The Australian Financial Review has released its Rich Women List, with mining magnate Gina Rinehart securing the No.1 position once again, with a $37.6 billion fortune. Coming in second with a fortune of $16.9 billion is Nicola Forrest, the former wife of Fortescue founder Andrew Forrest. The pair separated last July, after more than three decades of marriage. The split made Forrest the second-richest woman in the country.
According to the publication’s data, the 75 women on the list control a total of $151.2 billion — a 30 per cent rise over the past year.
Here are the top ten richest women in Australia.
1. Gina Rinehart, Hancock Prospecting — $37.6 billion
Rinehart isn’t just the richest woman in Australia — she’s the richest person. She turned 70 this week. She threw a party for herself, inviting guests including Guy Sebastian and Peter Dutton.
2. Nicola Forrest, Minderoo Foundation / Fortescue Metals – $16.9 billion
Last month, Forrest donated more than $150 million through the philanthropic foundation she shares with her former husband to Co-Impact’s Gender Fund, a fund aimed to achieve fairness and equality for women and girls around the world. It was the biggest grant to date donated by the Minderoo Foundation, according to the Foundation’s annual report for 2023, as the Gender Fund aims to raise USD $1 billion in the next decade.
3. Annie Todd, fashion designer / former wife of Mike Cannon-Brookes— $13.5 billion
Todd married Atlassian’s Mike Cannon-Brookes in 2010 and the pair share four children. Last year, the pair separated. In 2021, the couple had pledged to spend $1.5 billon of their personal fortune over the next decade on projects to fight climate change.
4. Kim Jackson, investment banker / wife of Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar— $12.7 billion
Jackson, tech investor and the principal of Skip Capital, the private investment company she runs with her husband, won the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award in 2019, using the opportunity to criticise the lack of funding for women entrepreneurs. In 2022, Skip Capital supported Sydney healthtech startup Human raise $10.15 million in Seed funding.
5. Melanie Perkins, Canva – $$6.8 billion
Canva is undergoing a $US1.5 billion secondary share sale, calculating the business to be around $US26 billion. Perkins, who founded Canva with her husband Cliff Obrecht, told AFR: “We have a two-step plan at Canva. Step one is to build one of the world’s most valuable companies, which we continue making progress towards, and importantly, step two is to use that value to do the most good we can. To us, a truly ‘crazy big goal’ is one that feels big and impossible … Uplifting people from extreme poverty is certainly one such goal.”
6. Angela Bennett, mining heir — $5.2 billion
At 79, Bennett is an heir to the fortune of Peter Wright, Lang Hancock’s business partner. Last year, Bennett’s company entered a multi-billion dollar legal dispute against Gina Rinehart, over a mining royalties in a partnership deal conducted in the 1980s between their fathers.
7. Fiona Geminder, Pact Group — $3.6 billion
Geminder is married to Raphael Geminder and has a large stake in their plastics-packaging business Pact Group. Her wealth also derives from a substantial stake in her family’s paper packaging and recycling business, Visy Asia-Pacific.
8. Heloise Pratt, Visy Asia-Pacific — $3.6 billion
Pratt is the sister of Fiona Geminder, and her brother is Anthony Pratt. The three of them have stakes in the Visy Asia-Pacific packaging business. Pratt’s wealth also comes from Thorney Investments, which she founded with her ex-husband, Alex Waislitz.
9. Prudence MacLeod, Murdoch dynasty — $3.1 billion
MacLeod is Rupert Murdoch’s eldest daughter. At 65, she has historically stayed away from the limelight. She co-founded Macdoch Ventures with her husband Alasdair to help Australian start-ups. In 2008, she gave a rare interview with The Guardian, where she said, “I’ve always been low-key and not many people know about me, and I like that, I just love that.”
10. Bianca Rinehart, heir to Hancock Trust— $2.6 billion
Bianca is the eldest daughter of Gina Rinehart, and a trustee of the Hope Margaret Hancock Trust. Last year, she and her brother, John Hancock, were co-defendants in the case over the Hope Downs royalties and rights owned by Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd.