Medical researchers at The Royal Melbourne Hospital have injected the cells into the man's brain as part of a clinical trial.
Seventy-one-year-old Fred van Ross has been living with Parkinson's disease for more than a decade.
"I take the positive approach and don't think about Parkinson's. I take my medication, which is important. I've learnt the hard way to take it when it's due. If I don't, I end up suffering."
He is watching closely as 12 patients with moderate to severe Parkinson's prepare to undergo a new surgery that could be life-changing.
One of those patients, a 64-year-old man suffering from Parkinson's for 13 years, has become the first to have the procedure, which takes more than five hours.
The unique treatment uses neural stem cells, derived by a United States laboratory from an unfertilised egg.
The cells are implanted into areas of the brain affected by Parkinson's.
Neurologist Andrew Evans says the hope is to regenerate the hormone dopamine, which is lost with the disease.
"When you get a loss of the chemical transmitter dopamine, you can see a problem of stiffness, slowness of movement and tremor, and this comes about through reduction in dopamine levels in the brain."
Royal Melbourne Hospital neurosurgeon Girish Nair performed the first surgery.
He says precision is critical when injecting stem cells into the brain.
"If you get it wrong, you cause a bleed, or, (if) you get into the wrong spot, you can cause a stroke and your patient can die. So that's the sort of ordeal we're dealing with."
The stem cells are inserted through two holes in the skull, targeting 14 sites on the brain.
Each injection has to be spaced four minutes apart.
Mr Nair says a three-dimensional model of the patient's skull was critical in planning the surgery.
"We did about three or four dummy runs -- and full dummy runs, as in from the time the patient comes into theatre to doing the procedure, getting the stem cell to the lab, so that the whole team knew what each person's job is."
Dr Evans says the patient is closely monitored post-surgery to evaluate the safety and effects of the cells.
"We'll be doing dopamine scans, special research scans at baseline** and after a year to assess the level of dopamine before and after."
The transplant of stem cells in the remaining 11 patients is due to finish next year, with the results to be determined in 2019.
The surgery offers hope to approximately 80,000 Australians living with Parkinson's disease.
Mr van Ross says he is keen to see what the future holds for his fellow Parkinson's patients.
"Well, it might be too late for me, but there's always hope. Certainly, live with hope. Quality of life's important to me."
