The 20 Richest People in Australia

Every year Forbes publishes the list of the richest people in Australia. 2009 showed a drop in the number of billionaires (we're down to 9) but despite the changes in the economy these entrepreneurs proved that fortunes can still be made. Almost everyone on the list started out with a small venture that eventually flourished with dedication and a mind-set to defy the odds against making it big. They are an inspiration to Australians everywhere with dreams of success to hold their course and just keep going.

#20 Maurice Alter (Married with 2 children, age: 84)

$590 million

Who would not mind having a fortune worth $590 million at the age of 84? Mr. Alter landed on the shore in 1949 right out of Poland and hurried up to get a job, 2 jobs as a matter of fact. A bit later he bought a couple shops and a bank near Melbourne. Yes, that's right - a bank! Currently his son, Sam runs his Pacific Shopping Centers and manages his portfolio of prime retail properties in the vicinity of Melbourne and Adelaide.

#19 Robert Oatley (Married with 3 children, age: 80)

$600 million

This wealthy Oz tycoon likes things that give you a buzz. He started out on the path to fortune as a coffee farmer but really made himself known with the Rosemount Estates winery. In 2001 he sold off the entire kit and caboodle for cash and stock to Southcorp. He turned around in 2003 and flipped the stick to Foster's as a means to buy Hamilton Island. He has taken the cup in the Hobart-to-Sydney race 4 consecutive years with his yacht, Wild Oats. He keeps himself occupied with exporting his name-brand wines to the U.S.

#18 Angela Bennet & Michael Wright (Married with 7 children, age: 64, married with 3 children, age: 71)

$650 million

This sister and brother team was fortunate to have a father that discovered some tremendous iron ore deposits in Western Australia. Rio Tinto's Hamersley mine provides them and other family members annual royalties. Wright's primary concern is his Voyager Estate winery.

#17 John Van Lieshout (Married, 2 children, age: 63)

$690 million

Rumor has it that as a teenager Mr. Van Lieshout left school to work at a job unloading bananas. After moving from his native Holland he eventually started up the Super A-Mart furniture chain which he sold in 2006. Currently he is in the market for Brisbane real estate.

#16 Len Buckeridge (Married with 6 children, age: 73)

$700 million

Len Buckeridge is synonymous with BGC Group, a major home builder in Western Australia. Apparently economic downturns mean nothing to him; 2009 was a year of big projects including the construction of a $200 million private port.

#15 Carlo Salteri (married with 4 children, age: 88)

$730 million

Salteri cofounded theTransfield Group in 1956 after moving from Italy to Oz. He took over defense operations when the company split in 1997. His son, Paul took over for him as chairman in 2007. He recently sold off several divisions to major world players such as Lockheed Martin and Air New Zealand.

#14 Ken Talbot (Married with 4 children, age: 58)

$750 million

Talbot founded Macarthur Coal and later sold 80% for close to $600 million. He stirred up some scandalous talk when accused of making payments in secret to a Queensland politician. He denies the bad news.

#13 Gerry Harvey (Married with 4 children, age: 69)

$870 million

Mr. Harvey started dropped out of agricultural college to sell vacuum cleaners door-to-door. He later co-founded Harvey Norman, the electronics retailer. The CEO is his wife, Katie Page. He is a horse man, with a stake in the thoroughbred auction house, Magic Millions.

#12 Michael Hintze (Married with 4 children, age: 55)

$900 million

He did time at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse First Boston before staring up the trading firm, Convertible and Quantitative Strategies with $200 million. The return on the flagship fund has been 11% annualized.

#11. Stanley Perron (Married with 3 children, age: 86)

$950 million

Mr. Perron sold handkerchief boxes after dropping out of school and later tried to make a go as a plumber. He didn't really make it big until being gifted with a Toyota franchise from a former boss. (Nice boss!) He established dealerships all over Western Australia and now invests in real estate.

#10 Lindsay Fox (Married with 5 children, age: 72)

$970 million

Fox is a former pro in the Australian Football League and got started on his way to wealth by selling soft drinks from a truck. He founded the largest logistics company in Australia: Linfox. He enjoys classic cars - has 130 of them.

#9 Kerry Stokes (Divorced with 4 children, age: 68)

$1 billion

At last, billionaire! Stokes is the primary dealer of Caterpillar equipment in Australia. He adds to his fortune by his stake in media group, Seven Network. Lately he has been attempting to grab up Perth's Western Australia Newspapers.

