Wall of Fame

Ron Costello

Attended Kiama High School 1955 – 1958

Ron represented Australia in the sport of Rugby League.  He initially began his career with the Shellharbour Juniors and represented Kiama High.  He played as a centre for Western Suburbs in 1963, and joined the Illawarra Collegians in 1966.  In 1969, Ron played for Canterbury Bankstown.  He represented Australia in 1970 as a second row forward in the World Cup.  Australia won the World Cup, defeating Great Britain 12-7 in the final.  Ron’s international career also included two tours of New Zealand.

Sally Fitzgibbons

Attended Kiama High School 2003 - 2007

Sally was born in Gerroa in 1990 and as a 14 year old Sally won the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Pro Junior Open event, an event open to any female surfer 21 and younger.  Sally started surfing at a young age, winning the Icon All-Girls Open Event Lennox Head in 2006 at the age of 16.  She represented NSW and Australia on many occasions in a number of different sports, including athletics WINNING Gold at the 2007 Australian Youth Olympic  Festival 800m and 1500m, touch football, soccer, surfing and cross-country running while attending Kiama High School.  She completed her Year 10 earning the prestigious Medal of Excellence.  Sally left Kiama High in Year 11 to pursue her professional surfing career.

In her first attempt to reach the Women’s Elite World Surfing Tour via the World Qualifying Series, Sally set a record by wrapping up the 2008 World Qualifying Series in the first five events to become the youngest World Surfing Tour qualifier in ASP history.

On 23 April 2011, Sally won her first ASP World Tour event at Bells Beach, Victoria.  She quickly won two more World tour events during 2011 and another two in 2012 including a second win at Bells.

Erin Martin

Attended Kiama High School 1989 - 1994

Erin Martin attended Kiama Primary School, then Kiama High School, where she was both Dux and School Captain in her final years.

Following her Higher School Certificate in 1994, Erin was awarded a Bio-Processing Engineering scholarship in the University of NSW Co-op Program, which encouraged leadership and initiative, and facilitated practical work within the engineering feiled during her studies. 

Erin graduated from Engineering in 1998, with Honours.  After working for a year in engineering, Erin was accepted into the Graduate Medical Program at the University of Sydney.  Erin enjoyed her studies, her placements at Royal North Shore Hospital, as well as her rural and remote placements in Central Australia, and she was awarded a scholarship for a placement in Obstetrics in Fiji.  Erin also combined her studies with work in a Cancer Genetics research laboratory, and contributed to several published articles.

Since graduating in 2004, Erin has specialised in Emergency Medicine.  As part of her training, Erin elected to do six months of retrieval medicine, and in doing so, became the first female doctor on the Northern Rivers Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter Service.   She became a Fellow of the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine in 2011.  

Brett Morris

Attended Kiama High School 1999 - 2004

Brett played for Kiama Knights winning the Under 18s competition in 2004.  He started his junior representative career with the Steelers and progressed to the winning St George Illawarra Jersey Flegg team in 2005.  The following lists his outstanding career:

• 2006 Debut Round 9 for St George Illawarra
• 2009 scored a Club record of 4 tries and was top try scorer at the end of the season
•  2009 Debut for Australia on the Four Nations Tour which Australia won (4 tests).  Leading try scorer for the Tour
• 2010 won the National Rugby League (NRL) competition with St George Illawarra Dragons
• 2010 another Four Nations Tour.  Lost the final to New Zealand (4 Tests) and ANZAC Test at the start of the year.  Also debut All Stars game
• 2010 Played 100^th game
• 2010 Debut for NSW State of Origin
• 2011 Played ANZAC Test for Australia and two State of Origin games
• 2012 Played one State of Origin and one Test
• 2012 Named Dragon’s Player of the Year winning the St George Bank Medal
• 2013 World Cup.

