Streaky Bay District

Distinguished and Famous people from Streaky Bay District

🏇 Kerrin McEvoy

Kerrin McEvoy grew up at Streaky Bay in a family where horses were part of everyday life. His father Phillip was a jockey, his grandfather Bill Holland a jockey and trainer, and his uncle Tony another prominent racing figure. Kerrin won the 2000 Melbourne Cup on Brew at just twenty, then developed an international career with Godolphin in Dubai and England. Further Melbourne Cup victories followed on Almandin in 2016 and Cross Counter in 2018. A life-size bronze statue in Streaky Bay celebrates the hometown rider, linking achievements at major racecourses with the coastal community where his ambitions began.

🐎 Tony McEvoy

Tony McEvoy learned about horses on the family farm near Streaky Bay and rode work for local trainer Bill Holland before becoming an apprentice jockey. He later joined Colin Hayes's Lindsay Park operation, beginning a long career that took him from stable work to leading trainer. With his son Calvin he trained Half Yours to win both the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups in 2025. The trophies made a particularly meaningful return journey when he brought them home to Streaky Bay to show his mother Connie. The family's racing story spans generations, but that homecoming gave the national headlines a very local audience.

✈️ Bill McAloney

Bill McAloney bought a garage and engineering workshop at Wirrulla in 1931. The business failed in 1936 and he was bankrupted, before joining the RAAF as an aero-engine fitter. The following year, at an agricultural-show flying display in Hamilton, he entered a burning aircraft in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue its pilot and suffered severe burns himself. His courage brought the Albert Medal, later exchanged for the George Cross. He went on to a long technical career in the air force. Wirrulla belongs to the difficult early business chapter of a man whose engineering skills and sense of duty would later be tested in very different circumstances.

👮 Peter McAulay

Peter McAulay attended primary school at Streaky Bay before a police career that took him from South Australia to international assignments and national leadership. He joined SAPOL in 1951, later served with United Nations civilian police in Cyprus, and became Northern Territory police commissioner in 1978. His work there included the Police Aide Scheme, involving Aboriginal people in policing their own communities. He became Australian Federal Police commissioner in 1988. His senior command also encompassed controversial investigations, including the Chamberlain case, whose convictions were later overturned. Streaky Bay’s specific connection is his early schooling, before those wider responsibilities.