List of people from the greater Ashfield area

Arts

• James Muir Auld : Ashfield born artist; winner of the 1935 Wynne Prize
• Normand Henry Baker : Archibald Prize winning artist who was born in Summer Hill
• Geraldine Brooks : Pulitzer Prize-winning author ; wrote about her childhood in Ashfield in the book Foreign Correspondence
• Henry Halloran : Poet and resident of Ashfield; buried in St John's cemetery
• John Lang : poet and barrister, son of Elizabeth Underwood; grew up in Ashfield
• Adam Phillips : Award-winning animator and artist who utilizes Adobe Flash; worked with Disney during the 1990s
• Robie Porter musician and record label owner
• Arthur Streeton : Australian artist who briefly lived in Summer Hill
• Rod Taylor Hollywood movie star
• P. L. Travers : Author of five volumes of Mary Poppins stories; boarded at Normanhurst School in Ashfield beginning in 1912 and later lived with her mother and younger sisters at 17 Pembroke Street
• Fredrick Wills, artist and photographer and motion picture pioneer

  Business

• Adolphus Herbert Frederick Norman Appleroth, founder of Aeroplane Jelly
• Frederick Clissold: businessman and wealthiest citizen of Ashfield municipality in late 19th century; co-founder of Canterbury Park Racecourse; owned Glentworth mansion in Ashfield
• Joseph Grace, founder of Grace Brothers department stores; lived at Yasmar in Haberfield
• John Goodlet : timber merchant and philanthropist who established the Goodlet Institute in Ashfield
• Anthony Hordern : Shopping magnate who built and lived at Shubra Hall, now part of the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney in Croydon
• Richard Stanton : Developer of Haberfield who also lived there for many years
• Mei Quong Tart : Prominent Sydney businessman, tea house owner and acting consul to Imperial Chinese government in late 19th century; lived in Gallop House at 48 Arthur Street

  Law

• Norman Allan : NSW police commissioner in 1962–72; was a resident of Haberfield
• Justice Greg James : Former NSW Supreme Court Judge, current president of Mental Health Review Tribunal of New South Wales and resident of Summer Hill
• Ian Temby, QC : First Commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption of New South Wales; former resident of Summer Hill
• Rt Hon Sir Cyril Walsh : Justice of the High Court of Australia and resident of Summer Hill

  Military

• Colonel Matron Kathleen Best : Nurse and first director of the Women's Royal Australian Army Corps
• Pat Hughes, air force officer who shot down more German planes during the Battle of Britain than any other Australian
• John Paton, Scottish-born soldier awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry at the Siege of Lucknow in India. He retired to Summer Hill and a park on the corner of Smith and Henson Streets in Summer Hill is named after him.
• Major General Gustave Ramaciotti : Owned the Theatre Royal property by the corners of King and Castlereagh Streets; base commander during World War 1, from 1915 to 1917; retired in 1917 and was appointed C.M.G.
• Alick James Bryant also known as James John Bryant: Believed to have been the youngest Australian soldier to serve during the First World War

  Pioneers

• Augustus Alt : First surveyor-general of New South Wales; arrived with the First Fleet in 1788 and was granted a substantial parcel of land in northern Ashfield
• Robert Campbell : Early settler responsible for giving Ashfield its name
• David Ramsay : medical practitioner and merchant
• Elizabeth Underwood : Early landowner of Ashfield Park estate who subdivided it to form the village of Ashfield in 1838

  Politics

• Joseph Abbott , wool-broker and politician
• Michael Fitzpatrick , public servant, land agent and politician
• Mark Hammond : gold miner, mayor of Ashfield and member of the NSW Parliament
• Ninian Melville : a well-known Sydney furniture maker and mortician who subsequently became the Mayor of Ashfield, and a parliamentarian
• Richard Murden : Haberfield furniture salesman, twice elected mayor of Ashfield and also elected to the NSW Parliament.
• Sir Henry Parkes : Former NSW Premier, lived in Ashfield during the 1870s
• Herbert Pratten : Jam maker and politician, was mayor of Ashfield and later Federal Minister for Trade and Customs from 1923 to 1928; Pratten Park named in his honour
• Murray Robson : soldier awarded the DSO in WWII and NSW opposition leader from 1954 to 1955. His father, William Robson, was also a member of parliament and mayor of Ashfield.
• Sir Bertram Stevens : premier of New South Wales from 1932 to 1939
• Paul Whelan : Mayor of Ashfield from 1972 to 1976 and Minister for Police in the Carr government from 1995 to 2001.

Science

• Richard Baker : Curator/Director of the Technological Museum in Ultimo ; lived in Ashfield for 30 years in a house named "Eudesmia", which still stands; proponent of decorative use of the Waratah in logos and symbols
• Dr John Belisario : Dentist at the later end of the 19th century; recorded as living in Summer Hill in the 1891 census; first dentist in Australia to administer ether to a patient to carry out dental work
• Professor Edgeworth David : noted geologist and Antarctic explorer
• Walter Wilson Froggatt, entomologist, founder of the Naturalists' Society of New South Wales and author; Froggatt Crescent in Croydon, and the Froggatt prize for Science at the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney are named after him
• Ian Clunies Ross : Veterinary scientist and founder of the CSIRO, he was for a while commemorated on the Australian $50 note

  Sport

• Daphne Akhurst : Five times Australian Open tennis champion; educated at Normanhurst School in Ashfield and Sydney Conservatorium of Music
• Kevin Berry : Swimmer who won gold in the 200m butterfly at the 1964 Summer Olympics; resident of Summer Hill
• Stan Rowley : Australian Olympic athlete who won three individual bronze medals at the Paris Olympics in 1900 and also picked up a gold medal as part of the British cross-country team

  Other

• Margaret Chandler, one of the two victims who died under mysterious circumstances in the well-publicised Bogle-Chandler case; lived in Croydon with her husband Geoffrey
• Reverend Bill Crews : As the Minister of Ashfield Uniting Church, he created the Exodus Foundation to assist homeless and abandoned youth
• David Elphinstone : prominent architect and builder and resident of Summer Hill
• Edwin Johnson : Education reformer, undersecretary to the Department of Public Instruction
• Bea Miles : Eccentric Sydneysider, born in Ashfield but spent much of her later life living on the street and whose life was the inspiration for the book and movie, Lilian's Story
• Louise Taplin : Matron, until her death, of The Infants Home in Ashfield; led the home through the 1890s depression
• Evelyn Tildesley : School teacher, principal of Normanhurst School from 1913 to 1925, when she was appointed acting principal of The Women's College at the University of Sydney. Awarded MBE in 1950

  Mayors of Ashfield