Rudd was born in Nambour, Queensland to parents Albert Rudd and Margaret née DeVere, and grew up on a dairy farm in nearby Eumundi.[1] Farm life, which required the use of horses and guns, is where he developed his life-long love of horse riding and shooting clay targets.[2] His father, a share farmer and Country Party member, died when Rudd was 11 and the family was compelled to leave the farm under hardship.[3] Rudd joined the Australian Labor Party in 1972 at the age of 15.He boarded at Marist College Ashgrove in Brisbane[5] and was dux of Nambour State High School in 1974.
Rudd is of English and Irish descent. His paternal 4th great-grandparents were English: Thomas Rudd and Mary Cable (she was from Essex). Thomas arrived from London, England in 1801, Mary in 1804.
Rudd studied at the Australian National University in Canberra where he resided at Burgmann College and graduated with First Class Honours in Arts (Asian Studies). He majored in Chinese language and Chinese history, became proficient in Mandarin and acquired a Chinese alias, Lù Kèwén (traditional Chinese: 陸克文 or in simplified Chinese: 陆克文).[8]
Rudd's thesis on Chinese democracy activist Wei Jingsheng[9] was supervised by Pierre Ryckmans, the eminent Belgian-Australian sinologist.[10] During his studies Rudd cleaned the house of political commentator Laurie Oakes to earn money.[11] In 1980 he continued his Chinese studies at the Mandarin Training Center of National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.[12] Delivering the annual Gough Whitlam Lecture at Sydney University on "The Reforming Centre of Australian Politics" in 2008, Rudd praised the former Labor Prime Minister for implementing educational reforms, saying he was:
... a kid who lived Gough Whitlam's dream that every child should have a desk with a lamp on it where he or she could study. A kid whose mum told him after the 1972 election that it might just now be possible for the likes of him to go to university. A kid from the country of no particular means and of no political pedigree who could therefore dream that one day he could make a contribution to our national political life.[13]
In 1981, Rudd married Thérèse Rein whom he had met at a gathering of the Australian Student Christian Movement during his university years. They have three children: Jessica (born 1984), Nicholas (born 1986) and Marcus (born 1993).[14] Rudd's nephew, Van Thanh Rudd is a Melbourne-based artist.[15]
