Tycoons & Dynasties
The empire-builders, the family wars and the outsized personalities who shaped — and sometimes shook — Australian business.
Bond, Skase, Packer, Murdoch, Rinehart, Pratt: a handful of families and self-made operators have loomed over Australian business for generations. Some built things that lasted. Some flew too close to the sun.
Profiles and dynasty sagas, drawn from the public record.
Latest in the players
- Dick Smith: the electronics man who kept reinventing himself
Dick Smith built three separate ventures on cheek, timing and publicity, long before the retail chain bearing his name collapsed under other owners.
By Margaret Fenwick - The Smorgon family: from smallgoods to steel and a rare exit
The Smorgon family fled Europe with almost nothing, built a smallgoods-to-steel empire in Melbourne, then quietly wound it up on their own terms.
By Margaret Fenwick - The Myer dynasty: a Bendigo pedlar's cart to Bourke Street
The 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.
By Margaret Fenwick - Richard Pratt: the migrant's son who built Visy
Richard Pratt turned a small Shepparton carton maker into Visy, a global packaging group. Here is the full ledger, including the cartel case.
By Margaret Fenwick - Solomon Lew: the rag trader who fought Coles Myer to a standstill
Solomon Lew built Premier Investments from Melbourne's garment trade and spent decades in the Coles Myer boardroom wars. Here's the record, plainly told.
By Margaret Fenwick - Kerry Packer: cricket, casinos and his famous tax line
Kerry 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.
By Margaret Fenwick - Andrew Forrest: how a third force rewrote the Pilbara
Andrew Forrest built Fortescue Metals from a shell company into a major iron ore exporter. The record is messier than the tidy keynote version suggests.
By Margaret Fenwick - Nathan Tinkler: from coal billionaire to bankrupt
Nathan Tinkler went from Hunter Valley electrician to billionaire to bankrupt in about a decade. Here is how one leveraged coal bet unravelled.
By Margaret Fenwick - The Hancock dynasty: iron ore, the Pilbara and Gina Rinehart
The 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.
By Margaret Fenwick - Gerry Harvey: the salesman who built a property empire
Gerry Harvey built Harvey Norman from Norman Ross into a retail chain and property empire. The franchise model, the controversies and the founder.
By Margaret Fenwick - Christopher Skase and Qintex: the empire that dissolved in the sun
How Christopher Skase built a media and resorts empire on borrowed confidence, then spent his final years fighting extradition from a Majorcan villa.
By Margaret Fenwick - The Packer dynasty: three generations of power and gamble
The Packer dynasty took Australia from Depression-era tabloids to television dominance and casinos, then fractured under regulatory scrutiny.
By Margaret Fenwick