Some years ago the Australian government gave an award to Olivia Newton-John for her 'services to music'. The Canberra journalist Ian Warden suggested at the time that it would have been more appropriate to give the music industry an award for its services to Olivia Newton-John. Likewise with Don Bradman. He achieved lasting fame and a reasonable fortune from doing something he found relatively easy and congenial. How does that make him a character to admire and emulate?

And what about the hundreds of would-be Bradmans before and since who put in just as much time and effort but simply didn't have the same ability or luck? Heroes all? Or hapless losers?

Why does Sir John Eccles not make a mark on the Australian identity? What is more important discovering how the brain works, or, how to swing a piece of wood? Sir Mark Olphant helped saved the knecks of the free West in WWII [significant contributions at Los Alamos & shinking the size of radar units to fit into planes]