Influential artists
Powderfinger
1. Bee Gees
The internationally renowned Bee Gees were a singing trio of brothers - Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb - who began their musical careers in Brisbane, with their first ever television appearance on local program 'Anything Goes' in 1960.
2. Powderfinger
Powderfinger formed in Brisbane in 1989, and comprises Bernard Fanning, Darren Middleton, Ian Haug, John Collins and Jon Coghill. They are one of Australia's most successful rock groups, having scored numerous hit singles and number one albums, earning a total of 15 ARIA Awards to date.
3. Geoffrey Rush
Born in Toowoomba, Geoffrey Rush pursued a very successful stage career in Australia beginning with the Queensland Theatre Company in Brisbane. Rush is the recipient of a Golden Globe, BAFTA, Emmy and AFI awards, and won the 1997 best actor Academy Award for his role in the movie Shine.
4. Keith Urban
Before moving on to international stardom, country music singer and guitarist Keith Urban began his singing career in Brisbane. He has won the Country Music Association's Male Vocalist of the Year three times.
5. Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker)
Oodgeroo Noonuccal was instrumental in winning the vote for Indigenous people. She was one of Australia's most respected poets and a noted educator and political activist, who fought to improve conditions for her people.
6. Steele Rudd
Steele Rudd was the pseudonym of Arthur Hoey Davis, an Australian author, born at Drayton near Toowoomba and best known for On Our Selection.
7. Judith Wright
Judith Wright was an Australian poet, environmentalist and campaigner for Aboriginal land rights. She was the second Australian to receive the Queen's Gold Medal for poetry in 1992. The Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley is named in her honour.
8. Billy Thorpe
Billy Thorpe was a renowned English-born Australian musician who settled in Brisbane and earned great success in the 1960s and 1970s as the lead singer of rock band Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs.
9. Hugh Lunn
Brisbane-born journalist and author Hugh Lunn served his journalism cadetship with The Courier-Mail and went on to become Queensland editor for The Australian. Lunn is now famous in Queensland for a number of autobiographical books including Over The Top With Jim.
10. Savage Garden
Savage Garden was a Brisbane pop duo that enjoyed major international success. Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones sold over 25 million albums around the world and are in the Guinness Book of World Records for winning an unprecedented number (10) of ARIA Music Awards in one year (1997).
11. Gladys Moncrieff
Gladys Moncrieff OBE (1892 - 1976) was a musical theatre singer and recording artist, born in Bundaberg, who became known as 'Australia's Queen of Song' and 'Our Glad'.
12. Graeme Connors
Graeme Connors is an awarded country music singer, songwriter and performer who has released 14 albums.
13. William McInnes
William McInnes, born in Redcliffe, is an Australian film and television actor. After a recurring role on A Country Practice in 1990, McInnes appeared in series such as Bligh, Ocean Girl, and Snowy before making his name as Sergeant Nick Schultz on Blue Heelers in 1994. His many films include Look Both Ways and most recently Unfinished Sky. William is also an accomplished writer - his three bestselling books include A man's got to have a hobby, Cricket Kings and That'd Be Right.
14. David Malouf
David Malouf is an acclaimed Australian writer born in Brisbane. He was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2000 and his 1993 novel Remembering Babylon won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
15. Charles Chauvel
Warwick-born pioneering Australian film maker Charles Chauvel made his first movie The Moth of Moonbi in 1926 in Harrisville, Queensland, later having commercial success with highly regarded films, often portraying an heroic vision of Australia, including The Rats of Tobruk (1944), Sons of Matthew (1949) and Jedda (1955).
The inclusion of a person, event, invention or place on the Q150 icons list is not intended to offend or upset any individual member or groups of the public nor does it constitute an endorsement or affiliation by Q150, the State of Queensland, their officers, employees or agents with that person, event, invention, place, or any affiliated product or service.
Last reviewed 4 June 2009
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