Who’s who at Bendigo’s schools: Movers, shakers and notable former students of all time
From Antarctic expeditioners to groundbreaking scientific researchers and sports hall of famers, here’s our list of the greatest alumni from Bendigo schools.
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Bendigo has produced impressive phenoms, artists, musicians, athletes, scientists and business people and leaders over the decades.
From Antarctic expeditioners to groundbreaking scientific researchers and sports hall of famers, here’s our list of the greatest alumni from Bendigo schools of all time.
GIRTON GRAMMAR SCHOOL
Diana Williams – Founder of Fernwood Women’s Health Clubs
Diana Williams is Founder and CEO of Fernwood Fitness, establishing her first women’s only gym in Bendigo in 1989.
More than 30 years later her, her business has become Australia’s largest women’s fitness and wellness institutions in the county with 71 clubs and a membership of more than 80,000 women across Australia.
Her business turns over more than $75m a year and employs about 2000 people.
Scott Pape OAM – The Barefoot Investor
Scott Pape is an author, television presenter, radio commentator and newspaper colourist focused on personal finance education.
He is best known through the persona, The Barefoot Investor.
In 2020 Pape received the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to the community and financial education, the same year he gave up my financial services license and spent two years volunteering as a not-for-profit financial counsellor.
Mr Pape also attended Bendigo Senior Secondary College.
Shelley Matheson – Paralympian
Shelley Matheson (nee Chaplin) is an Australian 3.5-point player wheelchair basketball player.
Ms Matheson won a silver medal at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, a bronze at the Summer Paralympics in Beijing, and a silver at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London.
Caitlin Thwaites – Commonwealth Games gold medallist
Caitlin Thwaites was an Australian champion international netball goal shooter with an impressive career before her retirement in 2020.
Ms Thwaites has won gold medals for Australia at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2015 Netball World Cup, as well as a silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Ola Cohn – Australian artist
Ola Cohn was an Australian artist, author and philanthropist born and best known for her work in sculpture in a modernist style, and famous for her Fairies Tree in the Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne which she sculpted between 1931 and 1934.
She died in 1964 at age 72.
On January 1, 1965, shortly after her death, Cohn was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for her work in the service of art and was added to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2007.
Khayshie Tilak Ramesh – UN delegate
Khayshie Ramesh is a lawyer and advocate for gender equality.
Her work has taken her all over the world as delegate at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women where she represented Australia in 2023 and 2024.
She also served two consecutive terms as the Multicultural Youth Commissioner of Victoria advocating for better outcomes for multicultural communities.
She was also recognised as inaugural Youth Mayor of City of Greater Bendigo and Young Citizen of the Year in 2017.
Lucas Herbert – Professional golfer
Lucas Herbert is an Australian professional golfer, putting in the world’s top 50 players, with his highest ranking coming in at 40.
He’s won the European Tour three times and won the PGA Tour and the Japan Gold Tour.
In 2024 he joined the LIV Golf League.
He also attended BSSC.
Alessia McCaig – Gold medallist cyclist
Bendigo’s Alessia McCaig took home three gold medals at the Cycling Australia National Track Championships in March.
Ms McCaig is a four-time national champion and holds multiple junior Australian records.
Starting out at the Bendigo and District Cycling Club at 9 years old, she has since won multiple gold and silver medals for Victoria as a teenager at national competitions and was named “Champion of Champions” two years running.
In 2022 she received the Sport Australia Hall of Fame scholarship after representing Australia at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and Glasgow Track World Cup.
Jenna Strauch – Olympic swimmer
Aquatic Bendigo native Jenna Strauch has the 10th fastest breaststroke in the wold.
She competed in 2024 Australian Open Swimming Championships, winning gold in the women’s 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke.
Coming in sixth at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, she scored a personal best of 2:23.30 minutes in the 200m breaststroke.
Driven by the “constant desire to be better”, her athletic performance has improved with every professional appearance.
She has also represented Australia at international competitions for 100m and 200m breaststroke in Dubai, China and Korea.
Andrew Collins – Former AFL player
Starting out playing for Sandhurst in the Bendigo Football League and the TAC Cup with the Bendigo Pioneers, Andrew Collins was recruited to Richmond Football Club in the 2006 AFL draft.
Making his senior debut in the 2009 season, Collins goes down as one of the club’s best players, being named best on ground on multiple occasions during his four seasons with the club before being traded to Carlton.
