Expelled from school at 13 because his parents refused to pay the fees, Keith Smith went on to have a career in radio and TV that spanned decades and involved him interviewing about 2 million children in his role as a self-described ''Pied Piper''. He also wrote a sitcom and published almost 30 books, ranging in topic from jokes for children to parenting tips. He published his 27th book, a collection of interviews about the Depression called Australian Battlers Remember, at the age of 86.

After a life of scrabbling to make ends meet, Pat Quinn hit upon a winning formula at the age of 35. In fact, he hit the jackpot. As the Great Franquin, hypnotist extraordinaire, he wowed packed houses in his homeland New Zealand, as well as in Australia and Hawaii, earning enough money over three years to keep him and his family in style for the rest of their lives. At the height of his popularity, he received up to 4000 letters a week from people seeking cures for their ailments, he was often quoted as saying he was just an entertainer.

A severe bout of rheumatic fever interrupted Marguerite ''Madge'' Moloney's schooling, but it set her on the path to a career as a successful ceramicist in prewar Sydney. Moloney's Noelene ware - each piece crafted by hand in her city studio, which she set up and ran herself - was eventually sold exclusively by the department chain Farmer & Co. The company paid £600 for the first order and thereafter bought all that her studio, which employed nine women and one man to throw the clay, could produce.

Prue McPhillips never let society - or institutions - define her. She was a committed Catholic, determined to do something useful with her life. She had a passion for flying and rode in a Tiger Moth on her 15th birthday. She received her medical degree at the age of 29.

A talented young swimmer who defeated many competitors who later represented Australia, Bess Barrie was forbidden to pursue the sport at an elite level because her father didn't believe it was an appropriate career for a woman. Barrie, however, bided her time and when her own children had grown up, she competed at a senior level - both nationally and internationally - regularly setting world records for her age group.

Jack Garrett vowed that if he ever made it through World War II alive, he would become a squash champion. Three years as a prisoner of war in Changi didn't do much for his chances - he suffered beriberi, dysentery and dengue fever, among other tropical illnesses, and malnutrition. When he returned home, he weighed little more than 32 kilograms and was functionally blind, but survive he did and, in 1951-52, he became Australia's reigning squash champion.

In 1959 Rupe - still wearing suits and known as Trevor - hopped on a boat to Sydney. Not long after arriving, she met a young Aboriginal lad at the Cross who recruited Trevor for his group of male prostitutes known as ''the delivery boys''. She began performing in Sydney, adopting the name Carmen after Dorothy Dandridge's character in the movie Carmen Jones and working as a dancer (hula and exotic, with snake) at such clubs as the Jewel Box and the Venus Room. In 1963 she began performing with

Helen Beh was a driven woman who smashed academic gender barriers and responded to two separate cancer diagnoses by undertaking further study and living well beyond the initial prognoses. She was an internationally recognised expert in sleep research, psychophysiology, human performance and sports psychology. In a university career spanning 38 years, she published four books and 73 papers in peer-reviewed journals.