Famous people who grew up or lived in Australia

Albert Namatjira1902–1959

📍 Hermannsburg (Ntaria), Northern Territory 0872, Australia

I was born at Hermannsburg, the Lutheran mission on the Finke River in the Western Arrernte country of central Australia, in 1902. The missionaries baptised me Albert, and I grew up between…

Angus Young1963–1973

📍 Burwood NSW 2134, Australia

Angus McKinnon Young was born in Glasgow in March 1955, the youngest son of a large Scottish family, and grew up in a tenement flat on Skerryvore Road in the Cranhill housing scheme. After…

Ashleigh Barty1996–2012

📍 Ipswich QLD 4305, Australia

Ashleigh Barty was born in Ipswich, Queensland, in April 1996 and grew up in Springfield, a new, fast-growing suburb on the edge of Ipswich, west of Brisbane. Her father, Robert, is an…

Banjo Paterson1869–1874

📍 Illalong, near Yass, NSW 2582, Australia

I was born at Narambla, near Orange in New South Wales, in 1864, the eldest of seven children, and when I was a small boy my family took over my uncle's sheep station at Illalong, near…

Barry Humphries1934–1952

📍 36 Christowel Street, Camberwell, Melbourne, VIC 3124, Australia

I was raised in a brand-new house on Christowel Street, in the genteel garden suburb of Camberwell — my father built it, and the one next door too. They called me Sunny Sam and gave me…

Bon Scott1956–1966

📍 Fremantle WA 6160, Australia

I was born Ronald Belford Scott in Forfar, Scotland, in July 1946, and grew up in Kirriemuir, a small red-sandstone town in Angus. In 1952 my family emigrated to Australia, settling first…

Cate Blanchett1969–1987

📍 Ivanhoe, Melbourne, Victoria 3079, Australia

Cate Blanchett grew up in Ivanhoe, a leafy suburb of parks and old houses in Melbourne's north-east, the middle of three children. Her mother, June, was a teacher and later a property…

Cathy Freeman1973–1986

📍 Slade Point, Mackay, QLD 4740, Australia

Cathy Freeman grew up at Slade Point, on the coast at Mackay in tropical North Queensland, the daughter of a Birri Gubba father and a Kuku Yalanji mother. She ran everywhere as a child …

Chris Hemsworth1995–2001

📍 Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia

Chris Hemsworth was born in Melbourne in 1983, the middle of three brothers between Luke and Liam. His father, Craig, was a social services counsellor and his mother, Leonie, an English…

David Unaipon1872–1885

📍 Raukkan (Point McLeay Mission), Coorong, SA 5259, Australia

I was born at the Point McLeay Mission — Raukkan — on the shores of Lake Alexandrina, Ngarrindjeri country, in 1872. My father James was a Ngarrindjeri leader and preacher, and our home…

Don Bradman1911–1924

📍 20 Glebe Street, Bowral, NSW 2576, Australia

My family moved to Bowral, a town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, when I was two and a half, and I grew up at 20 Glebe Street, right across the road from the Glebe Park…

Eddie Mabo1959–1992

📍 Townsville, QLD 4810, Australia

In 1959 I came to Townsville, on the North Queensland coast, and made my life there — working the railways and the docks, raising my children, sweeping floors at the university where I was…

Evonne Goolagong Cawley1951–1965

📍 Barellan NSW 2665, Australia

Evonne Goolagong was born in Griffith, New South Wales, in July 1951 and grew up in Barellan, a small wheat-farming town in the Riverina, the third of eight children of Kenny Goolagong, a…

Greg Norman1955–1976

📍 Aspley, Brisbane QLD 4034, Australia

Greg Norman was born in Mount Isa, a remote mining town in outback Queensland, in February 1955, to Merv, an electrical engineer, and Toini, the daughter of a Finnish carpenter and a fine…

Heath Ledger1979–1995

📍 Applecross, Perth, WA 6153, Australia

I grew up on the western side of the Swan River, in and around Applecross, where the water was never far and the light came off it golden in the late afternoon. My name came from a…

