Australian World Champions

Sir Hubert Opperman, OBE, was an Australian cyclist, whose feats in the 1920s and 1930s earned him international acclaim. He began competitive racing as a teenager and came third in a cycling race at 17 in 1921, keeping pace with the more experienced riders.

Opperman was 20 when he won the Australian national road race title for the first time in 1924. He was the only rider to win the title four times, winning again in 1926, 1927 and 1929.

Opperman contested the 1928 Tour de France at the head of the Ravat-Wonder-Dunlop team, the first Australian/New Zealand team to contest the race. He was joined by fellow Australians Ernie Bainbridge and Percy Osborn and Harry Watson of New Zealand.

Opperman finished 19th overall.

After the Tour he raced in the Bol d'Or 24-hour classic, where his team claimed he was sabotaged by having his chains filed, forcing him to use a heavy commuter bike unsuited for racing.

By the time his preferred bicycle was fixed, the race leaders were almost 20 laps in front. Opperman rode for 17 hours without dismounting, winning the race to the rapturous support of the French crowd. He rode on another 80 minutes to break the 100km record.

The effort endeared him to the French.

In 1931 "Oppy" won the world’s then longest non-stop race, the 1166km Paris-Brest-Paris, in a record 49 hours and 23 minutes. He went on to set numerous endurance records in Europe and Australia, before retiring from cycling at age 36.

Liz Ellis is one of the most respected names in Australian netball, with a remarkable 18-year career at the elite level of the game. Making her national debut in 1993, Ellis represented Australia in four World Championships in 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007 – winning gold in 1995, 1997 and 2007. Ellis represented Australia at three Commonwealth Games, winning gold medals at the Kuala Lumpur Games in 1998 and Manchester in 2002. She represented Australia 122 times and was captain from 2004 to 2007.

In 2005, Ellis suffered a knee injury in a match against New Zealand that almost ended her career. Following a full knee reconstruction, Ellis recovered to captain Australia to victory against New Zealand in the World Championships in 2007. She announced her retirement a few days later.

Layne Beachley is one of Australia’s most successful surfers, winning seven World Championships throughout her career. She became a professional surfer at 16 and by age 20 was ranked number 6 in the world. In 1998 she won the Women's ASP World Champion title riding the board shown here, beginning a run of six consecutive world titles to 2003.

Beachley won numerous awards and honours, including the Australian Sports Medal in 2000 and Laureus World Alternative Sportsperson of the Year Award in 2004, and has been inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.

She rode this board during the 2008 Pro Circuit.

Walter Lindrum is regarded as the greatest billiards player to ever pick up a cue. He achieved 57 world records and his numerous aggregate, opening break, and speed records brought about changes to the rules to try and curb his game.

Learning his craft at his family's pool hall in Melbourne, Lindrum was competing professionally from the age of 13. In 1929 he travelled to England where he dominated the billiards scene for the next four years. He regularly played games on a handicap of 7000 to give his competitors a chance. During World War II, he staged almost 4000 exhibition games around Australia, raising more than £1 million for charity.

Lindrum was famed in the UK. He met Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and played before King George V who gave him a set of cufflinks which he wore almost every day for the rest of his life.

Some of Lindrum's records may never be broken due to the rule changes that were introduced to curb his play.

Lionel Rose is a name synonymous with boxing in Australia. He is remembered not only as a world champion and one of the finest fighters to ever pull on the gloves, but as an Australian icon and principled man who took a stand on social issues.

Les Darcy was an extraordinary boxing talent who sadly died before the world saw his full potential. His record of 52 wins from 56 fights is outstanding, particularly as 32 of his wins were by knockout and his four losses were at the beginning of his career.

Darcy began boxing professionally at age 15, and was immediately winning bouts against older and more experienced fighters. He won the Australian middleweight title in 1914 and at age 19 he became the Australian world middleweight champion. In early 1916 he took the Australian heavyweight champion title.

Darcy was a folk hero, but was denounced by the patriotic press in Australia for failing to enlist to fight in World War I. He wanted to fight in the United States as part of his quest to become undisputed world champion. However men of fighting age were denied passports so Darcy stowed away on a ship bound for New York on the eve of the contentious and ultimately unsuccessful 1916 conscription referendum. He was branded a coward and attacked by politicians and the media.

The controversy dogged him in the US. Fights were cancelled and he was banned in some states.

While training for a fight in Memphis he collapsed, and died in hospital soon after, from septicemia brought on by poor dental work to correct an earlier fight injury.

