The Hills

Distinguished and Famous people from The Hills

📚 Patrick White

Novelist and playwright Patrick White lived with Manoly Lascaris at Dogwoods, a farm in Castle Hill. The State Library’s collections include playscripts carrying that address, placing the writing life within the Hills district. They left in 1964, and White later received the Nobel Prize in Literature. His archive has a surprisingly precarious history: the library’s exhibition account describes a bonfire of possessions when the pair left Dogwoods. Surviving manuscripts and correspondence make the local connection more than a commemorative name on a public room.

🏍️ Gregg Hansford

Gregg Hansford and co-rider Murray Sayle won the Six Hour Production Bike Race at Amaroo Park, Annangrove, in 1975. It was a memorable result in a career that crossed from motorcycles to touring cars. Hansford later won ten international motorcycle grand prix events before serious injuries ended that part of his racing life. On four wheels he shared the winning car with Larry Perkins at the 1993 Bathurst 1000. The Hills connection is the Amaroo Park victory, with Sayle’s contribution properly alongside his own; Hansford was born in Brisbane. His success made the local circuit part of a sporting story that reached both world motorcycle racing and Australian endurance events.

🌹 Valerie Swane

Valerie Swane helped make roses a familiar part of Australian gardening through the family nursery that moved from Ermington to Dural in the mid-1960s. She became managing director after her father died in 1974, taking responsibility for sales and marketing. The nursery’s glasshouse became a setting for an annual charity fundraiser, filled with rose blooms. Beyond the family business, Swane became the first woman national president of the Australian Nurserymen’s Association, serving from 1980 to 1982. Her books, newspaper columns and weekend gardening broadcasts brought practical horticulture to a much wider audience.