Forbes has released its 2024 list of Australia’s 50 Richest, and among the collective of men are nine women who’ve made the cut.
It’s worth noting that most of these women’s wealth has come, at least in part, from familial connections and inheritance, mainly in the sectors of mining and packaging. Melanie Perkins- number 7 on the list- is an exception as she co-founded the wildly successful design software business, Canva.
As a collective, all 50 of Australia’s richest tycoons have become better off than they were a year ago. They added $9 billion or around 4 per cent to their combined wealth, bringing the total to $222 billion.
Here are the nine women billionaires holding portions of that capital.
Gina Rinehart
Net worth: $30.2B
Australia’s richest citizen, Gina Rinehart is the Executive Chairman of Hancock Prospecting, an iron ore mining company. She’s the daughter of Lang Hancock, and built up her late father’s financially distressed business, becoming executive chairman in 1992. Her biggest asset is the Roy Hill mining project, and she’s made significant investments into rare earth minerals and the gas sector. Rinehart is also Australia’s second-largest cattle producer.
Melanie Perkins & Cliff Obrecht
Net worth: $8.8B
Husband and wife Cliff Obrecht and Melanie Perkins are cofounders of design software maker Canva, which was valued by private investors at $40 billion in September 2021 but has since seen its value marked down nearly 40 per cent. They launched the company in 2013 and have attracted 130 million monthly users to its freemium software, with 6 million teams from companies like Zoom paying for it. The couple has pledged to transfer more than 80 per cent of their stake to the Canva Foundation for charitable causes.
Bianca Rinehart & siblings
Net worth: $8.5B
Bianca Rinehart is the daughter of Gina Rinehart and has three other siblings, all of whom are equal beneficiaries of the Hope Margaret Hancock Trust which owns 23.45 per cent of Hancock Prospecting. However, Bianca is the trustee of the trust as the eldest sibling. She replaced her mother as trustee in 2015, after a lengthy court battle. In 2014, Bianca and her brother John launched the legal battle alleging that their mother had stripped valuable assets from the trust.
Fiona Geminder
Net worth: $2.5B
Fiona Geminder owns a large stake in her family’s paper packaging and recycling business, Visy Asia-Pacific, alongside her brother Anthony Pratt and sister Heloise Pratt (also billionaires). She is the youngest daughter of late Richard Pratt who had been one of the biggest packaging tycoons of his time. She also owns a substantial stake in listed plastics-packaging business Pact Group, with her husband Raphael Geminder.
Heloise Pratt
Net worth: $1.9B
Heloise Pratt is the sister of fellow billionaires Anthony Pratt and Fiona Geminder, who all hold stakes in the Melbourne family’s Visy Asia-Pacific packaging business. Heloise also built Thorney Investments with her ex-husband, Alex Waislitz. The firm’s portfolio includes stakes in several companies in sectors like gas and mining, renewable energy, biotech and airline bookings. She also has a property portfolio.
Gretel Packer
Net worth: $1.7B
The eldest daughter of fellow billionaire James Packer, Gretel Packer became a billionaire following the 2005 death of their media mogul father, Kerry Packer. James split the family estate 10 years after his passing. Gretel was a key player in the establishment of the $160 million National Philanthropic Fund in 2014, supported by the Packer Family Foundation of which she chairs. She is also an arts patron, sitting on the boards of the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Sydney Theatre Company.
Angela Bennett
Net worth: $1.3B
Angela Bennett’s wealth has come from her share of a royalty paid by mining giant Rio Tinto on every ton of iron ore it mines in Western Australia. The royalty was negotiated by her father, Peter Wright, and his partner, Lang Hancock, the father of Gina Rinehart. Bennett also holds a major stake in Wright Prospecting, which is taking legal action against Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting over various iron-ore properties. In 2009, Bennett sold her Mosman Park mansion in Perth for $57.5 million, an Australian record at the time.
Alexandra Burt & Leonie Baldock
Net worth: $1.2B
Alexandra Burt and Leonie Baldock are the nieces of billionaire Angela Bennett. Their wealth can be partly attributed to their 50 per cent stake in Wright Prospecting. The sisters are currently entangled in legal battles with other family members over the fortune and with fellow billionaire Gina Rinhart over royalties to other mines.