15 superstar personalities you didn’t know were born in the Territory
What do the inventor of the flight data recorder, a Tour de France winner, and a founder of Cold Chisel have in common? They were all born in the Territory.
Northern Territory
Don't miss out on the headlines from Northern Territory. Followed categories will be added to My News.
FROM Australian music icons, to sporting legends to the inventor of the aircraft black box, the Territory has produced an extraordinarily diverse range of prominent personalities.
Here’s a list of 15 of the world’s most famous people you didn’t know were born in the Territory.
DAVID WARREN
YOU may not immediately recognise his name but David Warren was responsible for one of modern science’s greatest ever inventions, the aeroplane flight recorder or ‘black box’.
Warren was said to be the first European child born on Groote Eylandt in 1925.
The Defence Department honoured him for his considerable achievement, saying that he initially ran into all sorts of turbulence getting his brilliant idea of the aircraft black box off the ground in the 1950s.
It was only after the crash of a Fokker Friendship at Mackay, Queensland in 1960 that it was recommended that black box flight recorders be installed in all airliners.
Australia then became the first country in the world to make cockpit-voice recording compulsory.
Today, the black box is standard on board all major aircraft, and it has been instrumental in discovering and fixing catastrophic issues on aircraft.
Without Warren’s incredible work, the airline industry would be nowhere near as safe as it is today.
CADEL EVANS
BORN in Katherine and growing up in the nearby Indigenous community of Barunga, Evans has his undeniable roots in the Territory.
The vast distances between Katherine and anywhere wouldn’t stop him from riding into sporting glory.
Evans won the Tour de France in 2011 — the first, and still the only Australian cyclist to achieve the hugely-respected sporting feat.
He is only one of three non-Europeans to have won world cycling’s most famous event.
He finished second in the Tour de France in 2007 and 2008.
Both of these 2nd place finishes are in the top 10 of the closest Tours in history.
He became the first Australian to win the UCI ProTour (2007) and the UCI Road World Championships in 2009.
Evans is also a four-time Olympian.
He was a champion mountain biker, winning the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in 1998 and 1999 and placing seventh in the men’s cross-country mountain bike race at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Evans turned to full-time road cycling in 2001.
IAN MOSS
IAN Moss is one of Australia’s most iconic musicians, respected as a gifted guitarist, songwriter and singer.
He is the founding mainstay guitarist and occasional singer of Cold Chisel.
Ian Richard Moss was born in 1955 in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, to Geoffery and Lorna Moss.
During World War II Geoffery survived the 1942 bombing of Darwin, he enlisted in the army and later worked for the Allied Works Council in Alice Springs.
In September 1973 Ian Moss, on guitar and lead vocals, formed a rock group, Orange, in Adelaide with Don Walker, a songwriter and organist and Leszek Kaczmarek on bass guitar.
Later Steve Prestwich joined the group on drums and Jimmy Barnes on lead vocals and they were renamed Cold Chisel.
LEISEL JONES
A GIANT of Australian swimming, “Lethal Leisel” was born in Katherine.
She is a mutiple Olympics gold medallist and widely regarded as one of Australia’s greatest ever swimmers and sportspeople.
Jones was already making waves in the world of swimming by the time she was selected for the Australian team, aged 14.
Jones competed in the 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, winning three Olympic gold medals, five silvers and one bronze in a glittering career.
She also won another 10 golds at the Commonwealth Games.
DAMIEN MARTYN
STAR cricketer Damien Martyn was born in Darwin in 1971.
He played for the national team sporadically from 1992 and became a regular Test player in 2000 until his retirement in late 2006.
He played in a Test side widely regarded as one of the greatest of all time and featured various teammates such as Shane Warne, Steve and Mark Waugh, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath, Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer.
He was a right-handed middle-order batsman, known for his elegant strokemaking, an occasional medium-pacer and a brilliant fieldsman.
He was chosen as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year as a result of his performances in The Ashes in the summer of 2001.
He was named man of the series in the Border Gavaskar Trophy in 2004, to help Australia defeat India on the subcontinent for the first time in more than 30 years, and was named in early 2005 as the Australian Test Player of the Year at the annual Allan Border Medal presentations.