Brett continues to be a professional National Rugby League Player

Todd Prestage

Attended Kiama High School 1985 - 1989

Todd first achieved success in 1989 when he won the Australian School Surfing Titles Junior Division. In 1991, Todd travelled to France and won the Pro Junior contest against an International field. 1992 saw Todd surfing in the World Qualifying Series, and narrowly missing the cut off for the World Championship Tour. 

Todd achieved some excellent results in 1994, making the cut off for the 1995 World Championship Tour. In this year, Todd achieved 3^rd place in the World Qualifying Series and 25^th in the World Championship Tour.  In 1996 he also achieved some excellent results with the highlight being a 2^nd place achievement in the World Championship Tour event at Bells Beach, Victoria. Todd has always set goals he believes he can achieve and is a very determined person.  He is not put off by setbacks. 

Beverly Whitfield

Attended Kiama High School 1967-1970

Beverly was an outstanding Australian Olympic Swimmer.  Her greatest achievement was winning a gold medal in the 200 metres and bronze medal in the 100 metres breaststroke events at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.  She also won three gold medals in the 1970 Commonwealth Games at Edinburgh, Scotland.  The gold medals were for the 200 metres breaststroke, 100 metres breaststroke and the 4 x100 metres medley relay.  Beverly made a great contribution to both Australian swimming and the Olympic movement.

Rod Wishart

Attended Kiama High School 1981 - 1986

Rod began his Rugby League career with Gerringong and rose to Country selection in 1988.  He joined the Illawarra Steelers in 1989.  He holds records for most points in a season (176  in 1995), most points in a match (22 in 1995 and 1996) and most points for club (914).  He made his Test debut against New Zealand in 1991 and played for Australia’s World Cup winning team in 1995.  He equalled the world record for most goals in a Test (11) against France in 1994.  Rod broke the record for most goals in a match by a touring Australian player when he kicked 12 in Australia’s 80-2 defeat of Sheffield in 1994.  He was the top scorer for Australia on the 1994 Kangaroo Tour (174 points).

Michael Cassel

Attended Kiama High School 1993– 1998

Michael Cassel is an internationally recognised producer and entertainment executive.  He formed his company, the Michael Cassel Group, to produce and present the world’s greatest musical and theatrical productions, live entertainment experiences, marquee events and concert attractions.   Current productions include the first international touring production of the world’s number one musical, Disney’s The Lion Kings, which has enjoyed triumphant seasons in the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea (Daegu, Busan and Seoul), Thailand and Hong Kong.

Michael is the Executive Producer of the Australian premiere production of Harry Potter and Cursed which played exclusively in Melbourne.  The record-breaking play was produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, Colin Callender and Harry Potter Theatrical Productions.

In 2021 Michael will produce the Australasian premiere of the landmark, multi-award winning musical Hamilton at the Sydney Lyric Theatre.

Previous productions include the triumphant 19-month Australian and international tour of Les Miserables, the Helpmann Award-winning Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, the 10^th Anniversary Tour of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, the Australian premiere of Cyndi Lauper’s acclaimed Kinky Boots and the Australian and Asian tour of Singin’ in the Rain.  Concerts and events include the outdoor stadium spectacular The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium, the opening celebration of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup and tours including Celeste Barber, Lea Salonga, Tina Arena and Darren Criss.  Broadway and West End co-producer credits include DreamWorks’ The Prince of Egypt, Pretty Woman: The Musical and the Cher Show.

During his 10 year tenure with Disney Theatrical Group, the live entertainment division of the Walt Disney Company, he produced the company’s Broadway stage productions including The Lion King, Beauty and The Beast, Tarzan, AIDA, Mary Poppins, The Little Mermaid and High School Musical.  Michael also supported Disney on Ice and Disney Live!  Licensed to Feld Entertainment, in international markets. 

Michael began his professional career working with Australia’s foremost entertainment entrepreneur and celebrity manager, Harry M. Miller.