Hugh Jackman1968–1986

📍 Wahroonga, Sydney, NSW 2076, Australia

Hugh Jackman grew up in Wahroonga, on Sydney's Upper North Shore — a settled, green suburb of wide gardens where his English-born parents had migrated in 1967. When Hugh was eight his…

Joel Parkinson1992–2000

📍 Coolangatta QLD 4225, Australia

Joel Parkinson was born in Nambour, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, in April 1981, and started surfing as a small boy at Caloundra, on his father's board, quickly showing a natural, smooth…

Karrie Webb1974–1994

📍 Ayr QLD 4807, Australia

Karrie Webb was born in December 1974 and grew up in Ayr, a small sugar-cane town in the Burdekin district of North Queensland, south of Townsville, surrounded by cane fields, the river…

Keith Urban1970–1992

📍 Caboolture, Queensland 4510, Australia

Keith Urban was born in Whangārei, in Northland, New Zealand, in 1967, and when he was two his family moved to Queensland, settling in Caboolture, a small town north of Brisbane. His…

Kylie Minogue1968–1985

📍 Surrey Hills, Melbourne, VIC 3127, Australia

Kylie Minogue spent her childhood in Surrey Hills, a quiet residential pocket of Melbourne's east, after a series of family moves between suburbs as money stayed tight. Her father Ron…

Layne Beachley1972–1990

📍 Manly NSW 2095, Australia

Layne Collette Beachley was born in Sydney in May 1972 and grew up in Manly, the famous beach suburb on Sydney's Northern Beaches, between the harbour and the Pacific, with its long…

Margaret Court1942–1960

📍 Albury NSW 2640, Australia

Margaret Smith was born in Albury, a country town on the Murray River on the border between New South Wales and Victoria, in July 1942, the youngest of four children of Lawrence Smith, a…

Margot Robbie1990–2007

📍 Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

Margot Robbie was born in Dalby, Queensland, in 1990 and grew up mostly on her grandparents' farm in the Currumbin Valley, in the green hinterland behind the Gold Coast. Her mother, Sarie…

Mark Richards1957–1979

📍 Merewether NSW 2291, Australia

Mark Richards was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, in March 1957, the son of Ray and Val Richards, and grew up in Merewether, a beachside suburb of the coal and steel city, with its rock…

Michael Hutchence1972–1978

📍 Belrose, Sydney, NSW 2085, Australia

After years away we came back to Sydney in 1972 and settled in Belrose, a quiet garden suburb on the plateau above the northern beaches. I was the new kid, the dreamer who had seen more of…

Michael Joseph Savage1872–1893

📍 Tatong, Victoria 3673, Australia

I was born at Tatong, near Benalla in Victoria, in 1872, the youngest of eight children of Irish Catholic immigrants, Richard Savage and Johanna Hayes. We lived on a small farm in hard…

Mick Fanning1993–2001

📍 Coolangatta QLD 4225, Australia

Michael Eugene Fanning was born in Penrith, in western Sydney, in June 1981, the youngest of five children of Irish parents. His parents separated, and his mother, Liz, moved the family…

Midget Farrelly1950–1964

📍 Manly NSW 2095, Australia

I was born Bernard Farrelly in Paddington, Sydney, in September 1944, and when I was six my uncle, Ray Hookham, a well-known board rider, took me out into the surf at North Bondi for the…

Nat Young1947–1966

📍 Collaroy NSW 2097, Australia

Robert Harold Young was born in Sydney in November 1947 and grew up in Collaroy, a small seaside suburb on Sydney's Northern Beaches, between Long Reef and Narrabeen, with long, open…

Ned Kelly1859–1864

📍 Kelly Family Home, Kelly Street, Beveridge, Victoria 3753, Australia

I was born at Beveridge, north of Melbourne, the son of John Kelly, known as Red, an Irish convict who had been transported to Van Diemen's Land for stealing pigs, and Ellen Quinn, whose…

Neville Bonner1922–1927

📍 Ukerebagh Island, Tweed River, NSW 2486, Australia

I was born under a palm tree on Ukerebagh Island, a scrap of land in the Tweed River near the Queensland border, in 1922. We had almost nothing — a Jagera family living on the river's edge…