Collins would unfortunately be taken out of the competition by a shoulder injury after a 36-game AFL career with the two clubs.
Mr Collins has since gone back to his roots as coach of the Bridgewater Football Club.
Emily Everist – AFLW player
Emily Everist is a former Bendigo Pioneer girl who was picked up by Hawthorn Football Club after just 18 months in the sport.
Playing soccer all her life, Bendigo Pioneers coach Danny O’Bree steered her into what has become a burgeoning career with the AFLW.
The key defender was drafted by Hawthorn after a stellar Vic Country league showing, with her endurance setting her apart from the pack, ranking fourth nationally in the AFLW Combine 2km time trial.
Emily Havea – Actor
Havea has worked as a professional actor singer and dancer, appearing seasons six and seven of Australian prison drama Wentworth and on Netflix in A Perfect Pairing and The Secrets He Keeps.
Havea, a triple threat, has also performed on stage in theatrical productions of Julius Caesar, Fun Home and Wherever She Wanders.
Her favourite production was Brown Skin Girl which she wrote and performed with Angela Sullen and Ayeesha Ash, a theatrical piece that describes the experience of a person of colour growing up in Australia.
Alexia Higgs – Orchestra Manager of the European Union Youth Orchestra
Alexia Higg’s career has taken her all over Europe. After graduating Girton Ms Higg’s studied at the Conservatoire of Music, University of Melbourne.
She went work at Federation Square managing the theatre and projects with the Melbourne Symphony, Australian Chamber Orchestra and Opera Australia.
Her career as a producer of the arts has since seen her collaborate with international composers across Europe and the UK including Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt on her Trasimeno Music Festival in Italy and producing festivals at the Southbank Centre in London.
She now manages the European Union Youth Orchestra.
Christopher Field – Professional opera singer
After graduating as Dux from Girton, Christopher went on to study opera at the University of Melbourne and embark on musical career that would see his voice touch the hearts of audiences all over the world.
Field has sung for Opera Australia with the Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. He has also performed with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Opera in the UK and the Opera du Rhin in Strasbourg, France.
Field has also worked as a soloist in concert in Europe and Australia Christopher including his debut with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and with Musik Fabrik in Cologne, Germany.
He currently holds the position of Vicar Choral at St Paul’s Cathedral in London.
Lauren Jennings – Professional musician
Cellist Lauren Jennings is an emerging artist who is already making waves in the orchestral music scene.
She has performed at the Sydney Opera House and has been actively involved in the Melbourne Youth Orchestra, Lyric Opera, Melbourne Opera and Australian Youth Orchestra and Moulin Rouge and Titanic: The Musical.
She is a member of the Curve Quartet, one of four talented young musicians studying at the Conservatorium of Music who are being mentored as the future stars of the theatre.
Rebecca Duke – 2017 Rhodes Scholar
Rebecca Duke was on track for an international career as a professional ballet dancer, but decided on a career path focused on helping people.
Ms Duke was named Rhodes Scholar of 2017 by then Governor of Victoria Linda Dessau upon her completion of a Bachelor of Arts with Honours, majoring in Psychology with First Class Honours at Melbourne University.
The scholarship paved the way for her postgrad Masters of Philosophy at Oxford University in the UK researching he way internet-based technologies affect the educational engagement of young people with the aim of developing programs that address emerging challenges.
While she studied she volunteered at the Royal Children’s Hospital and also volunteers as a crisis counsellor.
She now works as the manager of research dissemination and knowledge sharing at the Victorian Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing.
Dr Madeline Mitchell – PhD in Plant Sciences
Dr Madeline Mitchell is an accomplished scientist working as the director of agrifood at Breakthrough Victoria.
She manages a $2bn investment fund set up by the Victorian Government to make Victoria a global innovation leader in the future of sustainable agriculture, helping farmers.
She has a PhD from the University of Cambridge and where she collaborated on research to increase crop yields by “re-engineering photosynthesis”.
She has also done innovative work the CSIRO to develop novel vegetable oil crops, which are now in field trials and then led a synthetic biology project to enhance cotton fibre to make renewable and biodegradable alternatives to artificial fibres like polystyrene.
CATHERINE MCAULEY COLLEGE
Jacinta Allen - Victorian Premier
Jacinta Allan is a Bendigo local representing the Bendigo electorate and was the Minister for Transport before she was named Premier of Victoria.
