Upwey

Distinguished and Famous people from Upwey

🎨 Fred Williams

Fred Williams bought a house on two acres at Upwey in 1963 after an arrangement with art dealer Rudy Komon gave him a regular income. It allowed him to leave his framing-shop job and spend more time painting. He worked outdoors, then brought canvases home to hang, study and refine. The surrounding Dandenongs helped shape his distinctive approach to landscape, in which scattered marks and open spaces could suggest trees and terrain without conventional detail. David Moore photographed him at Upwey that year, preserving a glimpse of the artist during a productive period of experiment.

His Upwey series, begun in 1965, also addressed bush that had been affected by fire. The local landscape supplied more than a pleasant backdrop: its regrowth and scattered forms helped him explore a different way of organising a painting. Later, the much drier Pilbara gave him another Australian landscape to study.

🏉 Rory Sloane

Rory Sloane's football pathway ran through Upwey–Tecoma and the Eastern Ranges before Adelaide drafted him in 2008. His career with the Crows brought club champion awards in 2013 and 2016, with All-Australian vice-captaincy also following in 2016. He became Adelaide's co-captain in 2019 and sole captain in 2020. The club's account emphasises a player valued for his commitment to teammates as well as individual honours. Upwey's connection lies in the junior football background behind a long career on the national stage.

🏛️ Gordon Bryant

Gordon Bryant taught part-time at Upwey High School while studying at the University of Melbourne after the Second World War. Teaching and wartime service preceded his election to federal parliament in 1955. He became a prominent advocate for Aboriginal rights and later a minister in the Whitlam government. His interest in politics had appeared early: at school, representing Labor in a mock election, he won the classroom ballot. The later career was far more demanding, combining committee work, campaigns and ministerial responsibilities with the persistence of an outspoken former teacher.

🗝️ Vladimir and Evdokia Petrov

Vladimir Petrov found employment at the Ilford photographic company in Upwey inJune 1957, after the Soviet intelligence officer had defected and been given a new identity. His wife Evdokia, herself an experienced cipher specialist, worked separately as a typist at Clayton. Their information had been highly valued by Australian and allied intelligence services, but their later lives were troubled by fear of reprisals and personal difficulties. Upwey’s connection is Vladimir’s ordinary civilian employment, rather than an intelligence posting: a workplace in the attempt to build a less visible life after the Petrov affair.