GEOFF HUEGILL
GEOFF Huegill was born in Nhulunbuy on the Gove Peninsula in the Northern Territory.
Huegill is one of Australia’s greatest ever swimmers and was an outstanding butterfly specialist.
He was a dual Olympian who won 72 international medals, including two medals in Olympics and six world champion titles, throughout his career.
He held eight world records, including for the 50m butterfly.
Huegill has been recognised as technically the world’s best butterflier and he dominant butterfly champion during the early 2000s.
Affectionately known as ‘Skippy’, he was also the nation’s favourite comeback kid.
Huegill came out of retirement in 2008 and shed 45kg of weight to fight his way back to competition and was declared a national hero when he won gold at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games in the 100 metre butterfly.
He won the race in 51.69 seconds and broke the Commonwealth games record and his own 10-year-old personal best time.
In 2010, he was voted Australian Sport Performer of the Year.
FRANK FARINA
BORN in Darwin in 1964, Farina became one of the most influential figures of his time in Australian soccer, both as a player and as a coach.
As a player, Farina represented Australia on 89 occasions, including the World Youth Cup in Mexico in 1983; the 1986, 1990 and 1994 World Cup campaigns; and the 1988 Seoul Olympics. He first played for the Socceroos as a 19-year-old in 1984.
Farina’s early playing career was spent in Australia, playing in the National Soccer League. He played for the Canberra Arrows, Sydney City and Marconi-Fairfield.
In both 1987 and 1988 he won the Golden Boot Award in the National Soccer League, the Players’ Player Medal (equivalent of Johnny Warren Medal) and, in 1994 and 1988, the Most Entertaining Player award and the 1988 Oceania Player of the Year awards.
He played over 70 games for Brugge in the Belgian First Division, scoring 43 goals and playing a major role in the club winning the title in 1989/90 as well as the Belgian Cup in 1990/91 and Belgian Supercup in 1990 and 1991.
Farina won the Belgian Golden Boot and Best Foreign Player awards in Club Brugge’s successful 1989/90 season.
Farina was appointed the coach of the Australian national football team in 1999, becoming the first Indigenous Australian to manage the Australian side.
DANNI MIATKE
BORN in Darwin in 1987, Miatke began competitive swimming in 1995.
She first represented the Northern Territory in 1998 at the national School Sport Swimming and Diving Championships.
She first won gold for the Territory in 1999 at the Australian Age Championships, in the 100m backstroke in the under-13 division.
At the 2004 FINA Short Course World Championships in Indianapolis, United States, Miatke won silver in the 4 × 200m freestyle relay, and bronze in both the 4 × 100m freestyle relay and 4 × 100m medley relay.
The 2005 World Aquatics Championships in Montreal, Quebec, Canada were Miatke’s first international long-course meet. She won gold in the 50 metres butterfly in Commonwealth record time, ahead of world record holder Anna-Karin Kammerling from Sweden.
In 2006, Miatke won the 50 metres butterfly at the Telstra Commonwealth Games trials.
She then backed that up to go on to win gold in the same event at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
GREGG TURKINGTON
GREGG Turkington was born in Darwin to American parents.
He is known for his performances as Neil Hamburger, a stand-up comedian persona he developed in the 1990s.
Turkington also stars as a fictionalised version of himself on the comedic web series On Cinema.
In the 1990s, Turkington ran an independent label, Amarillo Records, which distributed his original albums and albums of other artists from the San Francisco punk scene.
In 2015, he starred as a variant of the Neil Hamburger character for the feature-length drama film Entertainment and subsequently gave his first interviews as himself instead of an assumed persona.
Turkington was also a regular voice actor on the Disney XD series Gravity Falls and had a supporting role in the 2015 film Ant-Man.
MAUDE GARRETT
RADIO and television personality Maude Garrett was born in Darwin and is currently living and working in Los Angeles.
Garrett is the niece of Midnight Oil frontman-turned-politician and Cabinet minister Peter Garrett.
In 2012 Maude founded publishing platform Geek Bomb, showcasing trends in geek culture. Celebrities interviewed on the platform include Keanu Reeves, Taraji P. Henson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Charlize Theron, Will Ferrell, Jennifer Garner and Jim Carrey.
Garrett is currently the entertainment correspondent for The Project television program.
