Narrabri

Distinguished and Famous people from Narrabri

⛵ Ben Lexcen

Ben Lexcen, the yacht designer associated with Australia II, was born Robert Clyde Miller at Boggabri in 1936. A disrupted childhood and later railway apprenticeship preceded his work in boatbuilding, sailmaking and design. Australia II’s victory in the 1983 America’s Cup made his innovative thinking internationally familiar, particularly the much-discussed winged keel. Boggabri is the birthplace chapter in a career developed elsewhere, including Newcastle, Sydney and Queensland. A child born in an inland Namoi town eventually helped change the outcome of the world’s most famous yacht race.

🏉 Chris Latham

Chris Latham was born and raised in Narrabri, where his first sporting preference was soccer. He did not play rugby until eighteen, yet within a few years he had reached international competition. His Wallabies career eventually included seventy-eight Tests and forty tries, making him one of Australia’s leading attacking fullbacks. Narrabri High School and the local Blue Boars form part of that sporting background. The late introduction to rugby is a useful detail beside the impressive statistics: a future international career was not necessarily obvious from the sport he first chose to play.

🎾 Jason Stoltenberg

Jason Stoltenberg was born at Narrabri and began tennis at ten on an antbed court on the cotton farm where his father worked. That country beginning led to a professional career including four ATP singles titles, a Wimbledon semi-final in 1996 and Australian Olympic representation in Atlanta. His highest singles ranking was nineteen. The farm court was the beginning of a career that eventually reached the world’s major tournament venues.