By Martin Davies

Early Years

William Jackson Jia Yong Davies (called “Jack”) was born on 16th June, 2001 at Jessie McPherson Private Hospital, near Monash University. As a child Jackson liked drawing, reading, making arts and crafts. He also learnt swimming and music from the age of four.

Education

Jackson attended Edithvale Primary School (2007-2012). He studied French and music as well as the usual subjects. He was one of only a few students from the school selected to be included in the ACHIEVE group and to attend the GATEways classes for high-achieving students. Jackson started Chinese Lessons at the Xin Jin Shan Chinese Language School at Firbank Grammar School in Brighton on Sunday Mornings and attended for about five years. He continued his studies of Mandarin into secondary school until the end of year 10.

Jackson won a scholarship to attend Haileybury College in Keysborough and commenced year 7 in 2014. He was the first in the Davies clan to have a private school education.

He was accepted into the Latin and Classics program for the following year. In 2014 he was accepted into Melbourne High School after a competitive examination—attended by several thousand students—commencing in Y10 of the 2015 school year. However, after much agonising about it, Jackson and his parents declined this offer and continued at Haileybury College which is close to where they lived.

Jackson learned bass jazz guitar at school amongst a number of other skills such as coding for computer apps. He loved drama and became Drama Vice Captain for the 2014 academic year. He was offered a sponsored position as part of the ConocoPhillips Science Experience, a three-day science retreat at the Dookie campus of the University of Melbourne. He was also in the first team for athletics (running) and earned “colours” and a special striped blazer to wear on certain days of the week, as per the school requirements. Jackson was elected to Student Representative Council at Haileybury College in February 2017 and won the Aikmann House “Most Promising Year 10 Student of 2017”. He performed in plays at the school—most notably, The Miracle, performed at Haileybury City and Keysborough campuses to some acclaim, and went on school trips to East Timor in 2017 and Nepal in 2018.

In 2019 Jackson was elected House Vice Captain for the Aikman House and by November he had successfully completed Year 12 winning the 2019 Media Prize and Distinction for his work for that year. His VCE result was 95.9, in the top 5 percent in the state. He received a first round admission to the Bio Medical Science degree at the University of Melbourne. He graduated on 15th December 2023 and did well enough to be accepted into an honours program working with experiments on mice and the topic of the brain/gut axis and the microbiome at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience. This he began in 2024. He had his first girlfriend, Claire Bello, in 2024, a Fillipino only child from Epping who was also doing BioMed and starting honours in the same general field. They spent much of 2024, and most of 2025 together going between each other’s houses and going to the city.

Jackson graduated with a Bachelor of Biomedicine with honours (first class) on 15th December 2024. As of April 2025, he has not pursued further study but instead preparing for the GAMSAT test and having a “gap” year. In 2026 he was offered a place in speech pathology (LaTrobe) and a number of other courses and interviewed for a place in Medicine at UQ.

Work
Jackson’s first job was as a nightshift cleaner at McDonalds in Langwarrin where his parents moved during their house renovation. At the time they lived at 40 Jackson Drive. He worked shifts from 2am until 7am. This lasted a few months. While still living at the same address, he then took a job in the delicatessen section of Woolworths in Somerville. This lasted a few years (November 2021—24). He gave it away to concentrate on his honours degree. Following honours he took a gap year which turned into two years, during which he worked at Noble Park Podiatry and at Costco in Moorabbin.

Friends

Jackson’s early school friends included Anna-Belle Siliga, Alyssa Streitberg, William Hanson, Liam Canavan, Adam Jackson. Later he formed a group called “The Hub” consisting of Samson Manathunga, Josh Bond, Ben Hepworth and Ben Stewart. That was the core of the group or the “classic” Hub. But there were other affiliates including Billy Kruss. His first girlfriend was Claire Bello (from 2024—).