#8 Kerr Neilson (Married with 2 children, age: 59)

$1.45 billion

Originally from South Africa, Neilson set up Platinum Asset Management in 1993 with George Soros backing him. When the firm went public in 2007 he cashed out around $500 million. His next plan is to open a contemporary Chinese art museum.

#7 Gina Rinehart (Widowed, 4 children, age: 55)

$1.5 billion

Along with other family members she benefits from her late father's mining assets: Rio Tinto's Hamersley Basin Iron Ore Mine. (She had to fight her stepmother for it.)Rinehart also owns a direct stake in the family company Hancock Prospecting.

#6 Anthony Pratt (Single, 1 child, age: 49)

$1.6 billion

Pratt was at one time a McKinsey consultant and ran Visy Industries U.S. operations for 20 years. He is now co-chairs the packaging kingdom with his mother, owned in entirety by his family. He co-owns the global operations with his two sisters.

#5 Andrew Forrest (Married with 3 children, age: 47)

$1.65 billion

Forrest was Australia's #1 richest person in 2008. Sadly he lost his position due to decreasing iron ore demand which affected shares of his Fortescue Metals Group. A Chinese steel group recently took ownership of part of the company. There was a bit of scandal around the deal which he denies.

#4 John Gandel (Married with 4 children, age: 74)

$1.7 billion

Gandel owns prime real estate - lots of it, including half of Melbourne's Chadstone shopping mall and a stake in a trust that owns the other half. Rumor has it that his private home is the priciest in Melbourne.

#3 Harry Truguboff (Married with 2 children, age: 76)

$2 billion

Known affectionately as "High-Rise-Harry", he is Oz's apartment building tycoon. He was born in China to Russian parents and started his career as a taxi driver. He now owns hundreds of flats in Sydney and North Shore.

#2 Frank Lowy (Married with 3 children, age: 78)

$2.8 billion

Lowy is another one of the country's real estate moguls as well as the president of the Football Federation Australia. He is a Czech immigrant and founded the Westfield Group real estate company. The company's stock took a fall earlier in 2009 but hey, he still has close to $3 billion and that's not shabby.

#1 James Packer (Married with one child, age: 41)

$3.1 billion

Let's hear it for the young guy! What has this dude not done? Packer is heir to his late father's media group, Publishing & Broadcasting. He sold his cattle ranches for almost $300 million and has shares in Consolidated Media and gaming company, Crown. He also has a joint venture going with Hong Kong's Lawrence Ho.

Travel and Work: Interview with Krista Scott: Harvest Work in Australia, Teaching English in Vietnam

I always keep my eyes open for interesting people, and Krista Scott just absolutely grabbed my attention. I first met Krista 2 days ago on a whitewater kayaking weekend where she accompanied our group to do our first kayaking lessons on the Ottawa River. In the van she told us that she recently did a 13 month trip to Australia where she did all sorts of harvest work in different locations. She also mentioned that she completed an ESL program at the university and is heading off for her first teaching assignment to Vietnam this fall. I knew at that stage that this was a very interesting young woman and I decided I would get to know her a bit better.

Krista is a very cute young woman, always in a good mood and sporting a great smile. Later that evening, Krista gave a special performance after sunset at the campground of something called "poise", a former Martial art developed by the Maori people that involves the rhythmic twirling of two long wires that have a wick at the end that is set on fire. One of her co-workers was playing the bongos and the performance did have a very aboriginal feel to it. The image that is created in the dark is of circles of fires whirling around the performer in perfect coordination with the rhythm.

So without further ado, here is Krista Scott, a very adventurous, endearing young woman, as you will discover yourself.

1) Please tell us about yourself.

I am 25 years old and I'm originally from Cobourg, Ontario. I have always loved the outdoors and loved to play outside. When I finished high school I wasn't ready for university. I went travelling to the prairies and started working in a restaurant in Regina. I met a lot of cool people along the way. From there I went west to work in Alberta as well as in Whistler, B.C. There I worked in a grocery store and at Boston Pizza and spent the rest of my time snowboarding. I also ran into a lot of Aussies there. I knew this was a place that was going to suck you in with its addictive lifestyle, so I decided to head home. Based on my friendships with these people from Australia, I decided to get a working visa for that country, something that was pretty easy to get for a Canadian citizen. I had decided I wanted to go to Australia to travel and work there for a year.

2) Please tell us about your 13 month adventure in Australia.

After a couple of stopovers in Alaska and Hong Kong I landed in Australia. In Alaska I had a chance to see the Aurora Borealis, while Hong Kong struck me as a very busy and smoggy place. But the airport is on an island, which was really interesting.

