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Front: Elizabeth II (1926-), Queen of United Kingdom, British colonies and Commonwealth of Nations

Back: Stylized aboriginal figures and animals

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Front: John Macarthur (1767-1834), soldier, politician and pioneer of the Australian wool industry

Macarthur joined the Army as a young man and arrived in Sydney, New South Wales, then a small and isolated penal colony, as a Lieutenant in the New South Wales Corps in 1790. In 1792 the acting Governor, Francis Grose, appointed him paymaster and inspector of public works, and gave him a land grant at Parramatta, west of Sydney, where he and his wife Elizabeth farmed successfully. Around this time he developed the idea that New South Wales would be an excellent place to grow high quality wool. In 1794 he imported his first sheep, and in 1796 he was able to import Spanish merino sheep and establish Australia's first commercially successful wool exporting business.

Back: William James Farrer (1845-1906), leading Australian agronomist and wheat breeder

Farrer was born England and educated at the University of Cambridge. He emigrated to Australia in 1868. He worked for a number of years as a tutor and a land surveyor. In 1886 he bought a property to grow grape vines. However, these failed because the soil was unsuitable and he chose to try again with wheat. A series of heavy rains resulted in the loss of much of the wheat harvest due to rust. Accordingly, he started to develop wheat strains that were immune to this malady. He also worked on developing a strain of wheat that could resist bunt or smut-ball, another devastating enemy of wheat. Success in developing a rust-resistant strain greeted him in 1900, when a satisfactory series of rust-resistant wheat was finally obtained. He then developed a series of other strains. These wheat strains led to a major improvement to Australia's wheat industry within a few years.

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Front: Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), naturalist and patron of science

From an early age, his declared passion was natural history, and in particular, botany. Shortly after inheriting his family's fortune in the early 1760's he chose to pursue this passion to the full. In 1766 he traveled to Newfoundland and Labrador to collect plants, animals and rocks and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in the same year. When the Royal Society was successful in initiating Captain Cook's 1768 expedition to Tahiti for astronomical observations, Banks obtained permission from the Admiralty to join the venture. They made collections and observations in South America, Tahiti and New Zealand before reaching Australia. After his triumphant return from this voyage, Banks traveled to Scotland, Wales, Holland and Iceland, collecting more and more 'curiosities'. In 1778 he also became President of the Royal Society, an office that he held until his death in 1820. He was knighted in 1781.

Back: Caroline Chisholm (1808-1877), known as "the emigrant's friend"

Caroline Chisholm was born in England. Even as a young girl she was interested in helping people. When she was twenty-two years old she married Archibald Chisholm, an officer in the British Army.

Early in their married life the Chisholms decided to move to Australia. When they sailed into Sydney it was still a convict town. She was shocked to see many women living on the streets. Forced to travel out on filthy, overcrowded ships, these women came to Australia looking for a better life. But when they got to Sydney, there were no jobs or places to live.

Caroline wanted to start a home for unemployed women, and then to find them jobs. She asked the Governor for a building. The Governor said it would cost too much. However, her persistence finally made Governor changed his mind. The Female Immigrants' Home was a great success. Within two years Caroline had found jobs and homes for at least a thousand women. Her effort moved most of the women off the streets, but she could still see that future migrants would need help. She convinced the authorities that something had to be done about the dreadful conditions on the ships being used to bring people to Australia. She set up an employment office, and was the first person in Australia to introduce work contracts, agreements about working conditions and pay. She continued to travel the country to find jobs and homes for about 11,000 migrants, most of them young women.

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Front: Francis Greenway (1777-1837), from convict to architect

Greenway was born England, where he became an architect. In 1809 he became bankrupt, and in 1812 he was found guilty of forging a financial document and sentenced to death. This sentence was later commuted to 14 years. He arrived in Sydney in 1814 to serve his sentence. Between 1816 and 1818, whilst still a convict, Greenway was responsible for the design and construction of the Macquarie Lighthouse on the South Head at the entrance to Sydney Harbor.

After the success of this project he was emancipated by the Governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, and went on to build many significant buildings in the new colony. His works include Hyde Park Barracks, St. James Church and the new Government House. There are still 49 buildings in central Sydney attributed to his designs.

Back: Henry Lawson (1867-1922), Australian's famous author

Lawson became a literary legend in his own lifetime and was loved by the Australian public. He was the first Australian writer granted a state funeral.

Lawson wrote short stories and poems with sympathy and humor. He depicted Australian men and women and Australian rural life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.