international recognition as an opera soprano
• Rupert Murdoch – businessman and media magnate, global media executive, and a powerful force in satellite television, the film industry, the internet, and other forms of media
• Albert Namatjira – Aboriginal artist, one of Australia's most acclaimed visual artists, best known for his watercolour Australian outback desert landscapes
• Sidney Nolan – one of Australia's most well-known painters, his most famous work is a series of stylised descriptions of the bushranger Ned Kelly in the Australian outback
• A. B. ‘Banjo’ Paterson – bush poet, journalist and author who wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including "Waltzing Matilda", "The Man From Snowy River" and "Clancy Of The Overflow"
• Pavlova – dessert that is crispy on the outside but light and fluffy inside (Aussies are still fighting with the Kiwis over its heritage)
• Charles Perkins – Aboriginal activist and football (soccer) player, coach and administrator
• Wallabies – national rugby union team (currently the Qantas Wallabies for sponsorship reasons) representing Australia at international rugby union competitions including the Rugby World Cup and the Tri Nations; play in Australia's traditional sporting colours of green and gold
• Peter Weir – film director known for "Picnic at Hanging Rock", "Gallipoli", "Dead Poets Society" and "The Truman Show"
• Patrick White – author and Nobel Laureate, widely regarded as one of the greatest English-language novelists of the 20th century
• The Wiggles – an Australian band that specializes in creating and performing music for children, internationally noted for its childrens albums, home videos and television programs
• David Williamson – playwright who has also developed screenplays for film and television, particularly "Don’s Party" and "Brilliant Lies"

Wanna learn more? Check out:

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• ABC Australia, Schools TV