She grew up and went to school in Bendigo and now sends her own two kids to Bendigo schools.
Some of her achievements include investment in the upgrading and improvement of many local schools.
She has also been behind major local projects including: five new Ambulance stations across Bendigo, the new Joan Pinder and Stella Anderson residential aged care facilities, the new Bendigo Hospital, the major upgrade to the Bendigo Stadium, and the new Bendigo Tech School.
Joel Selwood – retired AFL player
Joel Anthony Selwood is a former midfielder for the Geelong Football Club born and raised in Bendigo.
He is a quadruple premiership player, a six-time all-Australian, and a three-time captain of the all-Australian team and holds the record for longest-serving captain in the AFL.
Mr Selwood attended Catherine McAuley College as well as Bendigo Senior Secondary College.
Kate DeAraugo – Australian Idol winner
Katherine Jenna DeAraugo is an Australian singer-songwriter who in 2005 was the third winner of Australian Idol.
In the same year her debut single Maybe Tonight went platinum after hitting No. 1 on the ARIA Charts, followed by her debut album, A Place I’ve Never Been.
Emma Dean – MasterChef winner
Emma Dean won season five of MasterChef Australia in 2013, winning the prize of $100,000 and released a cookbook A Homegrown Table.
Emma Dean hosts Network Ten television series, My Market Kitchen, which is currently in its third season.
She is also a Metropolitan Champion in the 500m Time Trial and represented Australia at the 2004 Oceania Track Cycling Championships.
Ryan McNaught (AKA Brickman) – Lego Master
Ryan McNaught is the only professional Lego builder in the Southern Hemisphere and one of only 21 in the entire world.
Also known as “Brickman” Mr McNaught runs a studio of Lego artists and craftspeople who create impressive Lego sculptures.
In 2019 he joined Channel 9’s TV show LEGO Masters Australia as the main competition judge alongside host Hamish Blake.
Patrick Savage – Internationally acclaimed violinist
Patrick Savage is a violinist who has composed soundtracks for multiple high profile movies and TV shows, most notably the horror flick Human Centipede (First Sequence).
Based in London, UK, Mr Savage regularly serves as guest concertmaster for multiple European orchestras and the leader of the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.
He was formerly Principal First Violin with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and leader of the Tippett Quartet.
Colleen Hewett – Aussie pop queen
Colleen Hewett is an Australian singer and actor who was “Queen of Pop” in the 70s.
Her song Day by Day hit No. 1 of the National Top 40 singles chart and was certified as a gold record.
She was appeared in multiple TV dramas, most notably as Sheila Brady in the international hit TV series Prisoner.
Greg McLean – Film director
Greg McLean is a horror film maker most known for his first feature film Wolf Creek which has become an international cult classic.
He went on to establish his own production company Emu Creek Pictures based in Melbourne, producing his Wolf Creek sequel and the thriller Rogue, telling the story of a killer saltwater croc attacking international tourists in the NT.
In his early career he worked with theatre director Neil Armfield, and with Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin at Opera Australia.
Margaret Hickey – Award-winning novelist
Margaret Hickey is an award-winning author and playwright who writes thrilling rural crime dramas.
Inspired by her experiences growing up in country Victoria, her crime thrillers focus on the lives of rural Aussies.
She has written award-winning novels Cutters End, Stone Town and Broken Bay and her plays have been performed all over the world.
Her new novel, The Creeper, will be released in June 2024.
Mark Robinson – Sports journalist
Mark Robinson is an award-winning sports journalist and chief football writer for the Herald Sun.
He is well-known for his hard-hitting columns, analysis and news breaking in the AFL space.
He is also a founding co-host of Fox Footy’s AFL 360.
Aaron Wilson – Commonwealth gold medallist
Aaron Wilson, also known as ‘Disco Tech’, is a three time gold medal winning international lawn bowler.
He brought home the Gold for Australia at the 2022 Commonwealth Games at Birmingham in the UK and won his fourth Australian Open in 2023.
Johnny ‘Fish’ Gaskell – Marine biologist
Johnny Gaskell, or “Johnny Fish” is a marine biologist and Great Barrier Reef expert whose job is to explore the unexplored and document the unexplored parts of the natural wonder.
He has made international headlines with his photos and video of coral bleaching events that threaten the heritage listed reef.
