Australia’s 20 richest people
Every year Forbes publishes the list of the richest people in Australia. 2009 saw a drop in the number of billionaires (we’re down to 9), but despite the changes in the economy, these entrepreneurs proved that fortunes can still be made. Almost everyone on the list started with a small business that eventually blossomed with dedication and a mindset to defy the odds to make it big. They are an inspiration to Australians everywhere with dreams of success to stay the course and keep going.
#20 Maurice Alter (Married with 2 children, age: 84)
$590 million
Who wouldn’t mind having a fortune of $590 million at the age of 84? Mr. Alter landed on the coast in 1949 direct from Poland and scrambled to get a job, 2 jobs in fact. A little later he bought a couple of shops and a bank near Melbourne. Yes, that’s right, a bank! Today his son, Sam, runs his Pacific Shopping Centers and manages his portfolio of prime retail properties in nearby Melbourne and Adelaide.
#19 Robert Oatley (Married with 3 children, age: 80)
$600 million
This rich tycoon from Oz likes things that provoke you. He began his path to fortune as a coffee farmer, but really came to prominence with Rosemount Estates Winery. In 2001, he sold the entire kit and caboodle for cash and stock to Southcorp. He turned around in 2003 and pitched the stick to Foster’s as a means to buy Hamilton Island. He has won the Hobart-to-Sydney Regatta 4 years in a row with his yacht Wild Oats. He keeps busy exporting his branded wines to the US.
#18 Angela Bennet & Michael Wright (Married with 7 Kids, Age: 64, Married with 3 Kids, Age: 71)
$650 million
This team of brothers and sisters were lucky enough to have a father who discovered some tremendous iron ore deposits in Western Australia. Rio Tinto’s Hamersley mine provides them and other family members with annual royalties. Wright’s main concern is his Voyager Estate winery.
#17 John Van Lieshout (Married, 2 kids, age: 63)
$690 million
It is rumored that as a teenager, Mr. Van Lieshout dropped out of school to work unloading bananas. After moving from his native Netherlands, he eventually started the Super A-Mart furniture chain, which he sold in 2006. It is currently in the Brisbane property market.
#16 Len Buckeridge (Married with 6 children, age: 73)
$700 million
Len Buckeridge is affiliated with the BGC Group, a major homebuilder in Western Australia. Apparently, economic downturns mean nothing to him; 2009 was a year of big projects including the construction of a $200 million private port.
#15 Carlo Salteri (married with 4 children, age: 88)
$730 million
Salteri co-founded the Transfield Group in 1956 after moving to Oz from Italy. He took over defense operations when the company was spun off in 1997. His son, Paul, replaced him as president in 2007. He recently sold several divisions to major global players such as Lockheed Martin and Air New Zealand.
#14 Ken Talbot (Married with 4 children, age: 58)
$750 million
Talbot founded Macarthur Coal and later sold 80% for about $600 million. He sparked some scandalous conversations when he was accused of secretly making payments to a Queensland politician. He denies the bad news.
#13 Gerry Harvey (Married with 4 children, age: 69)
$870 million
Mr. Harvey began to drop out of agricultural college to sell vacuum cleaners door to door. He later co-founded Harvey Norman, the electronics retailer. The CEO is his wife, Katie Page. He is a horse man, with a stake in the thoroughbred auction house, Magic Millions.
#12 Michael Hintze (Married with 4 children, age: 55)
$900 million
He did time at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse First Boston before starting trading company Convertible and Quantitative Strategies with $200 million. The return of the flagship fund has been 11% annualized.
#eleven. Stanley Perron (Married with 3 children, age: 86)
$950 million
Mr. Perron sold boxes of tissues after dropping out of school and then tried to make a career as a plumber. He didn’t really succeed until a former boss gifted him a Toyota franchise. (Good boss!) He has established dealerships throughout Western Australia and now invests in real estate.
#10 Lindsay Fox (Married with 5 children, age: 72)
$970 million
Fox is a former professional in the Australian Football League and began his path to wealth selling soft drinks out of a truck. He founded Australia’s largest logistics company, Linfox. He likes classic cars, he has 130 of them.
#9 Kerry Stokes (Divorced with 4 children, age: 68)
$1 trillion
Finally a billionaire! Stokes is the main dealer for Caterpillar equipment in Australia. He adds to his fortune his participation in the Seven Network media group. Lately he has been trying to take over Perth’s Western Australian newspapers.
#8 Kerr Neilson (Married with 2 children, age: 59)
$1.45 trillion
Originally from South Africa, Neilson created Platinum Asset Management in 1993 with the backing of George Soros. When the company went public in 2007, it cashed in around $500 million. His next plan is to open a museum of contemporary Chinese art.
#7 Gina Rinehart (widow, 4 children, age: 55)
$1.5 trillion
Along with other family members, he benefits from his late father’s mining assets: Rio Tinto’s Hamersley Basin iron ore mine. (He had to fight his stepmother for it). Rinehart also owns a direct interest in the family business Hancock Prospecting.
#6 Anthony Pratt (Single, 1 Child, Age: 49)
$1.6 trillion
Pratt was at one point a consultant to McKinsey and led Visy Industries’ US operations for 20 years. He now he co-chairs the container kingdom with his mother, wholly owned by him by his family. He co-owns global operations with his two sisters.
#5 Andrew Forrest (Married with 3 children, age: 47)
$1.65 trillion
Forrest was Australia’s No. 1 richest person in 2008. Sadly, he lost his position as declining demand for iron ore hit shares in his Fortescue Metals Group. Recently, a Chinese steel group acquired part of the company. There was a bit of a scandal surrounding the deal that he denied.
#4 John Gandel (Married with 4 children, age: 74)
$1.7 trillion
Gandel owns prime real estate, a lot of it, including half of Melbourne’s Chadstone shopping center and a stake in a trust that owns the other half. His private home is rumored to be the most expensive in Melbourne.
#3 Harry Truguboff (Married with 2 children, age: 76)
$2 trillion
Affectionately known as “High-Rise-Harry”, he is the apartment building magnate of Oz. He was born in China to Russian parents and began his career as a taxi driver. He now owns hundreds of flats in Sydney and the North Shore.
#2 Frank Lowy (Married with 3 children, age: 78)
$2.8 trillion
Lowy is another of the country’s property magnates, as well as the president of the Australian Football Federation. He is a Czech immigrant and founded the real estate company Westfield Group. The company’s stock fell in early 2009, but hey, it’s still close to $3 billion and that’s not bad at all.
#1 James Packer (Married with one child, age: 41)
$3.1 trillion
Let’s hear it for the young man! What hasn’t this guy done? Packer is heir to his late father’s media group, Publishing & Broadcasting. He sold his cattle ranches for almost $300 million and has shares in Consolidated Media and the Crown gaming company. He also has a joint venture with Hong Kong’s Lawrence Ho.