She is also known for her on air work with brands including BBC America, Quibi, Facebook, Nerdist News, Red Bull, Nickelodeon, SourceFed, 2Day FM, BCUniversal, Southern Star, Syfy, Rotten Tomatoes, One Network, Discovery Channel, Digital Trends, New Rockstars, and AMC Theatres.
MATHEW SINCLAIR
MANY of these names will be surprising entries on this list but this one will perhaps be the most surprising of all.
Mathew Sinclair was a New Zealand Test and ODI cricket top-order batsman.
But he was born in Katherine in the Northern Territory in 1975.
Sinclair later moved to New Zealand with his mother after the death of his father in a car crash.
Sinclair was a gifted player and holds the equal world record for the highest Test score (214) by a number three batsman on debut when he opened his international career against West Indies in the 1999 Boxing Day Test.
That West Indies team was led by two all-time cricket greats, Brian Lara as captain, and Courtney Walsh, as the leader of the bowling attack.
Sinclair followed that remarkable score with 204 not out against Pakistan in the following summer, joining Glenn Turner as the then only second New Zealand Test player to score two international double centuries.
GRAEME BROWN
GRAEME Brown is an Australian former professional cyclist and a multiple Olympic gold medallist who was born in Darwin in 1979.
A former Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder, as a track cyclist Brown won a gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens as a member of the Australian team pursuit in world record-breaking time.
He also won a gold medal with Stuart O’Grady for the Madison event at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
At the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester he won two gold medals: for the Team pursuit, and the Scratch Race.
VASSY
VASSY Karagiorgos, known mononymously as VASSY, is an Australian singer, songwriter and record producer who was born in Darwin.
Vassy was discovered by Australian Radio Station Triple J after she won song of the year.
Her single “We Are Young” reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Dance Chart, making her the first Australian Artist to go No. 1 with her solo single debut release.
he is a certified Recording Industry Association of America Platinum and Gold recording artist.
Her music has been featured in hit Disney film Frozen and popular TV drama Grey’s Anatomy.
Vassy’s songs have also been featured in EA Games, Nickelodeon, Sketchers, Victoria’s Secret and Pepsi commercials.
JEREMY HAYWARD
JEREMY Hayward is an Australian World Cup winning hockey player, and Olympian silver medallist, who was born in Darwin in 1993.
Jeremy Hayward was part of the Australian team who won the 2014 Men’s Hockey World Cup.
The team defeated the Netherlands 6–1 in the final.
Hayward was also awarded Young Player of the Tournament at this event.
Hayward was selected in the Kookaburras Olympics squad for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The team reached the final for the first time since 2004 but Hayward had to settle for silver, beaten by Belgium in a shootout
LEON HAYWARD
LEON Hayward is an Australian-born, New Zealand international hockey star, who plays as a goalkeeper.
He is the older brother of Kookaburras hockey player, Jeremy Hayward, and was also born and raised in Darwin.
Hayward made his debut in the Australian Hockey League for the NT Stingers during the 2012 tournament in Canberra.
He was named Goalkeeper of the Tournament during 2014 edition in Adelaide.
In 2009, Hayward represented the ‘Burras’ on two occasions; at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival and Junior World Cup, winning gold and bronze medals respectively.
Leon Hayward made his debut for the Kookaburras in 2014, during a test series against India in Perth, Australia.
Due to his mother’s ancestry, Hayward was eligible for selection in the NZL Black Sticks.
He made the move to play for New Zealand and made his debut for the Black Sticks in 2019, during a test series against Japan in New Zealand.
■ HAVE we missed someone obvious? Do you know of a famous personality who was born in the Territory, but not many people would know that fact?
Let us know in the comments, or by contacting us on (08) 8944 9900.
Join the conversation
‘See some records broken’: First medals given out as ‘Games with Heart’ kicks off
One of the biggest weeks on the Red Centre sporting calendar is underway in full force, drawing thousands of competitors – some of whom have already taken out the top prize. SEE THE PICTURES.
Read more
Fire fears as heritage-listed mural sits forgotten after $3m acquisition
A fire danger period being declared hasn’t spurred the government into action over a site it acquired for more than $3 million – leading to fears an important piece of NT heritage could be reduced to ash.
Read more