Born in Mount Hawthorn, Western Australia, Dawn Newman played three Test matches for Australia against England in 1968/69.
Dawn comes from a family of cricketers and she is one of three sisters to have represented Western Australia at state level. Older sister Betty was a left-arm medium pace bowler and was selected to play for Australia in 1957/58 but was 12th man. Dawn played in the same state team as Betty in season 1963/64 as a wicket keeper and right hand batter. Dawn’s twin sister, Elaine, also played for Western Australia and one more, Barabara, is the mother of former Test and ODI cricketer Bruce Reid.
In 1968/69 England toured Australia for a three Test Ashes series and Dawn was selected to make her Test debut (cap 63) at Thebarton Oval in Adelaide. Muriel Picton was the skipper and some other notables in the team were Mim Knee, Anne Gordon, Patsy May, Elaine Bray and Ollie Smith. Batting at number five, Dawn top scored for the Aussies with 76.
Dawn’s final Test, the third in the series, was at North Sydney Oval and she scored a half century in the first innings.