PHOTO: Joanna Horgan, Peter Wetenhall, Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht and Tania Austin.
Australia’s billionaires have thrived during the pandemic year – and some on this year’s Rich List have reaped even bigger rewards from a soaring iron ore price.
Iron ore, property and technology are the three main paths to 2021’s Financial Review Rich List, which has shrugged off the pandemic to be richer than ever before.
For the second year running, the booming price of Australian iron ore has put Gina Rinehart at No. 1; her $31.06 billion fortune up from $28.9 billion in the 2020 list published in November. She is followed again by Andrew Forrest with $27.2 billion, up from $23 billion last time.
Chinese steel makers’ demand for their product means our iron ore billionaires have so far been spared Beijing’s arbitrary tariffs which have dented the fortunes of some coal miners and winemakers on the Rich List.
However, Rinehart admitted late last month that the record prices could not last as lower-cost countries with higher-grade resources brought on supply. So Australia’s technology billionaires may yet top the Rich List one day.
Atlassian founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar have come close in 2021. Their fortunes passed $20 billion for the first time as the remote-work revolution pushed their paying customer base above 200,000.
Another Australian-made software-as-a-service gaining global ubiquity is Canva. Founders Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht cracked the Rich List’s top 10 as their simplified graphic design platform collects masses of active users on par with the population of Italy.
Feeding all this megabyte consumption is one of the 18 debutants on this year’s list, Robin Khuda, whose brassy bets on building massive data centres across the Asia-Pacific – some with electricity substations – has built his AirTrunk into a $5 billion concern.
READ MORE VIA AFR
OST READ
From war-torn Afghanistan to SUCCESS: Meet the high-roller real estate agent who sells more than 40 properties a month
Gold Coast real estate agent fined $1.5M for ‘misleading’ consumers
Abandoned land for sale
Who Owns New Zealand Now? | WATCH
The Block NZ 2021: Meet the teams taking on the DIY challenge in Auckland’s Point Chevalier
Papamoa mums to shine on The Block NZ
Property Noise PODCAST – EDITION #2 Tanya Kwasza – Auckland NZ
OCR: The clues an interest rate hike could be on the way
Trust wants to sell homes for half the national average
Profit from residential property resales hit 25-year high; median gain of $313,000 | WATCH