Margaret Fenwick
Tycoons & dynasties
Based in Sydney
Margaret has been writing about Australia's business families for longer than some of them have stayed solvent. Character-driven, archive-deep and thoroughly allergic to hagiography.
16 published articles · most recent August 5, 2026
Margaret has been writing about Australia's business families for longer than some of them have stayed solvent. Character-driven, archive-deep and thoroughly allergic to hagiography.
Articles by Margaret Fenwick
Dick Smith: the electronics man who kept reinventing himselfDick Smith built three separate ventures on cheek, timing and publicity, long before the retail chain bearing his name collapsed under other owners.
The Smorgon family: from smallgoods to steel and a rare exitThe Smorgon family fled Europe with almost nothing, built a smallgoods-to-steel empire in Melbourne, then quietly wound it up on their own terms.
The Myer dynasty: a Bendigo pedlar's cart to Bourke StreetThe Myer dynasty began with a Bendigo drapery cart and grew into Melbourne's department store giant, then a family known for giving more than feuding.
Richard Pratt: the migrant's son who built VisyRichard Pratt turned a small Shepparton carton maker into Visy, a global packaging group. Here is the full ledger, including the cartel case.
Solomon Lew: the rag trader who fought Coles Myer to a standstillSolomon Lew built Premier Investments from Melbourne's garment trade and spent decades in the Coles Myer boardroom wars. Here's the record, plainly told.
Kerry Packer: cricket, casinos and his famous tax lineKerry Packer built World Series Cricket, gambled in millions and told a Senate committee why he wouldn't pay more tax than he had to. A profile.
Andrew Forrest: how a third force rewrote the PilbaraAndrew Forrest built Fortescue Metals from a shell company into a major iron ore exporter. The record is messier than the tidy keynote version suggests.
Nathan Tinkler: from coal billionaire to bankruptNathan Tinkler went from Hunter Valley electrician to billionaire to bankrupt in about a decade. Here is how one leveraged coal bet unravelled.
The Hancock dynasty: iron ore, the Pilbara and Gina RinehartThe Hancock dynasty began with a Pilbara iron ore discovery. See how Lang Hancock's royalties and Gina Rinehart's scale-up built a huge fortune.
Gerry Harvey: the salesman who built a property empireGerry Harvey built Harvey Norman from Norman Ross into a retail chain and property empire. The franchise model, the controversies and the founder.
Christopher Skase and Qintex: the empire that dissolved in the sunHow Christopher Skase built a media and resorts empire on borrowed confidence, then spent his final years fighting extradition from a Majorcan villa.
The Packer dynasty: three generations of power and gambleThe Packer dynasty took Australia from Depression-era tabloids to television dominance and casinos, then fractured under regulatory scrutiny.
Lindsay Fox: the truckie who built a logistics empireLindsay Fox left school at fifteen and built Linfox into a private logistics giant. Here is how the Fitzroy truckie held it together for six decades.
Alan Bond: the sign-writer who lost everythingAlan Bond went from Perth sign-writing to the America's Cup, Nine and a Van Gogh, then prison. The full arc of the Alan Bond rise and collapse.
Frank Lowy and Westfield: the refugee who remade the mallFrank Lowy went from a Blacktown deli to a global Westfield empire. Here is how the refugee built it, and why the timing of the sale looks so sharp.
Rupert Murdoch: from one Adelaide paper to a global empireRupert Murdoch's media empire began with one Adelaide afternoon paper. Here is how a modest inheritance became Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and more.