He has also discovered and explored previously unknown blue holes in the reef, giant marine sink holes that shelter coral, with one named after him as “Gaskell’s Blue Hole”.
Fergus Greene – AFL player
Fergus Greene is a professional Australian rules footballer who most recently played for Hawthorn and previously played for the Western Bulldogs.
While playing with the Bendigo Pioneers in 2016, he recorded Australia’s best time on the beep test.
Jarryn Geary – retired AFL player
Jarryn Geary was a midfielder and defender for St Kilda, playing 207 games over 16 seasons before his retirement in 2022.
Geary was St Kilda captain from 2017 to 2020 and co-captain in 2021.
Geary played junior footy with Eaglehawk Football Club before joining the Bendigo Pioneers.
Angie Hogan – Opera singer
Angela Hogan is a member of Opera Australia’s full-time chorus.
In 2021 she toured Australia in the National Tour performing the title role of Carmen.
In November 2019 Angela performed in Opera Australia’s Opera Gala Concert at the Field of Lights in Uluru.
Sam Irwin-Hill – former NFL punter
Sam Irwin-Hill was a punter who played for the Dallas Cowboys Washington Redskins, San Diego Fleet and Atlanta Falcons in the NFL.
Mr Irwin-Hill started out playing AFL with junior Football at Eaglehawk Football Club and also played for the Bendigo Pioneers in the TAC Cup under 18s competition.
Gorgia Delves – ARIA nominated country singer
Gorgia Delves is an Australian singer and songwriter who performs under the stage name Georgia State Line.
Her debut album In Colour was nominated for Best Country Album at the 2022 ARIA Music Awards.
Steven Tingay – Professor of Astrophysics
John Curtin Distinguished Professor Steven Tingay is a world-renowned astronomer and the Executive Director of the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy (CIRA) at Curtin University in Perth.
His work has been at the forefront of discovering the secrets of the universe and has attracted more than $120m in research grants to that end.
He has managed and directed internationally significant astronomical projects and multi-billion dollar equipment.
In 2020 he was named the Western Australian Premier’s Fellow for his contributions to science.
Paul Williams – filmmaker
Paul Williams is the writer and director of the critically acclaimed feature-length 2018 documentary Gurrumul about the blind, Indigenous singer Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. which won multiple awards.
He also worked on Australian TV series Our Law which follows Aboriginal police officers trying to break the cycle of Indigenous incarceration and repair the damaged relationship between Australian First Nations people and the police.
TV landscaper Dale Vine
Dale Vine is a landscaper who won The Block in 2012 with his wife Sophie.
He went on to grace Aussie screens on multiple TV shows including Block spin offs, ManSpace, Postcards and Getaway.
Men’s Style magazine named Vine in their annual Men of Influence 2014 list.
His larrikin appeal led him to becoming the face of workwear brand CAT and APCO Service stations.
BENDIGO SENIOR SECONDARY COLLEGE
Professor Ruth Williams – Award-winning mathematician
Professor Ruth Williams is an internationally recognised leader in the field of mathematics who holds the Charles Lee Powell Chair as a Distinguished Professor of mathematics at the University of California, San Diego.
Prof Williams is one of BSSC’s highest achieving students of all time, and was named dux of the class of 1972.
She has held multiple leadership roles in her field and has been recognised for her contributions to mathematics over the last few decades.
In 2016, Prof Williams won the John von Neumann Theory Prize (2016), one of the highest honours a mathematician can win.
Prof Williams was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Melbourne.
Tony Ellwood AM – Director of the National Gallery of Victoria
Tony Ellwood AM is the NGV director and a leading figure in the Australian arts sector.
Mr Ellwood was appointed as a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia for his contributions to the arts.
Under Mr Ellwood’s stewardship, the National Gallery of Victoria has become the most visited gallery in Australia.
He has worked as the director of the Bendigo Art Gallery and the Queensland Art Gallery.
He has also been awarded honorary doctorates at RMIT, Deakin and La Trobe University in recognition of his contributions to his field.
Aaron Blabey – Children’s author
Aaron Blabey is the author of three best-selling children's series’ who has more than 35 million books in print.
His books have spent more than 120 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List, hitting No. 1 on multiple occasions.
Mr Blabey’s New York Times No. 1 bestseller The Bad Guys — about a gang of scary-looking animals trying to change their bad reputations — was adapted into an animated movie.
Serving as executive producer of the movie, The Bad Guys opened as No. 1 at the US box office and was the second-highest-grossing animated film of 2022.
Thelma the Unicorn — a picture book series about a pony who pretends to be a unicorn — has been adapted into a musical by Netflix with Mr Blabey again serving as executive producer and is expected to be released in May, 2024.
Blabey was also an actor, best known for his lead roles in two television dramedies, 1994's The Damnation of Harvey McHugh, for which he won an Australian Film Institute Award, and 2003's CrashBurn, before retiring from performance in 2005.
Dr Skye Kinder – board member of Rural Doctors Association of Victoria
Dr Skye Kinder has dedicated her medical career to improving the healthcare for rural populations.
She is a board member of Rural Doctors Association of Victoria and continues to research and advocate for improved healthcare for rural and regional communities.
Dr Kinder was named Victorian Young Australian of the Year 2019, Victoria’s Junior Doctor of the Year in 2017 and Bendigo’s Young Citizen of the Year in 2014.
Kristie Harrower – Australian Basketball Hall of Famer
Kristi Harrower has been described as “undoubtedly one of the greatest players to have represented Australia in basketball”.
Harrower represented Australia at the Summer Olympics as an Opal, she won three silver medals in 2000, 2004 and 2008 and was captain in 2002 when the Opals won bronze.
In 2006, she was a member of the Australian women’s senior team that won a gold medal at the FIBA World Championships in Brazil.
After becoming Australia’s premier point guard during a stellar early career in the WNBL where she was awarded All-Star three times, she was picked up by the WNBA in the US.
Harrower played for the Phoenix Mercury from 1998-99, Minnesota Lynx from 2001-05 and the LA Sparks in 2009.
Harrower also competed in Germany, Russia and France and was named a Euroleague Final Four All-Star in 2006.
When Bendigo Spirit entered the WNBL she returned to Australia to play for her hometown club as well as under her father, Bernie, as coach.
She was named All-Star a further four times taking her total to seven.
Ben Hubbard – senior public servant
Ben Hubbard served as chief of staff to Prime Minister Julia Gillard and worked as the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority chief executive.
Mr Hubbard is currently a director of the Suburban Rail Loop Authority.
Professor Carol McKinstry – Rural health advocate and community leader
Carol McKinstry is Professor of Occupational Therapy in the La Trobe Rural Health School and current Deputy Dean supervising research projects of higher degree postgraduate students.
Prof McKinstry has written chapters for occupational therapy textbooks and published journal articles while she is a reviewer for the multiple Australian and international Occupational therapy journals.
Prof McKinstry has extensive involvement with local communities — she is currently a director of the Bendigo Health Board, the chair of the Bendigo Football and Netball League Board and a life member of the Bendigo Volleyball Association.
She was previously on the Board of Rochester and Elmore District Health Services and was recently appointed a Life Governor. She is a graduate with the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Robert Cameron – retired Bendigo politician and WorkSafe Vic boss
Robert Cameron is former state Labor politician and member for West Bendigo who served from 1996 to 2010.
He served as the Police and Emergency Services Minister and Corrections Minister from 2006 to 2010 in the Brumby Labor government.
In the first Bracks Labor government, Mr Cameron was the Local Government, WorkCover and TAC Ministers from 1999 to 2002.
During this term he sacked a controversial Melbourne City Council.
When the Bracks government was re-elected, Mr Cameron served as Agriculture Minister from 2002 to 2006.
Mr Cameron retired from politics in 2010.
In September 2022, Mr Cameron was appointed by WorkSafe Victoria chair.
Anthony ‘Huddo’ Hudson – AFL commentator
Tony Hudson is a sports commentator and writer who has called six AFL grand finals.
He will be remembered for his iconic calls “I see it, but I don’t believe it” when Sydney Swans player Nick Davis kicking the game-winning goal during the 2005 AFL semi final.
His other notable zinger was: “who would’ve thought the sequel would be just as good as the original” when the West Coast Eagles won the 2006 premiership.
As of 2023, he commentates the Big Bash League for Fox Cricket.
Pierce Grenfell – Bendigo paragon
Beloved Eaglehawk man Pierce Grenfell turned 100 in February, the latest feather in the cap of a well-lived life.
Mr Grenfell is a World War II serviceman, retired butcher and life member of multiple community groups including Rotary and the RSL.
