Loxton Waikerie

Distinguished and Famous people from Loxton Waikerie

🌟 Mark Ricciuto

Mark Ricciuto came from Waikerie before building his AFL career with Adelaide. His strong attack on the ball and ability to play in several positions made him a prominent part of the Crows’ early decades. After retiring from the AFL, he returned to play for Waikerie and wrote about rediscovering the pleasures of country football: friends, family and the atmosphere around a local oval. That return gives the regional connection a life beyond his junior years. His account includes the small complication of a toddler daughter who thought seeing her father on the field meant she could run out and join him.

🏅 Grant Schubert

Hockey player Grant Schubert was born in Loxton in 1980 and went on to represent Australia at two Olympic Games. He was part of the men’s team that won gold at Athens in 2004 and bronze at Beijing in 2008. His international record also included Champions Trophy victories. His later playing affiliations included Adelaide and Western Australian clubs. His career adds hockey to the region’s sporting story and shows a pathway that moved between state competition and national teams rather than remaining in one local club.

🐪 Ben Murray

Ben Murray’s working life included farms near Waikerie and later road-making gangs in the Murray Mallee. During the Depression he became an overseer and joined a lodge at Alawoona. These jobs formed part of a much longer career as a stockman and cameleer, followed by significant work with linguists recording Aboriginal languages and knowledge of country. The local connection is employment and community participation, rather than a claim that all his travels began here. His story reveals how practical workers could also hold the historical and linguistic knowledge on which later scholarship depended.