Nicole Kidman1971–1985

📍 Longueville, Lane Cove, Sydney, NSW 2066, Australia

Nicole Kidman grew up in Longueville, a quiet, leafy enclave on Sydney's Lower North Shore where the streets slope down to the still water of the Lane Cove River. Her parents — Antony, a…

Olivia Newton-John1954–1965

📍 Ormond College, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC 3052, Australia

We came from Cambridge when I was six, and my father became Master of Ormond College at the University of Melbourne — so I grew up, improbably, inside a grand university college, all…

Oodgeroo Noonuccal1920–1933

📍 One Mile, Dunwich, North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah), QLD 4183, Australia

I was born Kathleen Ruska at One Mile on Minjerribah — North Stradbroke Island — Noonuccal country in Quandamooka. My father Ted taught us to respect our heritage, to hunt and fish only for…

Pemulwuy1792–1802

📍 Toongabbie, Parramatta, NSW 2146, Australia

At the government farm at Toongabbie, near Parramatta, the strangers broke the ground that fed my people and worked it with chained men. From 1792 I carried the fight to them here and…

Polly Farmer1937–1952

📍 Sister Kate's Home, Queens Park, Perth, WA 6107, Australia

I was a Noongar child, taken young to Sister Kate's home for children at Queens Park, in Perth's south-east — one of the Stolen Generations, raised apart from my mother. They nicknamed me…

Robert Menzies1894–1978

📍 Jeparit, Victoria, Australia

I was born Robert Gordon Menzies on the 20th of December 1894 in Jeparit, a small wheat-farming town in the Wimmera district of Victoria, the son of a storekeeper and local politician…

Rod Laver1938–1956

📍 Rockhampton QLD 4700, Australia

Rod Laver was born in Rockhampton, Queensland, in August 1938, the third of four children of Roy Laver, a cattleman and butcher, and Melba. As a baby he was taken back to Langdale, the…

Rosé2004–2012

📍 Box Hill, Melbourne, Victoria 3128, Australia

Roseanne Park was born in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1997 to South Korean immigrant parents, and when she was about seven the family moved to Melbourne, settling in Box Hill, a lively…

Sam Kerr1993–2008

📍 East Fremantle WA 6158, Australia

Samantha May Kerr was born in East Fremantle, a riverside suburb of Perth, in Western Australia, in September 1993, the daughter of Roger Kerr and Roxanne Regan. Her father had been born in…

Shane Warne1969–1988

📍 Black Rock, Melbourne, Victoria 3193, Australia

I grew up in Black Rock, a bayside suburb of Melbourne, and the beaches and backyards of Black Rock, Hampton and Brighton were my world. My dad, Keith, and mum, Brigitte, were great…

Sia1975–1997

📍 Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Sia Kate Isobelle Furler was born in Adelaide in December 1975 and grew up in a creative, bohemian household in the inner suburbs of the city, including North Adelaide, with its leafy…

Stephanie Gilmore1988–2007

📍 Kingscliff NSW 2487, Australia

Stephanie Gilmore was born in Murwillumbah, in the Tweed Valley of northern New South Wales, in January 1988, and grew up in Kingscliff, a relaxed coastal town on the Tweed Coast, just…

Steve Irwin1962–1970

📍 Essendon, Melbourne, VIC 3040, Australia

I was born in Essendon, in Melbourne's north, on my mum's birthday in 1962. Dad had a wild passion for reptiles and Mum was a wildlife rehabilitator — so even in suburban Victoria our house…

Tom Carroll1961–1983

📍 Newport NSW 2106, Australia

Thomas Victor Carroll was born in Sydney in November 1961 and grew up in Newport, a beach suburb on Sydney's Northern Beaches, near the mouth of Pittwater, with his older brother, Nick, and…

Tyler Wright1994–2011

📍 Culburra Beach NSW 2540, Australia

Tyler Wright was born in March 1994 and grew up in Culburra Beach, a small coastal village on the New South Wales south coast, at the mouth of the Crookhaven River, with long beaches, a…

Wayne 'Rabbit' Bartholomew1954–1975

📍 Coolangatta QLD 4225, Australia

Wayne Bartholomew was born in Murwillumbah, New South Wales, in November 1954, and grew up in Coolangatta, at the southern end of Queensland's Gold Coast, with his parents, Donald and…