THE ALL-TIME AUSTRALIAN
RICH LIST From Samuel Terry ’ The Convict Rothschild’ to Kerry Packer
WILLIAM D. RUBINSTEIN IN ASSOCIATION WITH
The All-time Australian 200 Rich List
William D. Rubinstein
in association with BRW
First published in 2004 in association with BRW Copyright © William D. Rubinstein 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act. Allen & Unwin 83 Alexander Street, Crows Nest NSW 2065 Australia Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100 Fax: (61 2) 9906 2218 E-mail:
[email protected] Web: www.allenandunwin.com National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Rubinstein, W. D. (William D.). The all-time Australian 200 rich list. ISBN 1 74114 187 7. 1. Rich people – Australia – History. 2. Wealth – Australia – History. I. Title. II. Title: All-time Australian two hundred rich list. 305.52340994 Illustrations and text design by Fisheye Design Photo of James Tyson Vault (circa 1950) is copyright Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society. Photo of Thomas Rose headstone is copyright Verlie Fowler and Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society. Photographer: Verlie Fowler. Photo of George Howe letter is copyright State Library of NSW. Photo of James Meehan High school, artist’s impression, is Copyright State Library of NSW. Set in Stempel Schneidler by Midland Typesetters Printed in Australia by BPA Print Group 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS Introduction v Rules of Engagement xi The Top 233 All-time Richest Australians xv The First Era: 1788–1849 1 The Richest Australians of the First Era: 1788–1849 11 The Second Era: 1850–99 71 The Richest Australians of the Second Era: 1850–99 77 The Second Era ‘Also-rans’ 125 The Third Era: 1900–80 137 The Richest Australians of the Third Era: 1900–80 145 Wealth-holders Worth £400 000 or More 171 The Current Era: 1980–today 181 The Current Richest Australians: 1980–today 187 Index 195
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INTRODUCTION
v
Introiduction Introduction
T
his book is a listing of Australia’s 233 richest-ever persons, in descending order from Samuel Terry (d. 1838), who is judged to be the wealthiest Australian in history in relative terms, down to one John Thorn, who also died in 1838, and ranks as the 233rd richest-ever Australian in comparative terms. The criterion for inclusion is simple: every person (or, in the case of a handful of current rich, every family) listed here must be worth 0.170 per cent of Australia’s gross domestic product (GDP) at that time. For persons dying prior to the inaugural Business Review Weekly (BRW ) annual Rich List in 1983, an individual’s personal wealth was taken to be the probate valuation of his or her total wealth left at death, based upon the Australian probate records in the state capitals, from the earliest in New South Wales in 1817, to which has been added, where it exists, the value of their estate left in the United Kingdom. For recent wealth-holders, I have included anyone listed in the 2004 BRW Rich List who met the criterion of being worth 0.170 per cent of Australian GDP—about $1.22 billion. This methodology may seem controversial and arguable, but it is the best that exists in the historical record. Probate records have the unique advantage of being both comprehensive and objective—they include literally everyone, not merely well-known historical figures but those who are totally unknown, and are based upon an absolutely independent calculation of personal wealth drawn up for legal purposes, not upon newspaper gossip or garden-fence guesses. As a result, the names of many of the rich men (and, occasionally, women) on the All-time Australian Rich List will come as a complete surprise even to wellinformed historians. On the other hand, even more of these rich men are extremely well-known and form the backbone of our traditional conceptualisation of Australian history and its economic development—from John Macarthur, William Charles Wentworth and the Clarke family to Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Packer. In fact, most readers will probably be surprised at how many famous people were enormously wealthy. Critics might object to the use of probate records on a variety of grounds, primarily that, in the 20th century, most rich people gave away lots of their money to relatives, or put it into trusts, to avoid paying death duties. Although this factor is true enough, it should not be exaggerated: there were other reasons, discussed in the Introduction to the chapter on 1900–80, why there were fewer great fortunes in comparative terms in the 20th century than before it.
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200 RICH LIST
As well, there are quite simply no other records which could have been used to give an overall picture of the wealthy in the Australian past, nothing that is both objective and comprehensive. And comprehensive this is: every Australian probate record, from the earliest in 1817, to 1939, was seen by me or my research assistants. Possibly many will also question the basis of comparison taken throughout this study, comparing the wealth of an individual with Australia’s GDP at that time, rather than using an index of inflation to evaluate how much a fortune in the past was actually worth. Why the former method was used is best illustrated by taking the example of Australia’s richest-ever man, Samuel Terry, who died in 1838 leaving £200 000. How does one best compare the Australia of Samuel Terry, the ex-convict who was the continent’s wealthiest man in his time, with the Australia of Kerry Packer 165 years later? In 1838 the white population of the entire continent probably totalled less than 180 000 (historians estimate its population in December 1840 at 190 480), and its GDP has been estimated at £589 600 ($11 783 200). In 2004 Australia’s population exceeded 20 million—the continent’s population had grown more than 110-fold—while its GDP was more than 6000 times larger. Samuel Terry at one time owned one-fifth of all mortgages registered in New South Wales (which at the time included what is now Victoria and Queensland). What would someone be worth today who owned one-fifth of all the mortgages in eastern Australia? In order to appreciate why this book uses the historical basis of comparison which it does, it might be worth trying to make an estimate. Suppose we estimate that in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland today there are one million outstanding house mortgages with an average unpaid debt of only $100 000 each, and 100 000 business mortgages with an outstanding debt of $200 000 each. The total unpaid debt of these mortgages, according to this book’s figures—which are almost certainly gross underestimates of the actual worth of the outstanding mortgages—would be $120 billion. Someone owning one-fifth of this sum would thus be worth $24 billion, more than four times the current estimate of Kerry Packer’s wealth. This figure—$24 billion—apart from underestimating the worth of current mortgages, takes no account of anything else in Samuel Terry’s bulging portfolio. In all, taking the comparative percentages of Australia’s GDP at the
vi
INTRODUCTION
time as the basis for this historical comparison probably understates the size of fortunes in the past and simply does not overestimate them. The alternative method which would occur to many would be to use inflation as an index of change in the size of fortunes. Although seemingly the commonsense approach, this method simply does not capture the true dimensions of the size of great fortunes in the past. The inflation index has increased by roughly 60–100 times since 1838, meaning that Samuel Terry’s fortune is worth, in today’s money, about £12–20 million, or $24–40 million, less than half as much as is necessary to scrape into the lowest spot on the 2004 BRW Rich List. This simply does not express the true value of Terry’s fortune. Since prices did not increase as markedly until the First World War, using an inflation index also means that the largest fortune in current terms left before the First World War, Samuel Hordern’s £3 004 062 in 1909, would be now worth £180–300 million, or $360–600 million, placing it among the 26th–55th largest fortunes on the BRW 2004 list (or even lower down the list if family fortunes are taken into account). Again, this simply does not express what a fortune of £3 million meant in 1909, when it was one of the largest in the British Empire and would enable its lucky possessor to live in a way which today only the Sultan of Brunei and a few hundred powerful international magnates and tycoons could possibly imitate. By our GDP percentage index, however, Samuel Hordern ranks in tenth place on the All-time Australian Rich List, below Rupert Murdoch (in sixth place) but well above Kerry Packer (in seventeenth place), and categorically above Australia’s current third-richest man, Richard Pratt (in thirty-fifth place). It must also be stressed that all other recent works by economic and social historians in the all-time richest persons in a particular country have done what has been done here—comparing individual wealth with that country’s GDP at the time, although for the very distant past ascertaining the size of GDP is often very difficult. And so, what does one find? In a parallel study of Britain’s richest-ever persons from the time of the Domesday Book in the eleventh century until 1999, which I undertook with Philip Beresford for the Sunday Times (published in March 1999), probably the main finding to emerge was—very roughly—that the further back in the past one goes, the richer (in comparative terms) the
vii
THE ALL-TIME AUSTRALIAN
200 RICH LIST
wealthy actually were. The richest-ever man found in that study was William of Warenne, Earl of Surrey, one of William the Conqueror’s right-hand men, who was given about 10 per cent of England as a reward. (We were asked if we could trace what became of his descendants and how rich they are today; to our amazement, we found that he was a direct ancestor of the current Duke of Norfolk, who still owns a share of William of Warenne’s lands and is one of the richest men in England.) This pattern was the case because, first, many centuries ago an English monarch could give away vast wealth to his favourites and, second, because the size of England’s GDP was so tiny that it was relatively easy for one man to amass a fortune of staggering comparative size, whereas as the British economy has grown, it has become progressively harder and harder for a sole individual to dominate. Additionally, the rising standard of living has meant that the income and wealth of the average person has risen astronomically. As will be seen from a glance at the All-time Australian Rich List, something similar has happened here: the highest ranks of the list are dominated by successful settlers, traders, pastoralists and merchants from Australia’s first two or three generations of settlement, whose seemingly trifling fortunes actually represented a vastly greater percentage of Australia’s GDP than do those of many recent multimillionaires. As time progressed, and although the size of fortunes in current terms (that is, their value at the time, not taking inflation or any other factor into account) rose by many orders of magnitude by the late nineteenth century, these fortunes steadily declined as a percentage of Australia’s GDP. This process of relatively declining fortunes in comparative terms reached its nadir during the period, roughly, from 1940–70, when very high taxation, restrictions on capital flows and changes in the nature of capitalism effectively prevented the accumulation of truly vast fortunes, a pattern which occurred around the world. Only since about 1980 has this trend been reversed, so that, once again, we see Australian fortunes of comparative sizes that are as great as those in the country’s distant past. This recent pattern of wealth accumulation has occurred, moreover, with little or no public hostility towards, or criticism of, today’s multimillionaire tycoons, who are, indeed, hailed as national heroes unless they are out-andout crooks. And only recently, too, has so much public interest been generated
viii
INTRODUCTION
in the very wealthy that ‘rich lists’ have been compiled, either in Australia or elsewhere. Rather surprisingly, prior to the 1980s there were apparently no Australian rich lists, although left-wing authors did produce works, such as Australia’s Sixty Rich Families (E.W. Campbell, Sydney, 1963), that were generally Marxist exposés of dubious accuracy. Newspapers and magazines of the past either feared defamation lawsuits if they produced rich lists, or their proprietors were not keen to turn too frank and glaring a spotlight on themselves and their friends, especially at a time of endemic class hostility. Furthermore, no-one was willing to undertake the incredible amount of research throughout Australia and overseas necessary to produce an accurate rich list. For these reasons, no such lists appeared before the early 1980s. Today, however, the publication of the BRW Rich List has become an eagerly awaited annual event, and few who feature on these lists are outraged or feel that their privacy has been invaded. By presenting an All-time Australian Rich List, it is hoped that factoring the wealth of the rich into the evolution of Australian history will lead to a better, more realistic understanding of how this country actually developed, and also that reading it will be great fun.
ix
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RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
1.
Through to 1939, the names and valuations of everyone included in this work have been taken from the Australian colonial and state probate records, held in the capital cities of each state. Those of New South Wales began in 1817 (although they include many persons deceased in 1814–17), those in Victoria in 1853 (prior to this deceased persons with property in the Port Phillip District were included in the New South Wales records), and the other colonies soon after the formal introduction of local government. The exception to this pattern is Western Australia, where probate records can be seen by researchers only for the 1900–27 period. However, given the size of estates left there in this period, it is very unlikely that any fortunes large enough to be included in this All-time Rich List have been omitted. In 1976–80 when I was at the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, and just afterwards, I made a comprehensive study—with the help of research assistants—by viewing every probate document left in Australia from the earliest in 1817 through to 1939 (or, in the case of Western Australia, for the shorter period), and I have maintained a comprehensive databank based on this research which forms the basis of this book.
2.
I have also made a parallel study of British wealth-holding and have complete access to British probate records. For this All-time Australian Rich List, anyone connected with the United Kingdom was traced in the British probate records (as well as in the Australian records) and this British figure was added to the Australian total. Australians leaving a substantial estate in Britain but little or nothing in Australia were also included. A significant number of persons earned substantial fortunes in Australia, but later re-emigrated to Britain and settled there. Since their fortunes were Australian in origin, they have been included in this book. In some cases the valuation figures given in this work may differ from those in other sources. This is because these figures are derived from sighting the actual probate document (or documents, in the case of persons leaving estates in two or more states) and then adding in the value of any British estate.
xi
Rules of Engagement
I
t would be helpful to set out the basic ‘rules of engagement’ of this book, the fundamental principles which have been consistently applied to determine who is to be included in this book and how their wealth has been measured.
THE ALL-TIME AUSTRALIAN
200 RICH LIST
3.
As noted, this research was originally begun when I was a Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology at the Research School of Social Studies, Australian National University, in 1978–80 and then continued with the help of research assistants in the 1978–80 period when I had moved to Deakin University in Victoria. I am deeply grateful to the ANU for its support, and especially to Professor Frank Lancaster Jones and to the Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB) and the Australian Archives at the ANU, as well as to those research assistants I employed at the time. Since I have resumed my work on this project—after a gap of more than 20 years!—I must also express my gratitude to Richard Walsh of Techne–Ventures (Sydney) and to Allen & Unwin, and to a number of persons who provided assistance to me. These include Tony Marshall and Mrs Thelma McKay (Hobart), Gemma Carter (Perth), and my inestimable friends Dr Ray Duplain (Deakin University) and Kent Ball (State Library of Victoria), as well as the Macquarie Library, Sydney; and the state libraries of South Australia and Western Australia. I am also extremely grateful to Miriam Hamilton and Clare Roberts (Sydney) for their invaluable information about Samuel Terry and his family.
4.
Information about the lives of persons included in this book was derived from many sources. First and foremost were the sixteen volumes of the magnificent Australian Dictionary of Biography, although it is important to realise that about 35–40 per cent of persons on the All-time Rich List are not listed in the ADB. Other standard biographical sources used included: H.J. Gibney and Ann G. Smith (eds), A Biographical Register, 1788–1939: Notes From the Name Index of the Australian Dictionary of Biography (Canberra, 1987); Percival Serle, Dictionary of Australian Biography (Sydney, 1949); the British Dictionary of National Biography; and Joseph Boase, Modern English Biography. Many genealogical guide books of notable families, both in Australia and Britain, and collective biographical listings of members of colonial and state parliaments were also used. For the early period, [Genealogical Publications of Australia] Convict Pardons, January 1810–31 December 1819 (Sydney, 1974) and Marshall Flynn, The Second Fleet: Britain’s Grim Convict Armada of 1790 (Sydney, 1993), were also helpful. For the mid-nineteenth century and later, such works as Paul de Serville’s Pounds and Pedigrees: The Upper Classes in Victoria, 1850–80 (Oxford, 1991), and wellknown studies by Michael Cannon and others were useful, as was 1000 Famous
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RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
Australians (Adelaide, 1978). Data on many of the early Tasmanians who are not recorded elsewhere was provided to me by Mrs Thelma McKay, my researcher in Hobart, or by Tony Marshall of the State Library of Tasmania. I have also made extensive use, in the 1970s, of the unpublished biographical card index files held by the ADB and of obituaries in many newspapers and magazines and, in compiling this book, of relevant Internet sites, especially the NSW Colonial Secretary Index. My own comprehensive files on everyone leaving £100 000 or more in Britain between 1809 and 1909, and everyone leaving £500 000 or more in Britain from 1910 to 1989, were also used where relevant.
5.
The names and valuations of persons who died from 1940 through the early 1980s were derived from the ADB. The names and estimated wealth of the super-rich since 1980 were taken from Business Review Weekly’s annual rich lists, and in particular from its 2004 list, published in the BRW issue of 20 May–14 July 2004. I am most grateful to BRW for allowing me to use this information. An article by me outlining some of the findings in this book, ‘Fortunes That Dwarfed Today’s’, appeared in the 2003 BRW issue. Of course the BRW statistics of today’s super-rich differ from the data derived from the historical probate records in a number of obvious respects: they are estimates (albeit expert ones), not officially compiled valuations; they are estimates for the particular year in which the BRW Rich List appeared, not a single figure at the date of death; and they include overall family wealth, not just an individual’s assets. Nevertheless, both the probate figures and the BRW lists comprise the best information available to researchers. Apart from biographical information provided by BRW in its annual lists from 1983 to 2004, information about today’s richest Australians was also derived from a number of published sources, especially Ruth Ostrow, The New Boy Network: Taking Over Corporate Australia (Richmond, 1987); Michael Gilding, Secrets of the Super-Rich (Sydney, 2002); Julie Browning and Laurie Critchley, Dynasties (Sydney, 2002); and my The Jews in Australia: A Thematic History—Volume Two: 1945 to the Present (Melbourne, 1991).
6.
In order to ascertain its percentage of Australia’s gross domestic product at that time, the wealth left or held by each individual or family in this study was then compared to either of two sets of statistics. The first is the historical estimates of GDP compiled by Professor Noel Butlin and published in volume
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THE ALL-TIME AUSTRALIAN
200 RICH LIST
six, Statistics, of The Australians (Wray Vamplew, ed., Australians: Historical Statistics, in Australians: Historical Library, Sydney 1987, pp. 128–33, 139), which covers the whole period from 1788 to 1974. For the period since then, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra, kindly made available its annual official estimates of Australian GDP. The item ‘Current Value’ in this book refers to mid– late 2003, when Australia’s GDP was estimated at $717 698 000 000. Other historical statistics derive from a variety of other sources, for example, Gordon Greenwood (ed.), Australia: A Social and Political History (Sydney, 1975, pp. 448–52). Kevin Phillips’s Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich (New York, 2002) also provided much useful American data.
7.
As a general rule, there was little doubt as to ‘who is an Australian?’ and no ambiguities about whom to include. There were, however, a number of arguable cases. Almost always, any person who left a sufficient sum in Australia was included in the All-time Rich List, provided that person had an identifiable Australian connection. In two cases, however, Dr Robert Graham (no. 176) and George Washington Charters (no. 181), no presence in Australia could be traced for them in any source and they certainly died abroad. The absence of positive official evidence that they ever lived in Australia does not, of course, mean that they never lived here, and so they are included in this study. Also included is Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch was included in the BRW and other rich lists of the early 1980s but not in recent lists, although he is still invariably identified around the world as an Australian. I have decided to include him, despite his foreign citizenship. A number of earlier wealth-holders who lived for substantial periods in Britain after making their money in Australia have also been included, and it could be argued that their ranks should have been extended even further. For instance, Helena Rubinstein (d. 1965), the famous cosmetics queen, began her empire in Victoria in the late nineteenth century before moving to the United States. At her death she was worth about US$50 million (£17 million), probably more than any Australian resident of the time. However, as the great bulk of her fortune was certainly earned in the US over a very long period, during which time she had no real links to Australia (in contrast to Rupert Murdoch, who has been Australia’s most important media tycoon even after taking on American citizenship), she has not been included. Although some of these decisions are necessarily arbitrary, in most cases ‘who is an Australian?’ is straightforward.
xiv
The Top 233 All-time Richest Australians Name
Yr of Death
Value
Current Value
% of GDP
More than 1.000% of GDP 1. Samuel Terry 2. Rowland Hassall 3. Robert Jenkins 4. William John Turner Clarke 5. James Tyson 6. Rupert Murdoch 7. William Field 8. Matthew Bowden 9. Edward Riley 10. Samuel Hordern 11. Thomas William Birch 12. John Macarthur 13. John Reddington 14. Walter Lang 15. William Hobart Mansel
(d. 1838)
£200 000
24.37 billion
3.395
(d. 1820)
£15 000
14.35 billion
1.991
(d. 1822)
£20 000
13.54 billion
1.886
(d. 1874)
£1 640 931
10.74 billion
1.496
(d. 1898)
£2 338 442
9.42 billion
1.313
9.12 billion
1.271
(b. 1931) (d. 1837)
£69 400
8.86 billion
1.238
(d. 1814)
£5000
8.23 billion
1.147
(d. 1825)
£15 000
8.00 billion
1.115
(d. 1909)
£3 004 062
7.70 billion
1.073
(d. 1821)
£10 000
7.61 billion
1.060
(d. 1834)
£40 000
7.54 billion
1.047
(d. 1816)
£5000
7.24 billion
1.009
(d. 1816)
£5000
7.24 billion
1.009
(d. 1816)
£5000
7.24 billion
1.009
6.75 billion
0.941
6.5 billion
0.918
0.700–1.000% of GDP 16. John Benn 17. Kerry Packer 18. George Johnston 19. Garnham Blaxcell
(d. 1815)
£5000
(b. 1938) (d. 1823)
£10 000
6.44 billion
0.898
(d. 1817)
£4800
6.22 billion
0.866
xv
THE ALL-TIME AUSTRALIAN
Name
20. Walter Russell Hall 21. Henry Miller 22. Thomas Budds Payne 23. William Hart 24. William Broughton 25. Robert Murray 26. William Roberts 27. Isaac Nichols 28. Joseph Tice Gellibrand
200 RICH LIST
Yr of Death
Value
Current Value
% of GDP
(d. 1911)
£2 854 124
6.19 billion
0.863
(d. 1888)
£1 620 497
6.02 billion
0.839
(d. 1897)
£1 163 614
5.45 billion
0.759
(d. 1843)
£45 000
5.44 billion
0.758
(d. 1821)
£7000
5.33 billion
0.742
(d. 1819)
£5000
5.15 billion
0.717
(d. 1819)
£5000
5.15 billion
0.717
(d. 1819)
£5000
5.15 billion
0.717
(d. 1837)
£40 000
5.12 billion
0.713
0.500–0.700% of GDP 29. Edward Payne 30. Robert Townson 31. Thomas Burdekin 32. Sir William John Clarke, 1st Baronet
33. Dougall MacDougall 34. Robert Barr Smith 35. Richard Pratt 36. Frank Lowy 37. David Berry 38. William Walker 39. Alexander Riley 40. James Doyle 41. Donald Larnach 42. Thomas Walker 43. George Salting 44. Sir Samuel Wilson 45. William Severin Salting 46. William Cox 47. Edward Sinarey (or Sindrey)
(d. 1822)
£7000
4.74 billion
0.660
(d. 1827)
£10 000
4.66 billion
0.649
(d. 1844)
£40 000
4.62 billion
0.644
(d. 1897)
£951 126
4.45 billion
0.620
(d. 1819)
£4300
4.43 billion
0.617
(d. 1915)
£2 280 616
4.39 billion
0.612
(b. 1934)
4.2 billion
0.593
(b. 1930)
4.2 billion
0.593
(d. 1889)
£1 255 937
4.24 billion
0.591
(d. 1854)
£300 000
4.18 billion
0.582
(d. 1833)
£16 000
4.08 billion
0.568
(d. 1836)
£30 000
4.08 billion
0.568
(d. 1896)
£884 768
3.98 billion
0.554
(d. 1886)
£937 984
3.95 billion
0.551
(d. 1909)
£1 531 717
3.93 billion
0.547
(d. 1895)
£762 667
3.89 billion
0.542
(d. 1905)
£1 202 301
3.85 billion
0.537
(d. 1837)
£30 000
3.84 billion
0.535
(d. 1821)
£5000
3.80 billion
0.530
xvi
THE TOP 233
Name
48. Robert Howe 49. William Kerr 50. Thomas Monahan Wallace 51. John Thomas Neale 52. Rev. Samuel Marsden 53. Edward Terry 54. Caleb Wilson 55. John Moffatt
Yr of Death
Value
Current Value
% of GDP
(d. 1829)
£10 000
3.79 billion
0.528
(d. 1842)
£33 000
3.78 billion
0.527
(d. 1893)
£805 505
3.78 billion
0.526
(d. 1897)
£804 945
3.78 billion
0.526
(d. 1838)
£30 000
3.65 billion
0.509
(d. 1838)
£30 000
3.65 billion
0.509
(d. 1838)
£30 000
3.65 billion
0.509
(d. 1871)
£396 923
3.63 billion
0.506
0.300–0.500% of GDP 56. John Boyd Watson 57. Sir Thomas Elder 58. John Terry 59. Charles Fletcher 60. William Gibson 61. William Campbell 62. Thomas Monahan 63. Henry Dangar 64. Robert Futter 65. John Dickson 66. William Redfern 67. William Effingham Lawrence 68. George Howe 69. Severin Kanute Salting 70. George Scarfe 71. Benjamin Orman 72. Robert Campbell, Junior 73. George Wills 74. Peter McIntyre 75. Daniel Robertson 76. George Blaxland
(d. 1889)
£1 053 423
3.55 billion
0.495
(d. 1897)
£736 704
3.44 billion
0.480
(d. 1842)
£30 000
3.44 billion
0.479
(d. 1822)
£5000
3.39 billion
0.472
(d. 1918)
£2 226 623
3.25 billion
0.453
(d. 1896)
£720 673
3.24 billion
0.451
(d.1889)
£959 413
3.23 billion
0.450
(d. 1861)
£280 000
3.11 billion
0.434
(d. 1839)
£30 000
3.08 billion
0.429
(d. 1843)
£25 450
3.08 billion
0.429
(d. 1833)
£12 000
3.06 billion
0.426
(d. 1841)
£30 000
3.06 billion
0.426
(d. 1821)
£4000
3.04 billion
0.424
(d. 1865)
£275 000
3.01 billion
0.420
(d. 1903)
£800 000
2.94 billion
0.409
(d. 1824)
£5000
2.89 billion
0.402
(d. 1851)
£55 000
2.88 billion
0.401
(d. 1906)
£959 000
2.87 billion
0.400
(d. 1842)
£25 000
2.86 billion
0.399
(d. 1842)
£25 000
2.86 billion
0.399
(d. 1849)
£40 000
2.84 billion
0.396
xvii
THE ALL-TIME AUSTRALIAN
Name
77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 88. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96. 97. 98.
200 RICH LIST
Yr of Death
Value
Current Value
% of GDP
Richard Fitzgerald
(d. 1840)
£34 000
2.83 billion
0.395
Robert Wardell
(d. 1834)
£15 000
2.82 billion
0.393
Peter Tyson
(d. 1879)
£500 000
2.78 billion
0.388
John Peter
(d. 1878)
£476 027
2.71 billion
0.378
Edwin Tooth
(d. 1858)
£159 000
2.66 billion
0.371
John Gilchrist
(d. 1866)
£260 000
2.63 billion
0.366
John Howard Angas
(d. 1904)
£800 000
2.58 billion
0.360
Robert Nash
(d. 1819)
£2500
2.58 billion
0.359
David Syme
(d. 1908)
£979 480
2.58 billion
0.359
Thomas Marsden
(d. 1837)
£20 000
2.56 billion
0.357
George Galbraith
(d. 1837)
£20 000
2.56 billion
0.357
Thomas Williams
(d. 1841)
£25 000
2.55 billion
0.355
Sir Daniel Cooper, 1st Baronet (d. 1902)
£707 954
2.55 billion
0.355
Edward Aspinall
£30 000
2.50 billion
0.349
£698 918
2.48 billion
0.345
2.37 billion
0.334
(d. 1840)
Richard John Moffatt Broughton (d. 1891) The Smorgon family Sir Samuel McCaughey
(d. 1919)
£1 752 532
2.38 billion
0.332
Robert ‘Tertius’ Campbell
(d. 1887)
£617 743
2.36 billion
0.329
Charles Hotson Ebden
(d. 1867)
£235 000
2.35 billion
0.327
Peter Manifold
(d. 1885)
£560 399
2.33 billion
0.324
Charles Smith
(d. 1897)
£494 468
2.32 billion
0.323
Mary Cooper
(d. 1842)
£20 000
2.30 billion
0.320
(d. 1843)
£19 000
2.30 billion
0.320
(d. 1915)
£1 183 026
2.28 billion
0.318
(d. 1818)
£2000
2.26 billion
0.315
(d. 1888)
£608 055
2.26 billion
0.315
(d. 1834)
£12 000
2.25 billion
0.314
(d. 1903)
£615 677
2.25 billion
0.314
(d. 1877)
£379 084
2.25 billion
0.313
(d. 1898)
£546 115
2.20 billion
0.307
—the highest woman’s estate in real terms
99. Richard Dry 100. Sir Robert Lucas-Tooth, 1st Baronet
101. Nathaniel Ayres 102. John Wilson 103. George Bunn 104. Robert Landale 105. John Manifold 106. John Lang Currie
xviii
THE TOP 233
Name
Yr of Death
Value
Current Value
% of GDP
Less than 0.300% of GDP 107. Janet Marion, Lady Clarke 108. Walter Jacob Levi 109. John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley
110. William Gibson Whitfield 111. Thomas Brown 112. Thomas Sterrop Amos 113. Thomas Howard 114. William Townsend Jones 115. Denis McCarty (or McCarthy) 116. William Parker 117. James Meehan 118. Charles Carlton Skarratt 119. Harry Triguboff 120. Robert Rand 121. Henry Osborne 122. John Bell 123. George Lansell 124. Hugh Victor McKay 125. John Harris 126. James Chisholm 127. William Blyth 128. John Jones 129. Archibald Bell 130. Edward Nicholas 131. John Donald McLean 132. Robert Brady Hazard 133. Robert Cable 134. Thomas Ferris 135. Richard Charles Pritchett
(d. 1909)
£846 036
2.17 billion
0.302
(d. 1828)
£5000
2.10 billion
0.292
(d. 1828)
£5000
2.10 billion
0.292
(d. 1828)
£5000
2.10 billion
0.292
(d. 1890)
£600 012
2.09 billion
0.291
(d. 1819)
£2000
2.06 billion
0.287
(d. 1819)
£2000
2.06 billion
0.287
(d. 1819)
£2000
2.06 billion
0.287
(d. 1820)
£2000
2.06 billion
0.287
(d. 1826)
£4000
2.03 billion
0.283
(d. 1826)
£4000
2.03 billion
0.283
(d. 1900)
£533 022
2.02 billion
0.282
2.0 billion
0.282
(b. 1933) (d. 1894)
£412 971
2.0 billion
0.279
(d. 1859)
£170 000
2.0 billion
0.278
(d. 1876)
£326 067
1.98 billion
0.276
(d. 1906)
£659 943
1.97 billion
0.275
(d. 1926)
£2 123 945
1.95 billion
0.272
(d. 1838)
£16 000
1.95 billion
0.272
(d. 1837)
£15 000
1.95 billion
0.272
(d. 1823)
£3000
1.93 billion
0.269
(d. 1837)
£16 000
1.92 billion
0.268
(d. 1837)
£15 000
1.92 billion
0.268
(d. 1837)
£15 000
1.92 billion
0.268
(d. 1866)
£190 000
1.92 billion
0.267
(d. 1820)
£2000
1.90 billion
0.265
(d. 1820)
£2000
1.90 billion
0.265
(d. 1829)
£5000
1.89 billion
0.264
(d. 1834)
£10 000
1.88 billion
0.262
xix
THE ALL-TIME AUSTRALIAN
Name
136. Silas Harding 137. Andrew Frazier (or Frazer) 138. Richard Grice 139. Edward Stirling 140. James Ross 141. William Robertson 142. David H. Hains and Family 143. John Frazer 144. Edward Wollstonecraft 145. Sidney Baevski Myer 146. Richard Brooks 147. William Hutchinson 148. Robert Campbell the Elder 149. William Wilson 150. Edward Flood 151. James Sutherland Mitchell 152. Alexander William Robertson 153. James White 154. Sir John Langdon Bonython 155. John Hepburn 156. Charles Hadley 157. Thomas Moore 158. John Simson 159. George Fife Angas 160. Hannah Maria Neale 161. Eliza Rawdon Hall 162. Thomas Austin 163. William Knox Simms 164. George James Molle 165. Ebenezer Vickery 166. John Ovens 167. Adam Swanston Robertson
200 RICH LIST
Yr of Death
Value
(d. 1894)
£386 487
1.87 billion
0.261
(d. 1827)
£4000
1.87 billion
0.260
(d. 1882)
£382 664
1.86 billion
0.259
(d. 1873)
£280 000
1.85 billion
0.258
(d. 1838)
£15 000
1.83 billion
0.255
(d. 1874)
£289 067
1.83 billion
0.255
1.80 billion
0.254
(b. 1930)
Current Value
% of GDP
(d. 1884)
£405 000
1.79 billion
0.250
(d. 1832)
£6000
1.79 billion
0.250
(d. 1934)
£1 532 171
1.78 billion
0.248
(d. 1833)
£7000
1.78 billioin
0.248
(d. 1846)
£20 000
1.77 billion
0.247
(d. 1846)
£20 000
1.77 billion
0.247
(d. 1846)
£20 000
1.77 billion
0.247
(d. 1888)
£468 487
1.74 billion
0.243
(d. 1893)
£369 000
1.73 billion
0.241
(d. 1896)
£385 003
1.73 billion
0.241
(d. 1842)
£15 000
1.72 billion
0.240
(d. 1939)
£1 992 041
1.70 billion
0.237
(d. 1860)
£170 000
1.68 billion
0.234
(d. 1828)
£4000
1.67 billion
0.233
(d. 1840)
£20 000
1.67 billion
0.233
(d. 1896)
£372 541
1.67 billion
0.233
(d. 1879)
£292 150
1.65 billion
0.230
(d. 1911)
£760 181
1.65 billion
0.230
(d. 1916)
£941 960
1.63 billion
0.227
(d. 1871)
£177 386
1.62 billion
0.226
(d. 1897)
£345 000
1.61 billion
0.225
(d. 1823)
£2500
1.29 billion
0.224
(d. 1906)
£536 971
1.61 billion
0.224
(d. 1825)
£3000
1.60 billion
0.223
(d. 1873)
£240 503
1.58 billion
0.220
xx
THE TOP 233
Name
Yr of Death
168. George Charles Hawker (d. 1895) 169. Andrew Chirnside (d. 1890) 170. Sir Frederick Thomas Sargood (d. 1903) 171. Thomas Rose (d. 1837) 172. John Brown Broughton (d. 1882) 173. Thomas Wylde (d. 1821) 174. William Moffitt (d. 1874) 175. John Brown (d. 1842) 176. Dr Robert Graham (d. 1845) 177. William Edward Sparke (d. 1905) 178. Sir Daniel Cooper, 2nd Baronet (d. 1909) 179. Alfred Felton (d. 1904) 180. John Christian (d. 1863) 181. George Washington Charters (d. 1900) 182. James Blanch (d. 1841) 183. James Campbell Telford (d. 1881) 184. The Liberman family 185. Thomas Reibey (d. 1842) 186. Cornelius Driscoll (d. 1847) 187. Lancelot Iredale (d. 1848) 188. John Gandel (b. 1935) 189. John Cox (d. 1877) 190. John McPherson (d. 1875) 191. Michael Dawson (d. 1875) 192. John Harris (d. 1891) 193. George Druitt (d. 1842) 194. Thomas Smith (d. 1842) 195. Thomas Smith (d. 1822) 196. James Squire (d. 1822) 197. Thomas Archer (d. 1850) 198. Niel Black (d. 1880) 199. George Russell (d. 1888) 200. Nathaniel Lawrence (d. 1825) xxi
Value
Current Value
% of GDP
£305 800
1.56 billion
0.217
£443 696
1.54 billion
0.215
£421 846
1.54 billion
0.215
£12 000
1.54 billion
0.214
£315 545
1.53 billion
0.213
£2000
1.52 billion
0.212
£230 000
1.51 billion
0.210
£18 000
1.50 billion
0.209
£15 000
1.50 billion
0.209
£468 045
1.50 billion
0.209
£574 433
1.47 billion
0.205
£452 572
1.46 billion
0.204
£130 000
1.48 billion
0.206
£382 000
1.50 billion
0.202
£14 000
1.43 billion
0.199
£283 000
1.43 billion
0.199
1.41 billion
0.199
£12 400
1.42 billion
0.198
£17 000
1.42 billion
0.198
£20 000
1.42 billion
0.198
1.40 billion
0.197
£235 000
1.40 billion
0.195
£231 004
1.39 billion
0.194
£229 449
1.39 billion
0.193
£391 636
1.39 billion
0.193
£12 000
1.38 billion
0.192
£12 000
1.38 billion
0.192
£2000
1.29 billion
0.189
£2000
1.36 billion
0.189
£22 000
1.35 billion
0.188
£252 000
1.35 billion
0.188
£361 856
1.34 billion
0.187
£2500
1.33 billion
0.186
THE ALL-TIME AUSTRALIAN
Name
Yr of Death
201. Robert Kerr (d. 1846) 202. Thomas Kite (d. 1876) 203. Lachlan McBean (d. 1894) 204. Sir George Wigram Allen (d. 1885) 205. Martin Loughlin (d. 1894) 206. Charles Campbell (d. 1905) 207. Thomas Dalton (d. 1901) 208. David McCaughey (d. 1899) 209. Mars Buckley (d. 1905) 210. Nicholas Bayly (d. 1823) 211. Daniel Watson Stalker (d. 1823) 212. James Whyte (d. 1823) 213. Edmund Harrison Cliffe (d. 1837) 214. Robert Chirnside (d. 1900) 215. Edward Bernard Green (d. 1861) 216. William Charles Wentworth (d. 1872) 217. Henry Dumaresq (d. 1838) 218. Thomas Buckland (d. 1896) 219. John Darling (d. 1914) 220. John Reeve (d. 1875) 221. John Rutherford (d. 1880) 222. William Andrew Fane DeSalis (d. 1896) 223. Thomas Steele (d. 1840) 224. David Lord (d. 1847) 225. Harry Bellingham Howard-Smith (d. 1933) 226. Thomas Holt (d. 1888) 227. Mary Ann Burdekin (d. 1889) 228. Thomas Ware Smart (d. 1881) 229. George Gatehouse (d. 1838) 230. Alexander Mackenzie (d. 1838) 231. Duncan McKellar (d. 1884) 232. James White (d. 1890) 233. John Thorn (d. 1838)
200 RICH LIST Value
Current Value
% of GDP
£15 000
1.11 billion
0.186
£220 000
1.33 billion
0.186
£276 029
1.33 billion
0.186
£300 000
1.33 billion
0.185
£273 791
1.33 billion
0.185
£413 276
1.32 billion
0.184
£346 580
1.31 billion
0.183
£327 633
1.30 billion
0.181
£406 051
1.30 billion
0.181
£2000
1.29 billion
0.180
£2000
1.29 billion
0.180
£2000
1.29 billion
0.180
£10 000
1.28 billion
0.178
£336 109
1.28 billion
0.178
£115 000
1.26 billion
0.178
£166 000
1.27 billion
0.177
£17 000
1.26 billion
0.176
£280 586
1.26 billion
0.176
£723 229
1.26 billion
0.175
£208 000
1.26 billion
0.175
£233 847
1.26 billion
0.175
£245 382
1.26 billion
0.175
£15 000
1.25 billion
0.174
£15 000
1.25 billion
0.174
£1 006 828
1.25 billion
0.174
£334 183
1.24 billion
0.173
£366 493
1.23 billion
0.172
£243 000
1.23 billion
0.171
£10 000
1.22 billion
0.170
£10 000
1.22 billion
0.170
£274 784
1.22 billion
0.170
£349 791
1.22 billion
0.170
£10 000
1.22 billion
0.170
xxii
The First Era: 1788–1849
T
he 109 men and one woman who comprise the group of top wealthholders in Australia up to 1849 are in many ways a very disparate group. To those well-acquainted with early Australian history, the names here are also probably unexpected; not only are there household names like John Macarthur, Rev. Samuel Marsden and George Johnston, but also dozens who are unknown, or virtually unknown, even to specialist historians. The scale of ‘wealth’ must also come as a surprise, ranging from the unexpectedly huge £200 000 fortune of Samuel Terry down to what appear to be insignificant amounts. Yet all of these wealth-holders were, in relative terms, and compared with Australia’s gross domestic product at the time, enormously wealthy. Australia’s total GDP was only about £500 000 in 1815 when the earliest of these estates was probated, stood at only £1 896 000 in 1829, and rose to only about £11 million in 1849. (It then skyrocketed with the Gold Rush, zooming to £64 million in 1860 and to £133 million in 1880.) In international terms, even Samuel Terry’s fortune was small compared with the largest in Britain and America at the same time but, surprisingly, it was not all that small. In Britain between 1815 and 1849 there were five estates of well over £1 million each, headed by the personal (that is, excluding his land) wealth of George, first duke of Sutherland (d. 1833), and of Nathan M. Rothschild (d. 1836), founder of the London branch of the celebrated merchant bank, who left about £5 million. Samuel Terry died in 1838; in Britain in 1838, 42 personal estates of £100 000 or more were left, of which only eight were larger in size than Terry’s, the very largest being (remarkably) the £600 000 left by Harriet Mellon, the extraordinary actress who married Sir Thomas Coutts of Coutts Bank, inherited his fortune, and later married the much-younger Duke of St Albans. In 1839 in Britain, 29 estates worth £100 000 or more
1
THE ALL-TIME AUSTRALIAN
200 RICH LIST
were left, of which only six were larger than Samuel Terry’s. Terry would thus have been among the richest men in Britain at this time, although far from the very richest, bearing in mind that land was excluded from the British valuation figures during the nineteenth century, thus omitting most of the wealth of the aristocracy. In the United States, the richest man around 1803 was William Bingham, a merchant who was worth about US$3 million (£600 000). By 1830 the financier Stephen Girard, worth US$6 million (£1.2 million), was probably America’s richest man. By 1848, however, the scale of wealth in the US had started to climb to world-class heights, with America’s richest man at the time, John Jacob Astor, whose fortune was based in the fur trade and then ploughed into New York real estate, worth about US$20 million (£4 million). In terms of the ways in which the 110 early wealth-holders arrived in Australia, the origins of 104 can be traced with confidence. Of these, 29 (28 per cent) arrived as convicts. Another four (5 per cent) were the sons of convicts, three born in Australia and one in England. One (John Thorn, no. 233) was born in Australia around 1793, but nothing is known of his parents. The remaining 70 wealth-holders (67 per cent) were free immigrants from overseas. Of this 104, twelve (12 per cent) were military officers on the First Fleet or subsequent components of the military infrastructure of the early colonies, among them such famous pioneering Australians as John Macarthur (no. 12) and George Johnston (no. 18). Another eight (8 per cent) were free immigrants who held some kind of official position in the civil administration of the colonies and clearly profited from their official salaries. (In addition, and remarkably, five convicts or former convicts held official government positions from which they clearly profited.) The percentage of early Australian wealth-holders who arrived in Australia as convicts can be viewed in several ways. The percentage was certainly lower than the proportion of convicts or ex-convicts in
2
THE FIRST ERA:
1788–1849
the whole Australian population, especially in the very early period. By the time of the Bigge Report in the early 1820s, two-thirds of Australia’s white population of nearly 25 000 were convicts or former convicts. Even in 1837, the population of New South Wales totalled about 75 000, of whom about 33 000 were free immigrants, but 42 000 were convicts or former convicts. (This figure of 33 000 also included the Australian-born sons and daughters of former convicts.) In Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) at the same time, there were about 28 000 free settlers and 22 000 convicts or emancipists. By 1850, the convict or ex-convict portion of Australia’s population had diminished, but it is clear that the percentage of convicts or emancipists in the general population was much greater than the percentage found in the wealthy elite. On the other hand, however, considering that convict transportees were the ‘dregs of society’, men and women of whom the vast majority would almost certainly have lived and died in poverty in Britain’s teeming industrial slums and rural backwaters, the success a good many enjoyed in Australia was remarkable. This was one reason why transportation was finally stopped—the British authorities realised that, apart from the harshness of the voyage and of convict labour, it was no punishment at all, rather a form of free emigration to a land with, perhaps, a higher standard of living and certainly a better climate than anything a convict was likely to know at home. Indeed, in no other society on earth were petty criminals from the slums likely to comprise any segment of that country’s wealth structure: it is difficult to think of a single ex-convict in Britain or America who ever became very wealthy at any time in modern history. Had these successful convicts not been transported to Australia, it seems unlikely that any of them would have died even comparatively rich, and most would surely have remained in poverty. In Australia, one might speculate that the willingness to bend the rules and to take risks, which were considered to be characteristic of the petty criminals and thieves of Britain, were
3
THE ALL-TIME AUSTRALIAN
200 RICH LIST
advantageous to success in a continent where the rules had constantly to be invented and bent to survive, much less to succeed. The most successful ex-convict, and Australia’s richest-ever man in comparative terms, was Samuel Terry (c. 1776–1838), whose £200 000 fortune dwarfed any other of his time or, comparatively speaking, since then. In relative terms, it was more than four times greater than Kerry Packer’s (no. 17) fortune today. By 1820 Terry owned more than onefifth of the total value of all mortgages in New South Wales. Today, an equivalent level of mortgage ownership would be worth tens of billions, perhaps hundreds of billions, of dollars. The next-wealthiest emancipist was the Tasmanian William Field (no. 7) who, in relative terms, was worth about 60 per cent more than Kerry Packer is today. Field had some experience in the London meat trade, knowledge which he put to good use in Launceston, where he became the town’s chief meat supplier. In 1824 Field wrote to relatives in England to say that he ‘was the richest man in the island’. Like Terry (and many others), Field invested heavily in urban property, owning one-third of the land and buildings in Launceston. A number of other wealthy emancipists are well-known, for instance William Redfern (no. 66), a surgeon who joined in the 1797 mutiny of the British fleet, was transported to Sydney and subsequently developed the largest medical practice in the colony and became a major landowner. One block of 100 acres near central Sydney he named for himself— Redfern. George Howe (no. 68), a London printer, was convicted of shoplifting in 1799 and became Australia’s most important early printer and publisher, responsible for the first newspaper and the first book printed on this continent. Additionally, many convicts or emancipists were crucially aided in their careers by the extraordinary generosity of Governor Macquarie, whose willingness to recognise and reward genuine rehabilitation and improvement in men and women normally regarded as outside of society changed the nature of British settlement in Australia, humanising it and
4
THE FIRST ERA:
1788–1849
introducing the notion that Australia was a place where immigrants were given a second chance in life—a continuing part of the Australian dream. At the other end of the social scale were the twelve military officers, including Macarthur and Johnston, who parlayed their privileged leadership positions into substantial fortunes. Contrary to popular belief, there were not so many of them as one might expect, given their prominence in early Australian history, while some of them did make notable contributions to the development of the Australian economy. Macarthur was of crucial importance in putting Australia ‘on the back of the sheep’, while the New South Wales Corps officer William Cox (no. 46) entered the contracting business and built the first road, 101 miles long, across the Blue Mountains. While the ‘pure merinos’ among the officers have the perhaps well-deserved reputation of detesting the convicts and the ‘convict stain’, relations between some, like Cox, and their convict labourers appear to have been unusually good. Before the middle of the nineteenth century, ‘pure merino’ immigrants and wealthy ex-convicts had largely come together, at least in the political sphere, in a common defence of property. While corruption in the sense that this is commonly understood today may have played a role in the gaining of these fortunes, any such claim has to be heavily qualified. The ‘Rum Corps’ and other early colonial administrators enjoyed a near-monopoly on the sale of many goods, as well as liquor, and obviously profited heavily from this. Yet far fewer large fortunes were made in this way than one might imagine. More important, certainly, was the fact that large tracts of land were often given away by early colonial governors, or simply taken over by squatters. (This is also to ignore entirely the question of prior Aboriginal ownership.) Unquestionably, many early wealth-holders owed their success to the generosity of the early governors, especially Macquarie, and to other senior officials. Nevertheless, it was still their responsibility, having secured a tract of land, to make it profitable, and becoming a successful pastoralist in early Australia was not necessarily easy. By the
5
THE ALL-TIME AUSTRALIAN
200 RICH LIST
mid-nineteenth century a more advanced society, with a good deal of open business competition, had emerged. About two-thirds of the early wealthy group were non-convict immigrants (plus a small handful who were born in Australia). There were a variety of reasons for migrating 10 000 miles on a truly hazardous voyage, generally related to the perceived contrast in one’s fortunes in Britain of the Industrial Revolution and the wealth, or at least affluence, which seemingly awaited the hard-working and the very lucky. While most of these free immigrants came from the lower-middle or working classes, urban or rural, of industrialising Britain, there were some unusual exceptions. Edward Wollstonecraft (no. 144), the uncle of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley—the author of Frankenstein and the wife of Shelley the poet—came in part to escape from his niece’s notoriety; Thomas Wylde (no. 173), a very successful London solicitor and the father of a British Lord Chancellor, moved to Sydney with most of his family at the age of 59 for no apparent reason; William Effingham Lawrence (no. 67), a London intellectual and friend of the famous philosopher Jeremy Bentham, migrated to Launceston, again for no obvious reason; and Robert Townson (no. 30), a distinguished scientist, and friend of Sir Joseph Banks, who held a doctorate in civil laws from Gottingen University, came to Sydney in 1807 and was known for holding intellectual soirees. Such men added distinction, or at least a good deal of local colour, to a society often seen as divided between convicts and their gaolers. The majority of the early wealth-holders were born in England—70 out of the 104 (67 per cent) whose birthplace is known or very likely. The next largest group were the Scots-born, probably sixteen (15 per cent), while eight (8 per cent) were born in Ireland, and two (2 per cent) were known to have been born in Wales. Four of the wealth-holders were apparently born outside of the British Isles, two in the West Indies and one each in what is now Canada and in the United States. (The American-born wealth-holder was the early Hobart landowner Nathaniel Ayres, no. 101.)
6
THE FIRST ERA:
1788–1849
The English-born majority came from all over the country, with London and the West Country (Wiltshire, Devon, etc) probably the most represented among those whose place of origin is known. Fewer came from the industrialising north than one might expect, although Samuel Terry was from Manchester and Rev. Samuel Marsden (no. 52), the famous Anglican minister and landowner, was the son of a blacksmith in Yorkshire. The great majority of the early wealthy group were Protestants, chiefly Anglicans (at least nominally) and Scots Presbyterians, although an appreciable percentage of the group were Protestant Nonconformists (Methodists, Congregationalists, etc). Only a small handful were Roman Catholics, with only three of the Irish-born group having typically Irish surnames (the others certainly emerged from the Protestant ascendancy), and only a few other Roman Catholics being represented, like the English-born Cornelius Driscoll (no. 186), a Hobart banker and a relative of Daniel O’Connell, the ‘liberator’ of Catholic political rights. Although Jews have consistently comprised about 0.5 per cent of the Australian population from the time of the First Fleet to the present, the sole Jewish wealth-holder of the early group (and the only one up to the 20th century) was Walter Jacob Levi (no. 108), a West Indian merchant who had been in Australia less than two years at the time of his death. The Australian picture seems to bear out the famous ‘Protestant ethic’ thesis of the German sociologist Max Weber, which postulates a linkage between Protestantism and capitalist entrepreneurship. Australia’s wealth structure in the second half of the nineteenth century, when so many Scots Presbyterians were to be found among the very wealthy, appears to support Weber’s theory even more emphatically. Prior to the 1851 Gold Rush, all of Australia’s wealth-holders lived in New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania was known as Van Diemen’s Land until 1853; like New South Wales, it was founded as a penal colony), with the other colonies unrepresented until the second half of the nineteenth century or even later. Van Diemen’s Land was the home
7
THE ALL-TIME AUSTRALIAN
200 RICH LIST
of a surprisingly large component of the early wealth-holders, 27 (25 per cent) of the 109 whose Australian place of residence is known. (There is no evidence that Dr Robert Graham, no. 176, a Professor of Botany at Edinburgh University, who left £15 000 in New South Wales, ever set foot in Australia; he almost certainly never lived here.) Of these, fourteen (13 per cent) were primarily associated with Hobart, seven (6 per cent) with Launceston, and six (6 per cent) with rural parts of the island. Most of the early rich, however, lived in New South Wales. Assigning each one to a particular place is rather difficult, since so many began in Sydney and later became pastoralists or pioneers of other towns, but—roughly—53 (49 per cent) appear to have been primarily associated with Sydney in its boundaries at the time, six (6 per cent) with Parramatta, and one each (1 per cent each) specifically with Liverpool and Bathurst, while 21 (19 per cent) lived primarily in New South Wales. These early wealth-holders were chiefly pastoralists, but also local tradesmen, innkeepers, officials and the like. These numbers are approximate and often depend on the interpretation of the evidence. Probably a clear majority of these wealth-holders had multiple interests, normally combining pastoralism and landownership with some form of profitable business or administrative pursuit. For this reason, it is often very difficult to specify a single occupational designation for each man. Most of these wealth-holders had some agricultural land, but no more than sixteen (15 per cent) appear to have been purely and wholly farmers or pastoralists, a much lower number than in the 1850–99 era, when the squatters and large-scale pastoralists, sometimes owning or occupying literally millions of acres, amassed large fortunes and are a notable component of the wealth structure of this later era. About 22 (20 per cent) of the early group were merchants and five (5 per cent) were brewers. The others followed a very wide and miscellaneous variety of occupations, normally owning some agricultural land in addition to their other occupations.
8
THE FIRST ERA:
1788–1849
The lifestyles of the Australian rich showed a rapid evolution from the ‘mud huts, thatched roofs and wattle and daub hovels’ (Portland Guardian, 11 December 1848, cited in Margaret Kiddle, Men of Yesterday, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1961, p. 46) of the earliest settlements to more ornate and permanent homes and buildings, to strikingly luxurious, often grandiose mansions reminiscent of those in England. (The Regency style was often favoured and probably evolved into the typically Australian house with verandah and porch.) The ‘mud hut’ stage of settlement certainly became outmoded in the capital cities by the 1820s while, by the 1840s, mansions for the very rich were the rule in Tasmania and Sydney. (Tasmania, in particular, saw many architecturally distinguished mansions.) Convict labour was widely available, notwithstanding the obvious shortage of free (non-convict) labour, skills and high-quality goods on the new continent. This stage of building was, however, nothing compared with the flood of palatial urban stately homes and grandiose rural homesteads built in the 40 or 50 years after 1851, which turned Sydney’s harbourside, and St Kilda Road and Toorak in Melbourne, among other places, into highways of display and conspicuous consumption for the very rich, which were surprisingly serious rivals for London’s Park Lane or New York’s Fifth Avenue. By 1850 the Australian settlement had evolved from a convict prison to an agricultural exporting colony, specialising chiefly in wool. An urban infrastructure had emerged in Sydney and elsewhere in New South Wales, in the two large Tasmanian towns and, during the previous decade or two, in Adelaide and Melbourne. Australia’s economy was about to change in far-reaching ways with the discovery of gold, very large-scale immigration and the creation of well-funded urban infrastructures, and the scale and nature of Australia’s wealthy elite was about to change with it.
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE FIRST ERA
1788–1849
1. Samuel Terry
(c. 1776–1838)
Wealth: £200 000 3.395% of GDP Current Value: $24.37 billion
Samuel Terry
Although most people have never heard of him, in comparative terms Samuel Terry, ‘the Botany Bay Rothschild’, was Australia’s richest-ever man, worth more than four times the estimated value of Kerry Packer’s fortune today. Terry’s ability to amass great wealth is all the more remarkable in that he came to Australia in chains, a convict sent out from Manchester at the age of 24 for stealing 400 pairs of stockings. By the decade of his death, he was three times
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The Richest Australians of the First Era: 1788–1849
Property owner, landowner and merchant, chiefly in Sydney
wealthier than the next richest man on the whole continent. This differential in size of fortune between Samuel Terry and the next richest men of the time (probably William Field, no. 7, and John Macarthur, no. 12) also marks the scale of Terry’s fortune as unique in Australian history. Little is known of Terry’s early life except that he was a labourer in Manchester when he was transported for seven years in 1800, arriving in Sydney in June 1801 on board the Earl Cornwallis. His time as a convict included working in a stonemason’s gang and being flogged for neglect of duty. Even before his sentence expired in 1807, Terry set up his own business as a stonemason in Parramatta, and by 1809 owned a farm in the Hawkesbury district. From about 1810 he lived in Sydney, becoming an innkeeper and profiting from an advantageous marriage with a convict’s widow, Rosetta Madden. By 1817 he was described by Governor Macquarie as a ‘wealthy trader’, dealing in the provision of fresh meat and flour to the government. Terry’s speciality, however, was urban real estate. By 1820 he owned more than one-fifth of the total value of all mortgages in New South Wales, more than the Bank of New South Wales, of which he was one of the largest shareholders. He also owned, at that time, 1450 cattle, 3800
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sheep and 19 000 acres, almost exactly half of all the land held by former convicts (including the land now occupied by Martin Place and the old GPO—General Post Office—which his widow later sold to the government). His business methods were often criticised as ruthless and during his life he was accused of unscrupulous extortion. The Bigge Report alleged that officers and small landholders would get drunk at Terry’s public house and then sign away rights to their possessions as security for their debts. This view was contested by others, however, and he continued to be highly regarded by Governor Macquarie. The rest of Terry’s career showed the normal progression of the newly rich man to even greater wealth, his business interests ranging from a bloodstock stud to constructing Terry’s Building on Pitt Street, one of the largest office blocks in the young colony. Terry was regarded as the most spectacularly successful of all emancipists, and became one of their chief spokesmen. In his last years he was noted for his philanthropy, especially to Wesleyan causes, and became a prominent Freemason. Terry died of the effects of a stroke at the age of about 62. At his death, a rumour swept Sydney that he owned a trunk full of gold and money. It was never found. Terry’s estate at his death was valued
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at £200 000, an incredible sum, and one which would have placed him among the richer men in England. As is usually the case, some estimates of his wealth were even higher, usually more than £250 000. What is clear is that at his death he was receiving more than £10 000 a year from the rentals of his Sydney properties alone. There was no-one in Australia with whom he could be compared; as a result, Terry derived his well-known nickname from the world’s richest banker of his time, becoming famous as ‘the Botany Bay Rothschild’. After his death most of his fortune was lost by his surviving children in the speculations and bankruptcy of the mercantile firm of Hughes & Hosking.
2. Rowland Hassall
(1768–1820)
Congregationalist minister and landowner around Parramatta and in New South Wales
Wealth: £15 000 1.991% of GDP Current Value: $14.35 billion The second richest man in comparative terms in Australian history was, like Samuel Terry, a very early settler, but the differences between Rowland Hassall and Samuel Terry are vast. Born in Coventry,
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1788–1849
Mr and Mrs Rowland Hassall
England, and originally a silk weaver, Hassall became a Congregationalist missionary in England and then, in 1796, went to Tahiti to preach to the natives. In 1798 he arrived in Sydney and, as one of the few free settlers of respectability, received land grants and official positions. He then pursued his dual career, being one of the earliest and most important Protestant dissenting ministers in the colony and building up a fortune as a landowner, storekeeper and sheep farmer. In 1800 Governor King, on the recommendation of Rev. Samuel Marsden (no. 52), appointed Hassall as government storekeeper, in charge of the granary at Parramatta and the stores at Toongabbie. (Hassall proved incompetent at this job and was sacked in 1809 for ‘not having discovered . . . consistent frauds’.) Some time after he moved to Parramatta, Hassall opened a store there and ran the sheep of other flockmasters besides his own. He borrowed a Spanish ram from Marsden to cross with his ewes, managed the property belonging to Governor King’s
wife and, during Marsden’s absence, acted as his agent and managed his property. By 1808 Hassall owned 1300 acres of land, including a grant of 400 acres in the Nepean district at Camden. In 1814 he was appointed superintendent of government stock and so began managing Cowpastures, the most extensive stock run in the colony. Although a Congregationalist, Hassall inclined more and more to Calvinistic Methodism, and was a major influence on the growth of Protestantism in the new colony. He became a major landowner around Parramatta and at Camden, and was also appointed superintendent of the government stock of sheep. He died in an epidemic at the age of 52, leaving 3000 acres of land. He also left a large family, whose descendants continue today. Hassall’s voluminous correspondence has frequently been used by historians as one of the best sources concerning the early days of New South Wales.
3. Robert Jenkins
(c. 1777–1822)
Merchant and banker in Sydney
Wealth: £20 000 1.886% of GDP Current Value: $13.54 billion Robert Jenkins was another early free settler who prospered chiefly as a
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merchant and banker in Sydney rather
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7. William Field
(1774–1837)
than as a landowner. Jenkins was born in Gloucestershire, England, and arrived in Sydney in 1809 as local agent for a London merchant, William Wilson. Wilson went bankrupt, forcing Jenkins to start his own business. With talent scarce in the new colony, Jenkins was appointed auditor of
Pastoralist and meat contractor around Launceston, Tasmania
Wealth: £69 400 1.238% of GDP Current Value: $8.86 billion
accounts in an important lawsuit in 1811 and was given several official positions by Governor Macquarie. In 1813 he was appointed auctioneer of the colony, an important position, and was made a judge of the Court of Civil Jurisdiction. In that same year he married a rich and well-connected widow who was distantly related to Lord Nelson, no less. Jenkins also prospered as a merchant and became a director of the Bank of New South Wales when it was founded in 1816. Having an interest in farming, principally through his wife’s estate, Jenkins received a land grant of 1000 acres, known as Berkeley, in the Illawarra region in 1817. In 1822 he opened the first legal distillery in Australia. Capable and well-connected, Jenkins would probably have become even wealthier; however, in May 1822, at the age of only about 45, he fell off his horse and died. Nevertheless, in comparative terms, he was already one of the richest men in Australian history.
William Field was born at Enfield near London, the son of an auctioneer at Smithfield Market. Field became a farmer and a butcher, gaining good knowledge of the cattle trade. In 1800 he was convicted of receiving nine stolen sheep and was sentenced to fourteen years of transportation. From Sydney, Field was sent to Port Dalrymple, Van Diemen’s Land, where his farming expertise was deemed useful. He quickly became an overseer and, by the time his sentence expired in 1814, he had become a farmer, grazier and merchant. By 1820 he owned 220 acres and was the principal meat supplier to the Launceston community; he later expanded to supply meat throughout the island. Field and his wife Elizabeth, a former convict transported in 1805, lived in a large house at the corner of Brisbane and York streets, Launceston. In 1824 Field wrote to his relatives in England, stating ‘it would surprise them to hear he was the richest man in the island’. Field continued
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1788–1849 to grow ever-richer, and by 1828 owned nearly one-third of the land and buildings in Launceston. He was also a publican and a racehorse owner. At his death he owned 16 000 acres of land on the island colony and was, in comparative terms, the richest-ever Tasmanian.
terms one of the largest in Australian history, was not probated until 1819, five years after his death.
9. Edward Riley
(1784–1825)
Merchant and pastoralist based in Sydney
8. Matthew Bowden
(c. 1779–1814)
Wealth: £15 000 1.115% of GDP Current Value: $8.0 billion
Surgeon and landowner in Hobart
Wealth: £5000 1.147% of GDP Current Value: $8.23 billion Matthew Bowden was a surgeon employed by the Royal Lancashire Regiment and accompanied LieutenantGovernor Collins on his expedition to Port Phillip in 1803. He was one of the original settlers in Hobart in 1804, where he remained, for the rest of his short life, as a surgeon, being appointed assistant surgeon of the civil medical establishment in 1809 and granted 600 acres of land. Bowden’s death at the age of only about 35 was hastened by his ‘dissolute habits’ which had made him ‘prematurely old’. Communications were so fragmentary at the time that Bowden’s estate, in relative
Edward Riley had a short, tragic life. Born in London, he became a merchant in the colonial trade operating from Calcutta and Canton. The death of his first wife in 1810 made him a chronic depressive, and Riley migrated to Sydney on the advice of his brother, Alexander, an early settler. Like other successful men of the time, Riley enjoyed the favour of Governor Macquarie, who gave him a land grant and made him a Justice of the Peace. Apart from his mercantile activities, Riley became a director of the Bank of New South Wales and also imported Saxon merino sheep into the colony. His lavish lifestyle made him the butt of amused comments, and in his last years he lost part of what had been an even larger fortune.
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Always depressive and suffering from painful gout, on 21 February 1825, aged only 41, Riley shot himself with a shotgun. His family required years of litigation to sort out the complexities of the two conflicting wills he had made.
