Famous Australian March Birthdays
MARCH 1 TO 15 MARCH 16 TO 31
WERE YOU or someone you know born in March? You’ll find below some notable Australian politicians, footballers, actors, musicians, athletes and even a Nobel Prize winner that have March birthdays.
| Birth | Death | Born in March | A little bit about them . . . |
| 16 Mar 1883 | -1958 | Ethel Anderson | Australian poet, essayist, novelist (At Parramatta, Squatter’s Luck, Little Ghosts, Timeless Garden) |
| 16 Mar 1986 | Nicole Trunfio | Australian supermodel (Chanel, Victoria’s Secret, Christian Dior, Gucci, Guess, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, Valentino, Anne Taylor), actress (Two Fists One Heart) | |
| 17 Mar 1892 | -1984 | Benjamin Drake Van Wissen | Australian civil engineer, designed an efficient machine to harvest guano phosphate deposits, guano was mined in Nauru for phosphates to use as fertilizer, his statue on Nauru commemorates his work and innovations to the mining program |
| 17 Mar 1895 | -1988 | Lloyd Frederic Rees | Australian landscape painter, teacher, Wynne Prize (1950, 1982), Medaille de la Ville de Paris (1987), Sunlit Tower painted at age 91 won Jack Manton Prize (1987), Australian Bicentennial Authority’s 200 People Who Made Australia Great (1988), his paintings appears in Parliament House Canberra, Australian National Gallery, and others |
| 18 Mar 1884 | -1968 | Bernard Cronin | Australian author (The Coastlanders, Stampede, Timber Wolves, Bluff Stakes, Red Dawson, White Gold, Valley of Stars, Second Sphere, Golden Skull), during WWII worked as a publicity censor |
| 18 Mar 1939 | Justice Kirby Michael Donald Kirby | Australian jurist, Justice of High Court of Australia (1996-2009), Australian National Living Treasure,youngest man appointed to the federal judiciary(1983), came out about being gay in Who’s Who in Australia(1999), attacked in parliament by Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan that he misused government funds (related to being gay) but 2002 evidence was forged and Heffernan had to apologize | |
| 18 Mar 1944 | Dick Smith Richard Harold Smith | Australian businessman, aviator, political activist, founder Dick Smith Electronics (1968, sold in 1982), Dick Smith Foods (1999), Australian Geographic (1985), Australian National Living Treasure | |
| 21 Mar 1926 | -2012 | Rolland “Rolly” Tasker | Australian sailor, won Australia’s first Olympic sailing medal (Silver at 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games), won record 28 championships in only seven years, Sport Australian Hall of Fame 1996, Order of Australia 2006 |
| 25 Mar 1930 | Harry Butler | Australian conservationist and naturalist, through his television program In the Wild and his books, he helped to popularise science and natural history for Australians of all ages, 1979 Australian of the Year, Australian National Living Treasure | |
| 26 Mar 1909 | -1971 | Chips Rafferty | Australian actor (Rats of Tobruk, Eureka Stockade, Overlanders, Mutiny on the Bounty, Double Trouble, They’re a Weird Mob, Wackiest Ship in the Army, Sundowners, Skullduggery, Desert Rats, Flaming Sword, 40,000 Horsemen, Wake in Fright), in 1950s appeared in commercials in Britain encouraging British emigration to Australia, Australia Post honoured Rafferty with his likeness on 1974 stamp |
| 26 Mar 1949 | Jon English Jonathan James English | Australian singer (Turn the Page, Hollywood Seven, Words Are Not Enough, Six Ribbons, Hot Town), actor (Against the Wind, All Together Now, Touch and Go),700+ stage performances in Jesus Christ Superstar, ARIA Award 1991, Logie Award 1979 | |
| 27 Mar 1851 | -1935 | Rosa Campbell Praed Rosa Caroline Praed Rosa Murray-Prior | Australian novelist (An Australian Heroine, Policy and Passion, Rival Princess/Rebel Rose, Romance of a Station, Outlaw and Lawmaker, Opal Fire), gave a female perspective on life in the Australian bush and put forth Aboriginal’s case for justice and dignity |
| 27 Mar 1959 | Andrew Charles Farriss | Australian rock keyboardist, composer Australian band INXS, co-wrote and produced with Australian Aboriginal band Yothu Yindi and Australian country singer Tania Kernaghan | |
| 28 Mar 1940 | Tony Barber Anthony Ferraro Barber | Australian TV host (Sale of the Century, Jeopardy, Great Temptation, Family Feud, Wheel of Fortune, TV1s Cash Trivia Challenge), Gold Logie 1973 | |
| 28 Mar 1922 | -1999 | Neville Thomas Bonner | Aboriginal Australian politician, elder of the Jagera people, first indigenous Australian to become a Senator in Federal Parliament, Australian of the Year 1979, federal government established in 2000 the prestigious Neville Bonner Memorial Scholarship for Indigenous Australians to attend university |
| 29 Mar 1946 | -2007 | Billy Thorpe William Richard Thorpe | British-Australian singer, Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs(Blue Day, Poison Ivy, Over the Rainbow, Sick and Tired, Mashed Potato, Most People I know Think That I’m Crazy), author (The Puggle Tales, Tales from the Lost Forests), ARIA Hall of Fame 1991 |
| 29 Mar 1964 | Elle Macpherson Eleanor Nancy Gow | Australian model (record 5 times Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover 1986, ’87, ’88, 94, 2006), businesswoman (lingerie and skin care products), actress (Sirens, Alice, Batman & Robin, The Edge, The Mirror Has Two Faces, Friends, Jane Eyre), born Eleanor Gow but a clerical mistake registering at her new school used Macpherson (stepfather’s name) instead of her father’s name Gow | |
| 29 Mar 1979 | Amy Mathews | Australian actress (Home and Away, Gabriel, Love Bytes), Logie Award 2007 | |
| 30 Mar 1957 | Debra Anne Byrne | Australian singer (He’s a Rebel, Caught in the Act, Sleeping Child, Boogeyman), entertainer (Brian and the Juniors, Young Talent Time, Rebel, Saturday Show, Farnham and Byrne, Carols by Candlelight), Logie Award (1974, 1975), Herald Sun Best Cabaret Award (2002), autobiography Not Quite Ripe | |
| 30 Mar 1930 | Rolf Harris | Australian musician, singer-songwriter (Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport, Six White Boomers), painter (80th birthday portrait of Queen Elizabeth II), TV personality (Rolf’s Cartoon Club, Animal Hospital, Rolf on Art), ARIA Hall of Fame (2008), Australian National Living Treasure, sang special rendition of Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport at Opening Ceremony 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney | |
| 31 Mar 1890 | -1971 | William Lawrence Bragg | British-Australian physicist, at age 25 was youngest Nobel Prize winner (1915 Nobel Prize in Physics), discovered Bragg Law of X-Ray Diffraction making it possible to calculate the positions of the atoms within a crystal (1912), during WWI & WWII worked on sound ranging methods for locating enemy guns, awarded Military Cross (1918) |
| 31 Mar 1963 | Paul Mercurio | Australian actor (Strictly Ballroom, Exit to Eden, Welcome to Woop Woop, Kick, Back of Beyond, Life’s Burning Desire, Bible: Joseph), dancer, judge on Australian and New Zealand versions of Dancing with the Stars, hosts Mercurio’s Menu since 2008 |