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From Kath Day-Knight to a can of VB: All the weird and wacky suggestions for our new $5 note

Which iconic Australian would be worthy of a feature on the $5 note, if not King Charles? Have your say in our poll.
Emma Elsworthy
Emma Elsworthy
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$5 note
One Twitter user suggested tongue-in-cheek that we should immortalise the time the prime minister tackled a kid during a game of touch football. Source: Twitter

Australians should get to have their say on who replaces the late Queen Elizabeth II on our $5 notes, according to Treasurer Jim Chalmers, causing a flurry of conversation about which quintessential Australian would be worthy of the honour.

Chalmers confirmed yesterday that he had spoken to Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe about changing the $5 note, though any change would take 18 months to occur, the Treasurer qualified.

“When it comes to the $5 note, my personal view is that it shouldn’t be beyond us to consider and to consult on the best way to change the $5 note when that’s necessary,” he said.

“I don’t see a massive rush to change the $5 note but nor do I think it should be especially controversial for a country like ours to consider, consult on what we want to do with the $5 note going forward.”

If we do eschew King Charles in favour of a local, it may not be the break in tradition that some hardcore monarchists may see it as. The Queen first made an appearance on the one pound note in 1953, and then later the $1 note in 1966 when our currency became decimal.

But she didn’t appear on the $5 note until 1992, meaning between 1984 (when the $1 note was taken out of circulation) and 1992 (when the $5 polymer note began circulation) the Queen did not appear on currency at all.

The United Kingdom’s Bank of England revealed the illustration of King Charles that will appear on five, 10, 20 and 50 pound notes, though it said they’d be released in 2024 to replace damaged notes that feature the Queen.

Chalmers says that sort of approach could work in Australia too.

“That seems to me to be an especially comfortable time frame with which to come to,” he said.

Indeed with the republic movement bolstered by the Albanese government appointing a Minister for the Republic (and with a plebiscite on the horizon), any change to our bank notes in the medium term might need to change again anyway.

But the question remains: which iconic Australian would be worthy of a feature on the $5 note, if not King Charles? Let us know by voting here in our poll.

There were plenty of zany suggestions from social media, ranging from weird to wonderful and humorous.

1. A VB can

2. “Kath Day-Knight” from Kath & Kim

 

3. Grace Tame or Bon Scott

4. Steve Irwin, Casey Donovan, Kylie Minogue, or “Helen Bidou” from ABC’s Get Crack!n

5. “Susan Kennedy” from Neighbours

6. Bluey

7. Gough Whitlam

8. John Hamblin

9.  David Gulpilil

10. Lee Lin Chin

About the author

Emma Elsworthy

Emma Elsworthy is Climate Editor at Crikey, SmartCompany, and The Mandarin, and writes daily morning newsletter the Worm. Before joining Crikey in 2021, Emma was a breaking news reporter in ABC’s Sydney newsroom, a journalist at BBC Australia, and a journalist in Fairfax Media’s regional network. She was part of a team awarded a Walkley for coverage of the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfire crisis, and won the Australian Press Council prize in 2013.

Similar topics

Bluey
king charles
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