I landed in Sydney and headed over to New South Wales to link up with a girl I had met at Whistler. I bought a 1984 Toyota Tourago camping van which had a flat nose because the engine was right under the seat. I had a tent and a stove and I lived out of the van. During this time I realized for the first time how little you need to live. I often slept on the roof of the van, looking at the stars.

In South Australia I stayed in a working hostel that connected me to harvest work opportunities. I found these places through the Lonely Planet guidebook, which was tremendously helpful. My first harvest work assignment was to sort potatoes in a shed. This was midnight work since the potatoes' skins would crack during the day time. The heat was often stifling at 42 degrees Celsius. After the potato harvest I also harvested grapes and onions. In total I did about 3 months of harvest work there.

At that time the engine in my camper van seized up and I had to buy a new engine. After it was fixed, together with 8 other people we decided to drive to Central Australia and we visited Ayer's Rock (Uluru) and various other little towns in the area. I heard lots of outback stories from the locals while we were there. We also went to a town called Cooper Pedy, a place where everybody lives underground in caves since the weather is too hot. We stayed in a hostel where the bunkbeds were located in a cave. While I was there I also talked to a group of Hell's Angels bikers, who seemed to be pretty cool people as long as you didn't upset them.

From there I went to the West Coast which is just a beautiful area. There you can have all sorts of beaches to yourself. I went to a place called Exmouth and from there I explored the Nigaloo Reef which is unique since the corals start right at the beach. The scenery is breathtaking. While there I did some harvest work and I ended up picking apples.

Next I explored Northern Australia, including the cities of Cairns and Darwin. There I got a surfboard and did lots of surfing.I explored places like Margaret River and Esperance. My friend from Canada had joined me and we stayed in hostels, parked by the side of the road, camped in caravan parks. At that time I realized that sometimes a hot shower goes a long way....

Queensland was my next stop, it's a beautiful place with lush rainforest. I got myself a job in banana harvesting, started working in the shed, sorting bananas. Then I asked to work outside, which was very unusual for a woman. I got to drive a 4x4 and cut down banans with a machete. Harvest work is done about 80% by backpackers. The local harvest workers are a different crowd of people and they sport some amazing mullets. They are a little reserved at the beginning, but if you make an effort they are really approachable.

On the Gold Coast I met up with the same people I had travelled with earlier, we mostly did surfing and bummed around the area. We also checked out Frazier Island, did some swimming with the sharks and some skydiving. I later told my dad that I went skydiving and he said he would have really worried about me if he had known. But when I was back in Canada, my dad and I decided to go skydiving together and he really loved it. That was great.

My last stop in Australia was Sydney again from where I came home. The culture shock of coming back to Canada was harsh. I went from + 30 degrees to -25 degrees. I had also gone through this amazing adventure, while life for my friends had pretty much stayed the same. It was difficult to adjust when I came back. But it gave me the idea to take an ESL (Teaching English at a Second Language) program to get myself an international career.

3) Please tell us about the ESL program that you took.

The brochure for Trent University's ESL program literally fell into my lap one day. I decided to take a one-year program at Trent in Peterborough (Ontario). It's a great program, it's 2 semesters long and includes 100 hours of theory and 20 hours of practical teaching. The classes were small, there were only 10 of us. Most of my co-students were retirees who were launching second careeers.

4) You have plans to go on your first ESL teaching assignment to Vietnam. What's in store for you?

In the first year after graduating you don't have a lot of choice with ESL since you don't have real teaching experience yet. I wanted to go to Vietnam, but I figured I would more easily be able to go to Korea or Japan where there is a big demand for certified ESL teachers. Contrary to China, in these 2 countries you definitely need credentials to work in ESL. Through a stroke of luck I found out that one of my friend's parents lives in Vietnam and he will be able to make some local connections for me and I am planning to head over there in September. I don't know exactly yet where I am going to go, but I am sure I will find my first ESL assignment with his help.

5) You learned how to do "poise" (an impressive twirling of 2 long wires whose ends have a wick that is set on fire) in Australia, tell us more about that.

Poise was originally a martial art used by the Maori people and it involves two wires with a wick at the end that is set on fire. Then at night you twirl the wires in different patterns around your body, usually set to music or drums. I met some people in Australia who taught me some pretty good moves and I have been performing occasionally in public or entertaining people on the campground with it. It's a really fun thing to do.

6) You now work as an intern for this adventure travel company called Equinox. What do you do there, how did you get the job?