Allison Shorten

Attended Kiama High School 1979 - 1984

Allison is an internationally recognized trailblazer in nursing and midwifery. An early pioneer of evidence-based nursing in Australia, she has dedicated her career to researching best practices and educating the next generation of healthcare providers globally. Allison’s nursing career began at the University of Wollongong (UOW) where she graduated Dux of her year, receiving the Illawarra Award for Nursing Excellence and the Illawarra Hospital Prize for Nursing in 1987. Allison worked as a Registered Nurse and Registered Midwife at Shellharbour Hospital until 1993, when she accepted her first academic position at the University of Southern Queensland. Achieving her Master of Science degree in 1994, she returned to UOW to teach midwifery in 1995, educating the local nursing and midwifery workforce for almost fifteen years.

Graduating with her PhD from the University of Sydney in 2006, Allison’s work influenced research around informed decision making in pregnancy care. She designed, produced, tested and distributed the first evidence-based pregnancy decision-aid book, called Birth Choices, which has been used internationally to support women making choices about birth after previous caesarean. Allison won the UniQuest Trailblazer Award in 2008 for this original, innovative and entrepreneurial research.

In 2010, Allison achieved the honour of being appointed Associate Professor in Nursing at Yale University, the oldest and one of the most prestigious university nursing schools in the USA. She quickly achieved funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to lead a multi-disciplinary research team from YSN and Yale School of Medicine, transforming Birth Choices into digital format for implementation research in Yale New Haven Hospital pregnancy care clinics.

In 2016 Allison was recruited to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Nursing, one of the largest and top ranked nursing schools in the USA. A tenured full professor, department chair, and director of the university-wide Office of Interprofessional Curriculum, Allison remains dedicated to promoting midwifery models of care. She was instrumental in successful efforts to return midwifery education back to Alabama in 2022.

Allison has published over 100 research papers and professional works, in some of the highest ranked international professional journals in her field. She has been awarded Fellow of the Australian College of Midwives (2001), Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (2018), and Distinguished Fellow of the National Academies of Practice (2022).

Prof David Balding

BMath (Hons), PhD

Attended Kiama High School 1977 - 1978

In 1980 David attended Newcastle University where he graduated in 1984 with First Class Honours in Mathematics and a University Medal.  In 1985, David went to Oxford in England to study for his PhD, which he received in 1989.  After this he lectured in Probability and Statistics at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London.  In 1996 he became a Nuffield Science Research Fellow, which allowed research in Australia and the USA.  In 1997 David was Professor of Applied Statistics at the University of Reading, United Kingdom.

Trent Jansen

Attended Kiama High School 1994 - 1999

Trent graduated from Kiama High School in 1999.  His talent in Visual Arts was recognised by the selection of his HSC sculpture for Artexpress.

From 2000 – 2004 Trent completed a Bachelor of Design at the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW and 2002 Industrial Design at University of Alberta, Canada.  In 2004 Trent was an intern for world famous designer Marcel Wanders in Amsterdam and on return to Australia was awarded the Object New Design Award – the national graduate award.  In 2006 and 2007 Trent won a residency to work in Japan with “Spiral” a Japanese gallery and some affiliated Japanese manufacturers.  In 2008, the avant guard furniture manufacturer Moooi launched Trent’s “Pregnant Chair” at the Salone de Mobile in Milano, Italy – the biggest furniture fair in the world.  In 2008 Trent was awarded the Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Award.  In 2010 Trent was awarded the Space & Edra Design Residency in Italy for 2 months working with famous furniture designer Massimo Morozzi.  In 2009 Trent began working with a group of Australian designers and formed a company called “Broached Commissions”.  In 2011 they launched Broach Colonial with a series of one off design pieces.  Trent’s contribution was the “Briggs Family Tea Service”.  In 2013 Edra prototyped a series of Trent’s furniture pieces called Pankalangu, which take their name and inspiration from a Western Arrernte mythical creature.  

Trent has also taught at the School of Design at the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW.