Mr Grenfell is well-known for his eight decades with the Eaglehawk Brass Band and for playing the Last Post at Anzac Day services.
He also served as Eaglehawk mayor from 1961 to 1962.
Rod Fyffe OAM – Bendigo councillor
Cr Rob Fyffe has served on Bendigo council for more than 37 years and was awarded an OAM for services to local government.
He has served as mayor four times since 1994.
Cr Fyffe was awarded a medal of the Order of Australia in the 2013 Queen’s Birthday Honours list for his service to local government and to the community.
Cr Fyffe has lived in Bendigo for more than 40 years and has volunteered with countless community organisations outside his decades of public service.
Sir George Holland – National President of the forerunner to the RSL
Sir Holland was a decorated soldier who served in the WWI theatres of Gallipoli, France and Belgium.
Born and raised in Marong, he returned to marry May Hollingworth and become a fierce advocate for returned servicemen’s welfare.
He was elected president of the Victorian branch of the Returned Sailors’ and Soldiers’ Imperial League of Australia in 1929, a position he was to hold for 21 years before being elected national president in 1950.
He was knighted in 1953 for his decades of advocacy for returned servicemen and their families.
His legacy was the establishment of a network of homes for war veterans and servicemen’s widows in Victoria.
He also secured free medical and hospital treatment for service pensioners from Prime Minister Robert Menzies in 1960 before his death in 1962.
Professor Struan Sutherland AO – discovered funnel-web spider anti-venom
Struan Sutherland developed the anti-venom for the deadly funnel-web spider bite.
In January 1980, two-year-old James Cully tragically became the 13th and last victim to die from a funnel-web of the spider bite, with Prof Sutherland and his team producing the anti-venom later that year.
Prof Sutherland also pioneered research into snakebite treatment and in the 1970s developed the pressure immobilisation technique which replaced tourniquets for both snake and funnel-web bites, which was often harmful to the patient.
He was posthumously awarded an Order of Australia two weeks after his death in 2002 for the discovery and for his decades of clinical research in clinical toxicology and the biology of Australia’s venomous creatures.
John Fitzgerald – Herald Editor
John Fitzgerald was a BSSC student in the 1940s who went on to be editor of The Herald between 1974 and 1979 — one of the forerunners of the Herald Sun.
He died, aged 76, in 2007 and was remembered as “one of this country’s great newspaper editors”.
As an editor, he was responsible for what former Herald and Weekly Times editor-in-chief Harry Gordon described as “two great agenda-setting newspaper coups”.
They were an investigation of the notorious loans affair which eventually brought down the Whitlam Government, and the Mafia's links with drug-dealing in Australia.
William Woodfull OBE – cricket hall of famer
Former BSSC student Bill Woodfull was the captain of the Australian Test cricket team from 1930 to 1934, and an Aussie cricket hall of famer.
Woodfull was admired for his sportsmanship and is best remembered for his dignity during the bodyline controversy of the 1932 to 1933 against England.
The English’s dirty tactic of bowling for the upper body and legs of Aussie batters almost caused a riot during the third Test when Woodfull was taken down by a bowl that hit him in the heart.
When English manager Plum Warner came to privately express his sympathy, Woodfull famously told him: “I do not want to see you, Mr Warner. There are two teams out there. One is playing cricket and the other is not.”
The English defeated Australia 4 to 1, but Woodfull was hailed by Australia cricket fans for his stoicism in the face of what was seen as unsportsmanlike behaviour by the Poms.
The Attorney-General Isaac Isaacs tried to award Woodfull an OBE for his “services to cricket” in 1934.
But Woodfull, a passionate teacher, refused, instead stating his career in education at Victorian schools had been more impressive, inspirational and was eventually awarded an OBE in 1963 for his services to education.
He was one of the first 15 players to be inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 2001 and remains the only captain to regain the Ashes twice.
Richard Richards GC – Antarctic explorer and pioneer
Richard Richards was a Bendigo born and educated science teacher who showed enormous courage during an ill-fated Antarctic expedition in 1914.
At just 20, Mr Richards joined Ross Sea Party’s mission to explore the South Pole.
Mr Richards was distinguished as a hero during the voyage after he dragged his comrades through blizzards and deep snow, saving their lives when the expedition met with disaster due to the unforgiving conditions.
He was awarded the George Cross for his efforts to save the lives of his comrades.
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