The way I landed this job was another one of these chance encounters. I was actually supposed to do a 6-week road trip out to Eastern Canada with a friend of mine. One day my brother and I went to a pub and ended up chatting to Blair, who is the manager at Equinox' rafting location on the Ottawa River. He had just lost an intern, so he asked me if I would be interested. It sounded great so my friend and I decided to postpone the road trip and I am working right now as an intern for Equinox from mid-May to September until I go to Vietnam. Right now I am working as a cook and I also help out with the kayaking courses.

I love being here, it's just like being a child. Work doesn't even feel like work, we have so much fun here. There is so much freedom here, you don't have four walls around you and people are just so friendly. I am learning so much. I am learning about the white water, how to read the river and I am picking up the basics of river rafting and kayaking. One day I might want to become a river guide. I'd definitely like to come back next year after my ESL assignment.

7) Tell me about the lifestyle here at this outdoor adventure camp.

The lifestyle is very basic which is great. We have 12 people here permanently, and just like some of my colleagues, I actually sleep in a tent. Other colleagues of mine actually have built a tree house and live there, and another co-worker of mine has created a shack out of discarded materials that has a boat for a roof. It's a very simple life with basically no conveniences, no TV, no Internet. We get by with so little here.

Hygiene is pretty basic, we brush our teeth, comb our hair. There are no laundry facilities on site, so I just wash my t-shirts in the shower.

My work schedule is from 7 am to 7 pm. We get the rafting or kayaking gear ready, go to the river, unload. Or when I am working in the kitchen, I am preparing the meals for the day. There are not a lot of rules here, but everything still seems to work.

8) What are your plans for the future?

Other than going to Vietnam to teach ESL I don't really have any long-term plans. I am a very spontaneous individual and I generally trust that I'll be in the right place at the right time. I don't know what's in store for me. Friends have often said you are like a missionary, you go to different places, help out and don't get paid for it.

As far as ESL is concerned, I would be interested to teach English in places like Bali or Thailand, in small communities. I have also thought of going to Africa, to help build schools. But people have warned me and said in places like these you need to have money to be able to bribe people.

I just love to help. Somehow I think it'll all come together. If I stay the happy person that I am somehow I think it will all work out.

Thank you, Krista, for your time. It's been great meeting such an energetic positive spirit. I wish you all the best for your time in Vietnam and for anything that might happen for you afterwards. Stay in touch and let us know how your first ESL assignment goes!

Australia - One of the Best Places to Live

The Land Down Under where kangaroos and koala bears roam in the Great Outback, where Crocodile Dundee and the aborigines hunted for crocs and other animals, that is Australia. The legend of Ned Kelly still evokes memories of the outlaws that once roamed Australia's landscape. A truly unique country that should rank as one of the best places to live, Australia is the only single country to occupy an entire continent.

Formerly and initially settled through penal transportation in the colony of New South Wales, its population grew and new areas were explored until another five largely self-governing Crown Colonies were established during the 19th century. Since it became the Commonwealth of Australia, it has maintained a stable liberal democratic political system.

The primary basis of Australian culture has been Anglo-Celtic, although distinctive Australian features soon arose from the country's unique environment and the pre-existing indigenous culture. Over the past 50 years, Australian culture has been strongly influenced by American popular culture (particularly television and cinema), large-scale immigration from non-English-speaking countries and Australia's Asian neighbors.

The vigor and originality of the arts in Australia-literature, cinema, opera, music, painting, theater, dance, and crafts-have achieved international recognition and has been one of the reasons why people like to visit or live here permanently. Australians, being highly visual people, have various state art galleries that have strong collections of Australian and overseas artworks that are highly attended by Australians.

Maintaining an active tradition of music, ballet, and theater; many of its performing arts companies receive public funding through the federal government's Australian Council. Not only does it foster the art of dance, it also raves its production of great actors including Nicole Kidman, Mel Gibson, Cate Blanchett, the the late Heath Ledger and many others who have gained success in Hollywood and overseas.

If you are the sporty type, you will surely enjoy living there as sport plays an important part in Australian culture, assisted by a climate that favors outdoor activities. ; At an international level, Australia has strong teams in cricket, field hockey, netball, rugby league, and rugby union, and performs well in cycling, rowing, and swimming. Viewing televised sports is popular; the highest-rating television programs include the summer Olympic Games and the grand finals of local and international football competitions.

Australia has really grown into a highly developed country with many opportunities to offer to a prospective migrant. It has created a landscape that will fully satisfy anyone who has an appetite for culture and arts and adventurism.