Denese Marks

B.App.Sc.(Hons), PhD

Attended Kiama High School 1981 - 1986

Denese completed a Bachelor of Applied Science Degree at the University of Technology, Sydney, receiving the David Sugarman Award for Pathology in 1988 and the M.Y. Ali Prize for Diagnostic Cytology in 1989.  In 1990, Denese completed her Honours degree, being awarded First Class Honours and the University Medal.  During 1991 – 1994, Denese worked towards her Doctoral Thesis, concentrating on the way in which Leukaemia cells respond to chemotherapy drugs. 

In 1996, Denese held a position as a Post Doctoral research fellow in the Department of Medicine at the University of Melbourne. 

Denese has found Science a very rewarding career and hopes her achievements help encourage others, especially girls, to achieve in this field.

Joshua Morris

Attended Kiama High School 1999 - 2004

Joshua played for Kiama Knights winning the Under 18s competition in 2004.  He started his junior representative career with the Steelers and progressed to the winning St George Illawarra Jersey Flegg team in 2005.  The following lists his outstanding career:

• Played NSW Under 19s in 2005.
• 2007 debut in the NRL Round 1 for St George/Illawarra against the Gold Coast Titans.
• Played five Tests for Australia during 2009 – 2013.
• Played in Four Nations 2009, 2001.
• Played in World Cup 2013.
• Played eight Origin Matches between 2009- 2013.
• Played Country Origin 2007, 2011, 2012.
• NRL All Stars 2010, 2013.
• Dally M Centre of the Year Award, 2009, 2012.Australia Prime Minister’s Team 2008, 2011, 2013.

Joshua continues to be a professional National Rugby League player.

Senator John Tierney

B.Ec, M.Ed, PhD

Attended Kiama High School 1959 - 1963

John attended the University of Sydney, studying Economics, and graduated with a B.Ec and M.Ed and a Phd in Education.  He began his career as a Demonstration Teacher of Economics at Sydney Boys High and finished as a senior lecturer in Education at Newcastle University.  He entered the Senate in 1991, achieving his life long ambition.  His interests in the Senate include: Education, Communication and Regional Development.  John has also been appointed by the Governor General to the Council of the Australian National Library and the Australian National University.

Having been born with Polio, John learnt to focus on his talents.  He has the life motto of “Press on  – never give up, if you believe in yourself you will succeed, just persist”.

Dr Steven Wallace

BSc(Hons), PhD

Attended Kiama High School 1981-1986

Steven completed a Maths and Science Degree at the University of NSW, winning first place in Physics in years 2, 3 and 4 and achieved almost parallel success in Maths, Geology and Chemistry.  Steven focused his Honours year on the role of the physicist in medicine and was involved in a research project based on designing and testing a technique using magnetic fields to image arteries in the body.  As a result of his work, he received the University Medal and the highest Physics Honours grading in the 50 year history of the University.  He has also completed a PhD at Wollongong University. 1992 – 1995 has seen Steven involved in writing software for patient dose calculations utilising neutron beams for cancer treatment.

He has the philosophy that “you need a lot of hard work and discipline to succeed but don’t get overwhelmed by it all – life is to be enjoyed also”.

Kimberley Abbott

Attended Kiama High School 2002 – 2007

Kimberley is a leading engineer, leader and business woman both nationally and internationally.  CEO and founder of Vested, a company with a mission to “redefine millionaire to be a person who impacts millions of lives’ through leveraging data-driven impact assessment to help people invest their money where it makes the best impact on society.  Kim is also the lead Tech Consultant for the United Nations, personally building the platform that assesses the impact of the United Nations peacekeeping operations around the world, to improve effectiveness and save lives.  During COVID-19 Kimberley became a key data lead in ensuring the United Nations peacekeeping missions had access to vital data to address the pandemic in Africa.  Previously Engineering Innovation Lead at Thales UK, and leader on a number of emerging tech projects; including unmanned autonomous systems and smart cities.   Previously founder of award-winning social enterprise, Roka, which aimed to break the cycle of poverty in rural India through economic empowerment of women.  Kimberley was named in Australia’s 100 Women of Influence (2013) by Westpac and the Financial Times, and was selected as a civil advisor to the Australian Government for the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.  She was named in 2018 as Most Innovative Engineers by Engineers Australia, and the UK’s Top 50 Women in Engineering. 