11. Thomas William Birch (1774–1821) Merchant, ship owner and surgeon in Hobart
Wealth: £10 000 1.060% of GDP Current Value: $7.61 billion Thomas William Birch was one of the earliest free settlers in Van Diemen’s Land, arriving in May 1808 as medical officer on the whaler Dubuc. Nothing is known of his early life. He decided to remain in Hobart, and became one of its most prosperous early merchants, as well as a whaler, sealer, ship owner and property developer. Birch was the first whaler in the colony, with 26 men. He also claimed to have discovered Port Davey and that his whaling captain, James Kelly, discovered Macquarie Harbour and named Sarah Island in honour of Birch’s wife.
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Birch also became a landowner in the Hobart area and a substantial meat contractor to the government, and he served on the Lieutenant-Governor’s Court. In 1816 he erected what was regarded as the finest brick house on the island. Birch’s Bay and Birch’s Inlet are named for him. By the time of his death at the age of only 47, Birch had accumulated one of the largest fortunes in Australia’s early period of settlement. After his death, his will became subject to a protracted legal dispute among his heirs, which was settled only in 1848. When the first legal decision on this protracted suit was given in 1838, the value of Birch’s property was estimated to have grown to £40 000.
12. John Macarthur (1767–1834) Military officer, pastoralist and merchant in Sydney and Parramatta
Wealth: £40 000 1.047% of GDP Current Value: $7.54 billion One of the most famous, powerful and controversial of the early settlers, John Macarthur was also one of the very richest. Born in Plymouth, England, to Scottish parents, Macarthur embarked on
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE FIRST ERA
1788–1849
John Macarthur
the Second Fleet as an army lieutenant, but—characteristically—fought a duel along the way. He also contracted a mystery illness in South Africa before arriving with his family in 1790. Lucky appointments by the Acting Governor to the impressive Macarthur gave him land and power. In particular, he was given a 100-acre grant at Parramatta which became the famous Elizabeth Farm. Constant tension soon emerged between Macarthur and the colony’s leading officials, a pattern which continued for many years. Macarthur returned to England between 1801 and 1805 after wounding his commanding officer in a duel, and soon after his re-emigration to New South Wales became involved in the mutiny which led to the deposition of the hapless Governor William Bligh— no stranger to mutinies—in 1808.
After another stay in England until 1817, Macarthur returned permanently to New South Wales and became one of the most successful sheep breeders in the colony—his importance in establishing the wool industry in Australia, and in converting the colony from a convict dump to a productive exporter of wool, cannot be exaggerated. By 1830 Macarthur owned 60 000 acres of prime land around Parramatta. He formulated grandiose schemes for the pastoral development of New South Wales, especially the establishment of the Australian Agricultural Company, which was to own and develop one million acres of land around Newcastle. The whole of Macarthur’s career in Australia was marked by a continuous ability to provoke hostility and opposition, arguably without parallel in Australian history, especially in never-ending conflicts with governors and senior officials. He was removed from his membership of the New South Wales Legislative Council by Governor Bourke in 1832 on the grounds that he had been ‘pronounced a lunatic’, and died two years later. Historians agree, however, that his vision of a wool-based Australian economy, and his success in convincing London to transform the basis of Australia’s position in the British Empire, made him one of the greatest of Australian pioneers. Macarthur’s serene private life contrasted greatly with his tumultuous
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public career, and he founded a dynasty of great importance in New South Wales, which became a pillar of Australia’s upper classes.
13. John Reddington
(d. 1816)
Victualler and dealer in Sydney
Wealth: £5000 1.009% of GDP Current Value: $7.24 billion John Reddington was a convict who was sentenced at Roscommon, Ireland, in 1798 and transported for life, arriving in Sydney on board the Minerva. By 1809 he had been given an absolute pardon, and operated as a victualler and dealer on Pitt Street, Sydney, receiving a liquor licence in February 1811. He also built up a considerable landed property, in part through grants from the government. When he died in 1816 he bequeathed his property to a brother in England, and left little trace in the historical record.
14. Walter Lang Merchant in Sydney
Wealth: £5000 1.009% of GDP Current Value: $7.24 billion
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Little is known of the career of Walter Lang, who is briefly described as a ‘merchant and adventurer’ in one source. Lang was born in Glasgow, and then made an early fortune as a merchant in the Parramatta region. Around 1810 he was given a large grant of land in the Riverstone area. He married Elizabeth Harris, the adoptive niece of James Larra, a prominent Jewish emancipist. Their son, John Lang (1816–64), who was born after Walter’s early death, became the colony’s first-born novelist and a well-known barrister in Sydney. Colonial records also note another Walter Lang, who arrived in Hobart as a free settler in 1812 and died at around the same date as the Sydney man.
15. William Hobart Mansel (c. 1777–1816) Merchant in Sydney
Wealth: £5000 1.009% of GDP Current Value: $7.24 billion
(d. 1816) William Mansel sailed from Ireland to Sydney in 1803 and worked as a clerk to Simeon Lord, a prominent early merchant, for a salary of £100. After suing Lord for the nonpayment of his wages and losing in court, Mansel set up as a
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE FIRST ERA
1788–1849 general merchant on O’Connell Street in Sydney. In 1810 he rather unusually operated both a library and a wine and liquor shop. Mansel’s harsh treatment of a debtor earned him much criticism, and he was involved in an unusual number of legal cases concerning debts allegedly owed to him. His growing position as a general merchant in Sydney, dealing in a range of goods from timber to candles, was cut short by his early death, aged only 38, in March 1816.
16. John Benn
district, and his funeral in December 1815 was attended by a large crowd of friends and neighbours.
18. George Johnston (1764–1823) Military officer and landowner in Sydney and New South Wales
Wealth: £10 000 0.898% of GDP Current Value: $6.44 billion
(d. 1815)
Farmer in New South Wales
Wealth: £5000 0.941% of GDP Current Value: $6.75 billion John Benn was a successful farmer in the Hawkesbury district with properties 2 miles from Windsor. He was a free settler who migrated from England very early, around 1790. In 1814 he married his wife Lydia at Pitt Town on the Hawkesbury River. At his death, caused by falling from a horse, he was in the process of branching out into the maritime import–export trade. Benn was popular and respected in the
George Johnston
George Johnston, a prominent figure in the early history of New South Wales, was a Scottish-born military officer who
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saw service in the American Revolution and was later severely wounded in action against the French. Sent out as a marine with the First Fleet, he was reputedly the first man ashore in Port Jackson in January 1788. Johnston’s career in New South Wales was marked by controversy and turmoil, especially his extraordinary decision, working with John Macarthur (no. 12) and others, to seize power in 1808 by deposing Governor Bligh, an act for which he might well have been hanged but which, after a three-year interval, merely brought his dismissal from the army. He was, however, also brave and resolute, and had suppressed an early rebellion by Irish convicts with ruthlessness. Despite the controversy, Johnston received many land grants and, as self-appointed Acting Governor after deposing Bligh, awarded a grant of 2000 acres to his son. In all, Johnston was given more than 4000 acres from the colony’s governors, including a 1500acre grant from Governor Macquarie at Lake Illawarra. He specialised, among other things, in beef farming, and by the mid-1810s was supplying a large part of the government’s beef supply. For many years Johnston lived with the wellknown Jewish convict Esther Abrahams, sent out on the First Fleet for theft, whom he finally married in 1814 after already fathering their large family.
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19. Garnham Blaxcell (1778–1817) Merchant and trader in Sydney
Wealth: £4800 0.866% of GDP Current Value: $6.22 billion Garnham Blaxcell was a leading early merchant in the young colony. He was born in Suffolk, England, and arrived in Sydney as a naval purser in 1801. In the familiar pattern of many early successful settlers, he became a favourite of the governor, in this case of Governor King, who appointed him to a variety of official positions and awarded him an 1100-acre estate in Granville. Blaxcell’s wealth, however, came from his career as a successful merchant. He owned a windmill in Pyrmont, a warehouse on George Street and one of the earliest private fleets of trading vessels. Blaxcell was involved with George Johnston (no. 18) and John Macarthur (no. 12) in the Bligh rebellion, and secured part of the contract to build the first general hospital in Sydney, in exchange for the right to import 45 000 gallons of spirits. Blaxcell’s last years were marked by economic decline and indebtedness, and the size of the estate he left at death
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1788–1849 was probably smaller than its maximum
24. William Broughton
size. Blaxcell owed more than £2300 in
(1768–1821)
import duties and secretly left Sydney for England in April 1817. Six months later he died in Batavia (now Jakarta), an
Public official, landowner and investor in Sydney and New South Wales
alcoholic.
Wealth: £7000 0.742% of GDP Current Value: $5.33 billion
23. William Hart
(1767–1843)
Merchant in Sydney and India
Wealth: £45 000 0.758% of GDP Current Value: $5.44 billion William Hart was a merchant in Madras, India, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He carried out an international trade with Britain and New
William Broughton
South Wales, and lived for some time in Sydney. In Madras in 1804 he married the daughter of a lieutenant-colonel in the Light Dragoons, and by his death was living in a mansion, Barham House, at East Hoathley, Sussex, England. His two sons, William Hamilton and Thomas Frederick Hart, continued to live in Australia, dying, respectively, in 1863 in St Kilda, and in 1868 in Wollongong.
William Broughton was an early public servant in Sydney who managed to become involved in numerous disputes and quarrels with other officials, yet came out on top. Born at Chatham, Kent, he came to Australia on the First Fleet as assistant to Surgeon White, and became storekeeper at Parramatta in 1789. For most of the rest of his life he held a variety of positions as commissary or
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storekeeper in New South Wales and on Norfolk Island and, like so many other successful pioneers, was warmly regarded by Governor Macquarie as a ‘faithful, honest, and useful’ public servant. Yet he barely escaped court martial twice, engaged in bitter quarrels with officials in Sydney and Hobart, and was accused of ‘scandalous and derogatory conduct’ towards the wife of a leading official at a ball. In part, Broughton was unpopular because he was unusually honest, refusing to wink at the widespread corruption which existed in the young colony. He was, however, rewarded with land grants at Appin and became a large shareholder in the Bank of New South Wales. Broughton fathered five children by his de facto convict wife. In 1809 his wife, who was returning to England, was killed in the massacre of the Boyd in New Zealand, with Broughton’s young daughter being one of the few survivors. Broughton remarried and fathered another large family.
25. Robert Murray
(d. 1819)
Mariner in Sydney and Calcutta
Wealth: £5000 0.717% of GDP Current Value: $5.15 billion Like many other early figures, little is known of Robert Murray. He was
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described at his death as a ‘mariner’ of Calcutta, and left £5000 in New South Wales. Murray was a seagoing trader, plying the lucrative route between Britain’s colonies in India and New South Wales, dealing in spirits and coal and transporting troops.