He was 21 years old. News of his death was devastating to his loyal fans in Australia for whom he remained a working-class hero.

Henry Nissen was an Australian Flyweight Champion who won a gold medal at the 1969 Maccabiah Games.

Born as Henry Nissenbaum in 1948 in a displaced persons camp in Germany, Nissen emigrated with his family to Australia in 1949.

Nissen and his twin brother Leon were household Australian names in the 1970s due to their exploits in the ring. At one point the brothers concurrently held the Australian professional and amateur flyweight titles.

Nissen became Commonwealth champion in 1971 and held the title until losing it to fellow Australian “Big Jim” West in 1974. Despite reaching the number 3 ranked flyweight boxer in the world, Nissen was never able to challenge for the world title before he retired from fighting in 1974.

Shirley Strickland was one of Australia’s most successful athletes, having won more Olympic medals than any other Australian track athlete, including three Gold medals.

Strickland also won three Gold medals at the 1950 Empire Games in Auckland. She won the medal seen here as a member of the Australian women's 440 yards Medley Relay team.

Strickland was awarded the Helms Trophy in 1955, the same year she set a new world record over 100m of 11.3 seconds.

Emma George was a champion Australian pole vaulter who set numerous world records.
George held a total 17 world records in her career and broke the world record 12 consecutive times between 1995 and 1999. Her first world record height of 4.25 metres was set in Melbourne in November 1995.

Along with her world records, George won the Gold medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and took Gold at the 1997 Universiade Games in Catania, Italy.

Injured while training for the Seville Championships in 1999, she recovered to win the Australian Championships in early 2000. However, back problems plagued her in the approach to the Sydney Olympics where she did not reach the finals. She underwent two rounds of back surgery over the next few before announcing her retirement in 2003.

Wheelchair racer Kurt Fearnley is a multiple Paralympic Gold medallist who has raced and won dozens of marathons, including the prestigious New York, London and Chicago marathons multiple times. Born without the lower portion of his spine and growing up in the small NSW town of Carcoar, Fearnley was introduced to wheelchair sports at school as a teenager. To compete professionally he needed a racing wheelchair.

Local townspeople raised $10,000 to buy him one, allowing him to participate in elite competitions. He competed in his first Oz Day 10km race in 1996. The race launched his professional career. He won two Silver medals at the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney.

Over the next few years he became one of the most successful wheelchair athletes in the world, winning two Gold medals at the 2004 Paralympics in Athens and three more at the IPC Athletics World Championships in 2006, racing across a range of distances.

Marjorie Jackson burst onto the national scene as a 17-year-old in 1949 when she defeated reigning Olympic champion Fanny Blankers-Koen. In 1950 she set the first of her ten world records before winning four gold medals at the Auckland Empire Games.

Jackson's greatest Olympic success came at the Helsinki Games in 1952. She took gold in the 100m and 200m and was a member of the 4x100m relay team with Shirley Strickland, Verna Johnston and Winsome Cripps, that set a world record in their heat. The plaque featured here was awarded in recognition of their world record time. The team was favoured to win gold, but their chance was lost when the baton was knocked from Jackson’s grasp at the final changeover. She recovered to finish fifth.

Jackson won three more gold medals at the 1954 Vancouver Commonwealth Games, adding to her career tally of two Olympic and seven Commonwealth Games gold medals. After her running career Jackson broke more barriers in athletics administration and civic life. She became the first woman to act as general-manager of an entire Australian multi-discipline team when she led the 332 athletes to contest the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada.
In 2001 Marjorie Jackson became the first woman to be appointed Governor of South Australia.

Lleyton Hewitt is one of Australia's most successful tennis players. He became the youngest male player to be ranked number 1 in the world when he was 20 years, 8 months and 26 days old. He won two Grand Slam singles titles, the US Open in 2001 and Wimbledon in 2002.

Nicknamed "Rusty", Hewitt won 30 career titles as a singles player, winning 616 times. He shone in Davis Cup tournaments, winning in 1999 and 2003, and holds several Australian records including most wins, most singles wins, most ties played and most years played.

Hewitt has been recognised with several accolades and awards. He was ATP Player of the Year in 2001, was awarded Young Australian of the Year in 2003, and made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2016 in recognition of his services to tennis and the community.

Australia's small population has not stopped its champions from competing with the best in the world, and achieving the highest success in their fields.

Fittingly, these individuals have carved a legacy that goes beyond sport, touching on the nation's cultural identity and belief in the possible.