Adelaide and Surrounds Who's Who
YOUR COMMUNITY. YOUR CONNECTIONS.
Meet the people behind the place.
Discover the people, businesses and groups who call Adelaide and Surrounds home, and meet members across Australia.
Each Portrait connects you with the public introduction and links that member has chosen to share.
PART OF THE WIDER NETWORK
Meet members across Australia
Discover members from other towns, cities and regions.
Distinguished and Famous people from Adelaide and Surrounds
Adelaide's notable lives reach from the cricket ground and the newspaper office to the studio and the kitchen. These people have different connections with the city and its surroundings: some grew up here, while others arrived as adults and made lasting careers in South Australia.
🏅 Sir Donald Bradman
Don Bradman was born in Cootamundra and grew up in Bowral, but Adelaide became his home as an adult. He moved here during the 1930s, worked in stockbroking and captained South Australia from 1935 to 1948. His first-class career began at Adelaide Oval in 1927 and ended on the same ground in 1949. The celebrated Test batting average of 99.94 is only part of his story: he later served as a cricket administrator and enjoyed golf, gardening and playing the piano.
📚 Catherine Helen Spence
Scottish-born Catherine Helen Spence arrived in South Australia with her family in 1839 and built a public career in Adelaide as a writer, preacher and reformer. Her novel Clara Morison appeared in 1854, and she later wrote regularly for the South Australian Register. She worked for children's welfare and women's voting rights, while campaigning for proportional representation. Her unsuccessful bid for the 1897 Federal Convention made her Australia's first female political candidate. She had plenty to say, and found more than one way to be heard.
🎨 Sir Hans Heysen
Hans Heysen migrated from Germany with his family in 1884 and trained at James Ashton's Norwood Art School. Adelaide supporters helped finance further study in Europe. He later made Hahndorf his home, painting the gum trees and working landscapes of the Adelaide Hills. Red Gold, painted there in 1913, gives river red gums a commanding presence. His career joined local patronage, overseas training and a sustained attention to the country around his Hills home.
🍽️ Adam Liaw
Adam Liaw's Adelaide connection runs through school, university and his first profession. He attended Prince Alfred College, completed science and law degrees at the University of Adelaide and practised at the city's Kelly & Co. before working in Japan. In 2010 he won the second season of MasterChef Australia, then wrote Two Asian Kitchens. For someone who had already built a legal career, entering a televised cooking competition was quite a change of brief.
