33.8678° S, 151.2100° E

SYDNEY

Most Famous People Born in Sydney, Australia

Notable people
4,402
Peak decade
1980s
Median birth year
1962
Most distinctive
Rugby 25.1×

A harbour city that exports athletes by the boatload. Almost a fifth of Sydney's notable births are professional players of one code or another — rugby league, rugby union, cricket, swimming, rowing — at concentrations no other Australian city quite matches. The non-sport half is dominated by actors and an unusually deep bench of the professional class of a city that has always been the New South Wales capital first and a global one second.

Standouts

Notable Births by Decade

Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1980s with 720 notable births.

What Sydney Is Known For

Click any row to filter the list of people below.

Player is Sydney's biggest profession — 19% of all notables (815).

Sydney over-indexes on rugby 25.1× the global rate.

Sydney under-produces painter — only 0.5× the global rate.

  1. Player 815 9.5×
  2. Actor 394 1.7×
  3. Politician 354 0.7×
  4. Cricket 305 5.4×
  5. Football 276 0.6×
  6. Singer 125 1.4×
  7. Sport 98 1.3×
  8. Writer 87 0.6×
  1. Rugby 76 25.1×
  2. Player 815 9.5×
  3. Cricket 305 5.4×
  4. Swimmer 73 3.4×
  5. Rower 55 3.4×
  6. Actor 394 1.7×
  1. Painter 54 0.5×
  2. Football 276 0.6×
  3. Writer 87 0.6×
  4. Politician 354 0.7×

Profession Mix Over Time

Each band shows a profession family's share of Sydney's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.

1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000
  • Sports
  • Film & TV
  • Politics & Law
  • Writing
  • Music
  • Science
  • Other
All4,402
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Showing 30 of 4,402 notable people

0071 PHILOSOPHER

Samuel Alexander

1859 - 1938

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0092 PAINTER

John Russell (Australian painter)

1858 - 1930

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0105 LITERARY

Joseph Jacobs

1854 - 1916

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0998 NURSE

Maud McCarthy

1859 - 1949

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1010 PAINTER

W. Lister Lister

1859 - 1943

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1711 PAINTER

Grosvenor Thomas

1856 - 1923

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1762 PHYSICIST

George Handley Knibbs

1858 - 1929

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1877 FOOTBALL

A. H. Savage

1850 - 1905

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1888 STATISTICIAN

Timothy Augustine Coghlan

1856 - 1926

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1949 AUTHOR

Wilhelmina Rawson

1851 - 1933

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2601 POET

Philip Holdsworth

1851 - 1902

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2612 LIEUTENANT

David Miller (public servant)

1857 - 1934

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2698 NATURALIST

Mary Harriet Bate

1855 - 1964

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3118 POLITICIAN

John Hughes (New South Wales politician)

1857 - 1912

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3138 SURGEON

William Williams (surgeon)

1856 - 1919

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3227 CITY COUNCIL

John Lane Mullins

1857 - 1939

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3259 CIVIL SERVICE

Stephen Mills (public servant)

1857 - 1948

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3439 POLITICIAN

Charles Dumas (newspaperman)

1851 - 1935

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3582 PHOTOGRAPHER

Emily Florence Cazneau

1855 - 1892

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3690 CRICKET

David Ogilvy (cricketer)

1859 - 1917

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3861 POLITICIAN

John Wheeler (Australian politician)

1853 - 1915

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3896 ACTOR

Minnie Walton

1852 - 1879

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3910 CRICKET

Charles Brown (cricketer, born 1854)

1854 - 1917

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3952 SOLICITOR

Francis Freehill

1854 - 1908

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3995 CRICKET

Michael Murphy (cricketer)

1854 - 1890

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4018 CRICKET

Edward Seale (Australian cricketer)

1859 - 1927

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4107 POLITICIAN

Thomas Douglas Percy Holden

1859 - 1938

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4316 POLITICIAN

Phillip Sullivan

1858 - 1921

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4356 POLITICIAN

Llewellyn Jones (Australian politician)

1855 - 1912

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4387 CENTENÁRI

James Hull

1852 - 1961

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