Kimberly’s field of endeavour is: social entrepreneur, business and humanitarian.

Grace Stewart

Attended Kiama High School 2010– 2015

Grace is a professional sportsperson – hockey.

Sporting History:

·       2020 - Hockeyroos Beijing Olympics squad member

·       2020 - Hockey NSW Arrows Team Member (from 2015).

·       2019 -  FIH World Hockey League – Silver Medal

·       2018 - Gold Coast Commonwealth Games – Silver Medal

·       2018 - Hockey NSW Senior Hockey Player of the Year

·       2017 -  Oceania Cup – Gold Medal

·       2016 - Debut at 18 years -  Australian Women’s Hockey team member – Hockeyroos

·       2016 -  RIO Olympic Games – Team Member

·       2016 - FIH U21 Junior Hockey World Cup – Bronze Medal

Lola Scott

Attended Kiama High School 1965– 1970

Entering policing when there were only 100 women officers was a challenge.  Lola’s dream was to be a PE teacher but did not get the scholarship that was needed.  This did not stop Lola achieving.   Quickly moving into criminal investigation and carrying out investigations in the Western Suburbs of Sydney she became a pioneer in child abuse investigation.  Passing al exams first attempt Lola was promoted to Detective when there were very few female investigators.  Considered ‘outstanding; was promoted to Detective Sergeant when only a few women were Detectives.  When working in the Internal Security investigating police corruption Lola became involved in the arrests of a number of Detectives for extorting large sums of money protecting paedophiles and pederasts.  Working full time attended University attaining a Bachelor of Law Degree and admitted to the Supreme Court as a Barrister.  Promoted to Detective Inspector whilst completing a Master in Public Policy and Administration to assist at more senior Levels.  Transferred to Redfern as patrol tactician after the Redfern riots responsible for developing and implementing policies that produced a more harmonious relationship between the police and the Aboriginal community.  Promoted to PSSES as Commander of Internal Affairs during the Royal commission into police corruption.  Lola was the first woman to be promoted to Region Commander responsible for 1500 staff and 184 sq kilometres of major metropolitan Sydney.  Lola was the first person in Australia to be awarded a Master in  Transnational Crime Prevention.

Scott Fava

Attended Kiama High School 1992– 1993

·       Field of Endeavour:  Sport and working with the community.

·       Represented Wallabies in five tests in 2005 – 2006.

·       Represented Australia at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne 2006 in Rugby 7s finishing fourth.

·       Played 87 Super Rugby Games from 2000 – 2009 with Reds; Brumbies; Force; Waratahs.

·       Brumbies Best Forward 2004/2005.

·       Ken Catchpole Best Player 2002/2003/2004 in NSW Shute Shield.

·       Camp Quality Illawarra Ambassador

·       Raised over $100 000 for Camp Quality Illawarra.

Dr Matthew Purss

Attended Kiama High School 1988 - 1993

Matthew graduated from Kiama High School in 1993 with the ambitious goal of making a difference in the world through geophysics. In achieving this goal Matthew attained a BSc(Hons) in Geology and Geophysics from the University of Wollongong in 1997 and a PhD in Exploration Geophysics from Monash University in 2004. His career as a scientist (or rather adventure) has spanned the globe, working across private industry, research and government sectors - including engagements as an expert advisor to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization. He is a leader in the international standardisation of Discrete Global Grid Systems and an Entrepreneur driving innovation in the future of Digital Twin Technologies.