Naracoorte

Distinguished and Famous people from Naracoorte

🏃 Jessica Stenson

Jessica Stenson, known earlier in her career as Jess Trengove, grew up in Naracoorte and began running through local school and junior sport. She tried a range of activities before athletics became her main focus. Her marathon career brought Commonwealth Games bronze medals in 2014 and 2018, followed by gold at Birmingham in 2022. Years of training and competition separated her country-town beginning from that Commonwealth Games victory. Naracoorte remained part of that story: she later returned to her former primary school to present sporting awards.

🏉 Jack Trengove

Jack Trengove grew up at Naracoorte in a sporting family that included his sister, marathon runner Jessica Stenson. He progressed to AFL football with Melbourne and was appointed co-captain alongside Jack Grimes in 2012 while still only twenty. The responsibility arrived early in his career, followed by difficult seasons and serious injury setbacks. His story is therefore more complicated than a list of draft selections and leadership titles. The siblings’ accounts of growing up together reveal encouragement and mutual respect behind two different sporting careers, one played in a team and the other across forty-two kilometres of road.

🦴 Rod Wells and Grant Gartrell

Rod Wells and Grant Gartrell made a discovery at Naracoorte in 1969 that transformed understanding of the caves’ scientific importance. Exploring Victoria Cave, they reached a chamber containing an extraordinary concentration of fossil remains. Subsequent excavation and research helped reveal animals and environments from the distant past. Earlier fossil finds had already been recorded at Naracoorte; the chamber opened a much larger opportunity to investigate the region’s ancient life.