Ararat

Distinguished and Famous people from Ararat

Ararat has connections with international sport and an unusually well-travelled body of botanical art. These two careers began locally but found audiences in Olympic velodromes and, rather unexpectedly, in passport queues.

🎨 Stan Kelly

Ararat railwayman Stan Kelly became a respected botanical illustrator through meticulous paintings of Australian plants, particularly eucalypts. He worked at a small table at home and shared his skills through local teaching. His books became reference works for students of botany, while the National Herbarium of Victoria acquired more than 500 watercolours. In 2009, selected illustrations were adapted for the Australian passport. The Langi Morgala Museum in Ararat also preserves his work and story.

🚴 Shane Kelly

Born in Ararat, Shane Kelly represented Australia at five successive Olympic Games between 1992 and 2008. He won kilometre time-trial silver in Barcelona and bronze in Sydney, then added a keirin bronze in Athens. Commonwealth Games success included kilometre time-trial gold in 1994 and 1998. Those results span different sprint disciplines and more than a decade at the highest level, making the Ararat-born rider a substantial figure in Australian track cycling.

🏉 Tom Wills

Tom Wills grew up around Ararat before education at Rugby School in England and a prominent career in cricket and the organisation of Australian football. The book describes childhood friendships with local Aboriginal children and his knowledge of their language. Back in Australia, he encouraged cricketers to play football during winter and helped develop written rules in 1859. His sporting life crossed codes and communities, with cricket and football closely linked from the beginning. The local connection is a childhood in the district.