The Australian’s 60th anniversary: Shining lights whose talent has power to change

What do a tennis ace, a Hollywood actor, a football star and a tech entrepreneur have in common?

Margot Robbie, Melanie Perkins, Ash Barty and Sam Kerr.

True influence usually takes decades of accrued wisdom and experience to attain, but these four young women have achieved it before 40.

Tennis champion Ash Barty, 28, Hollywood star Margot Robbie, 34, football legend Sam Kerr, 30, and tech entrepreneur Melanie Perkins, 37 are the youngest inductees in The Australian’s list of The 60 Most Influential People of the Past Six Decades. They’ve pulled off in their youth what many can only dream of achieving over a lifetime.

The list, available exclusively online on Friday before being released in a special glossy magazine in The Weekend Australian on Saturday, includes those who the masthead considers to have shaped our nation in the past 60 years, since the paper was first printed.

Yet power, popularity or politics alone don’t guarantee a place on this list. There has to be something more: the ability to change the way we think, work, dream or play. These four young women have met that criteria.

First, there’s Barty, who, despite having three Grand Slams including a Wimbledon win under her belt, tells The Australian her greatest achievement in life is “without doubt, my son”. The former world No.1, who in 2022 was recognised with the Order of Australia medal, may have hung up her racquet at 25 but she’s determined to spend the rest of her life inspiring “young boys and girls to dream big and believe their dreams are possible”.

As for the greatest influence on Barty? That would be Wimbledon champion Evonne Goolagong Cawley and Olympic gold medal runner Cathy Freeman, “for not only what they achieved as athletes but how they contributed to communities around Australia”.

Then there is Kerr. It’s no surprise a nation that adores sports would honour its most respected athletes. But a moment of honesty: would a woman’s football player have been honoured like this a decade ago? Kerr’s inclusion on this list speaks volumes about her impact. The Australian captain, whose left calf injury kept the world on edge leading up to the 2023 World Cup, has driven women’s football to unprecedented levels of exposure.

The Matildas’ semi-final loss to England, heartbreaking as it was, became the most-watched TV program since Freeman’s historic Sydney Olympics win in 2000, drawing an audience of seven million.

Speaking of drawing in massive audiences, one word: Barbie. At a time when box office numbers are struggling, Robbie managed to craft a hit from a plastic doll.

The film, which grossed $1.4bn globally – the highest of last year – was rescued from a decade-long limbo by Robbie through her production company, LuckyChap, which has released Oscar-winning hits such as I, Tonya and Promising Young Woman.

Robbie tells The Australian she founded LuckyChap with the idea of “championing other female creatives both in front of and behind the camera”. While she has lost herself in memorable roles such as Harley Quinn and Sharon Tate, she still feels Australian to the core. “It’s just who I am. Every part of my upbringing informed the person I am today.”

As for who she would nominate as an influential Australian: “Is it too cringe to say my mum?!”

Lastly, Perkins, co-founder of Canva, who has revolutionised graphic design with a company now valued at $39bn. Alongside Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams, Perkins launched Canva a decade ago, not without some serious grunt work.

Perkins spent three months in 2012 living on the floor of her brother’s San Francisco apartment, commuting daily to Silicon Valley to pitch her idea. She secured one of her first investors, Bill Tai, by learning to kitesurf – after discovering many investors used it as a networking opportunity.

Though Perkins’ kitesurfing days are behind her, Canva’s intuitive platform continues to democratise graphic design globally, sparing us from the grind of memorising countless counterintuitive Photoshop keyboard shortcuts.