26. William Roberts (1756–1819) Hotel-keeper, road-maker, grazier and landowner in Sydney
Wealth: £5000 0.717% of GDP Current Value: $5.15 billion William Roberts was a free settler who arrived on the Second Fleet, possibly as a military officer. In 1801 he became the proprietor of an early hotel at the corner of Castlereagh and Hunter streets and owned cattle-breeding lands in the Liverpool area. Four years later he started a ‘stage wagon’ service between Sydney and the Hawkesbury district, and then pursued a third career as a road-maker who built George Street in Sydney from Charlotte Place to Brickfield Hill, as well as much of the Liverpool Road. Possibly his most notable achievement was that he was the
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1788–1849 first legal landowner in Bondi, having been given 200 acres in 1809 which included the beach and all the land up to South Head Road. At his death he left eight children.
27. Isaac Nichols
(1770–1819)
Landowner, ship owner and public servant in Sydney
Wealth: £5000 0.717% of GDP Current Value: $5.15 billion
1802, Governor King was instructed to grant Nichols a free pardon. Nichols then became a substantial landowner and an early ship owner and ship builder, establishing one of the earliest shipyards in Australia. In 1809 he was appointed superintendent of public works and became a major supplier of meat to the government. His second wife was the daughter of George Johnston (no. 18), who had originally supervised him as a newly arrived convict.
28. Joseph Tice Gellibrand
Isaac Nichols had a varied and unusual career. Born in Wiltshire, England, he was transported in 1790 for theft. His ability nevertheless impressed the colony’s leaders, who quickly appointed him chief overseer of convict gangs and gave him a land grant in Concord as well as a spirit licence to open an inn on George Street. In 1799 Nichols became the victim of a gross miscarriage of justice when he was convicted of receiving stolen property and sentenced to spend fourteen years on Norfolk Island. Nichols was convicted by a 4–3 vote of the jury, which consisted of military and naval officers. The three naval officers became convinced that Nichols was the victim of perjured evidence and that his conviction was railroaded unfairly by the majority of military officers on the jury. They protested to London and, in
(1786–1837) Solicitor and landowner in Tasmania
Wealth: £40 000 0.713% of GDP Current Value: $5.12 billion
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Joseph Tice Gellibrand
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In 1837, exploring the area near Geelong, Gellibrand was killed by Aborigines. Although only 51, and despite the fact that he had resided on the continent for only thirteen years, he was already one of the richest men in Australia. Three of his sons later became prominent members of the Tasmanian parliament.
Joseph Gellibrand’s home
Joseph Gellibrand was a solicitor in London when, in 1823, he was appointed attorney-general of Van Diemen’s Land, arriving the following year. Gellibrand soon became embroiled, as did so many other early settlers, in a bitter dispute with the local officials, opposing many of the actions of Lieutenant-Governor Arthur. By 1826 Gellibrand had been the subject of an official investigation presided over by the chief justice of the colony, which found him guilty of conduct unbefitting his office, and had been removed from office, an action which Gellibrand fought for the rest of his life. Gellibrand then practised as a barrister in Hobart and made a fortune as a property owner throughout the colony. In 1827 he became editor of the Tasmanian, and then became involved in the Port Phillip Association, which aimed to settle the area in and around what is now Melbourne.
29. Edward Payne
(d. 1822)
Settler in Van Diemen’s Land
Wealth: £7000 0.660% of GDP Current Value: $4.74 billion Edward Payne’s stay in Australia was brief. He arrived at the Derwent River on board the David Shaw as a free settler in October 1819. In March 1821 he returned to London but then re-emigrated to Van Diemen’s Land with his new bride in June 1822. Less than a month later, in July 1822, Edward Payne was drowned in a boating accident on his way to North West Bay, Tinder Box. By that time he had accumulated an estate of 2000 acres of grazing land. Nothing, however, is known of the source of his wealth, which he brought from England. He left a widow and an infant son, but part of his estate was sold to pay off his debts.
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1788–1849
30. Robert Townson
becoming certainly the most renowned scholar and scientist on the continent. In New South Wales, however, Townson received slight after slight from Governor Bligh and, as a result, took a prominent part in the rebellion of 1809. Governor Macquarie eventually granted him nearly 3000 acres, including the estate near Minto which became the Varro Ville farm, one of the early showpieces of New South Wales agriculture. However, while he was increasingly successful as a sheep and cattle breeder of renown, Townson, a bachelor, became more and more morose and eccentric. An intellectual to the end, his dinners were held at an unusually early hour so that at least two hours of conversation could follow. He also owned what was probably the largest private library of its time in Australia.
(1763–1827) Scientist and landowner in New South Wales
Wealth: £10 000 0.649% of GDP Current Value: $4.66 billion
Robert Townson
Robert Townson’s career was one of the most unusual of all of the early settlers. He was an eminent scientist and scholar who had received a Doctorate in Civil Laws from Gottingen University, had travelled widely on ‘the Continent’, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, had published works on plant life and minerology, and was a close friend of Sir Joseph Banks. Townson’s brother had been a captain in the New South Wales Corps, and in 1807 Robert Townson emigrated to Sydney,
31. Thomas Burdekin
(1801–44)
Merchant and property owner in Sydney and New South Wales
Wealth: £40 000 0.644% of GDP Current Value: $4.62 billion Thomas Burdekin was one of the most successful merchants of the 1830s in Sydney. He arrived in 1828 from London
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trading to Sydney, when he died in 1819. Evidently a Scotsman, nothing more is known of his career, although he had built up what was then a considerable fortune in New South Wales.
The Burdekin House
to establish a branch of Burdekin and Hawley, his family firm of ironmongers and general merchants, from which he prospered enormously and became a major property and landowner in Sydney and rural New South Wales. Burdekin died at the age of only 43, already one of the richest men in the colony. His third son Marshall (1837–86) became colonial treasurer of New South Wales in 1886, while his fourth son Sydney (1839–99) served as mayor of Sydney in 1890–91.
39. Alexander Riley (c. 1778–1833) Merchant and pastoralist in Sydney and New South Wales
Wealth: £16 000 0.568% of GDP Current Value: $4.08 billion
33. Dougall MacDougall (d. 1819) Shipmaster in Sydney
Wealth: £4300 0.617% of GDP Current Value: $4.43 billion
Alexander Riley
Dougall MacDougall was the master of the ship Tottenham, a merchant vessel
Alexander Riley had two careers, as a Sydney merchant and as one of the most important early pastoralists. Born
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1788–1849 in London, the son of a well-educated bookseller, Riley followed two of his sisters, who had married captains in the New South Wales Corps, to Australia in 1804. Looked upon favourably by Lieutenant-Governor Patterson, Riley received generous land grants in the Liverpool area but also made his fortune as a prominent Sydney merchant, a partner in the international trading firm of Jones & Riley, which conducted an import–export business with Calcutta and Canton. Riley was also the first marine insurance broker in New South Wales, and was one of the founders of the Bank of New South Wales in 1816. Alexander Riley was Edward Riley’s (no. 9) brother. Finding himself deeply frustrated by the legal trading monopoly enjoyed at the time by the East India Company, Riley returned to London in 1817 to operate a mercantile firm from the English capital, and apparently never set foot in Australia again, leaving his business in the hands of his nephew and other relatives. Nevertheless, from London he continued to deal extensively with New South Wales, his role indeed arguably being more important than before. In 1825 he exported the first of many flocks of Saxon merino sheep to New SouthWales; these survived the perilous voyage and became the foundations of an important part of Australia’s
wool-based economy, the backbone of Australia’s prosperity for the next century. Land grants to Riley and his relatives followed, and he was given one of the first pastoral runs in the Yass– Canberra area. Historians often credit Riley as the man who, next to John Macarthur (no. 12), probably did more than anyone else to place the Australian economy ‘on the sheep’s back’. Riley’s ill-health may have prevented him from ever returning to Australia; he died in London in 1833.
40. James Doyle
(1765–1836)
Innkeeper and landowner in New South Wales
Wealth: £30 000 0.568% of GDP Current Value: $4.08 billion James Doyle was born in Dublin and was transported to Australia for life in 1803 for being in possession of forged bank notes. Although Rev. Samuel Marsden (no. 52) disliked those who were both Catholic—Doyle was a staunch Catholic—and convicts, for unknown reasons he recognised Doyle’s merits and procured him a ticket-of-
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leave in 1812. By this time Doyle had already become the owner of a 37-acre farm at Richmond Hill. In 1818 Doyle was granted a liquor licence and became the innkeeper of the Lord Nelson Inn, Windsor, where he lived until his death. He acquired substantial land holdings at Mittagong and in and around Sydney, including the Wellington Inn on Parramatta Road, and was a signatory to the original Deed of Settlement of the Bank of New South Wales in 1828. Notable for his philanthropy, Doyle gave £700 towards building St Mary’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Sydney.
46. William Cox
(1764–1837)
Military officer, road builder and contractor in Sydney and New South Wales
Wealth: £30 000 0.535% of GDP Current Value: $3.84 billion The Bristol-born William Cox joined the British army and was sent to Sydney as a lieutenant with the New South Wales Corps in 1799. He soon acquired farming property and succeeded John Macarthur (no. 12) as paymaster. Mixed fortunes, including indebtedness and then arrest
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William Cox
and repatriation to England as a debtor, followed for the next few years until he returned to Sydney in 1810. Cox soon enjoyed the favour of Governor Macquarie, who made him a Justice of the Peace. He then began a successful career as a government contractor in the Windsor district, building many early schools and public buildings, among them the famous courthouse designed by Francis Greenway. From contracting, Cox branched out into road building and, with convict labour, constructed the first road across the Blue Mountains, 101 miles long, the highway to the interior of New South Wales. He acquired large estates throughout New South Wales, especially in the Windsor and Mudgee districts. He was also an explorer of note, the first European to find the source of the Lachlan River. Always a political
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1788–1849 radical, Cox was known for his fairness
48. Robert Howe
to convicts and for his championing of
Printer and publisher in Sydney
(1795–1829)
the emancipist cause, despite his military
Wealth: £10 000 0.528% of GDP Current Value: $3.79 billion
officer’s background.
47. Edward Sinarey (or Sindrey) (1783–1821) Ship’s captain and merchant in Sydney and Hobart
Wealth: £5000 0.530% of GDP Current Value: $3.80 billion Edward Sinarey (or Sindrey) came from Bermondsey, London, and became a ship’s captain, arriving in Sydney in 1811 as master of the Admiral Gambier. Sinarey settled in Sydney as a merchant, but also kept up his seafaring connections, being supercargo of the David Shaw which sailed from Portsmouth to Hobart and Sydney ‘with a valuable cargo of merchandise’ in 1819. He also traded between the Cape of Good Hope and Australia. Sinarey died suddenly of consumption at Argyle Street, Hobart, aged 38, in May 1821. His surname in colonial records is sometimes spelled ‘Sindrey’.
Robert Howe was the son of George Howe (no. 68), a famous pioneer who was transported in 1800 for shoplifting. George Howe, a trained printer who had worked on the London Times, soon became the government printer and was responsible for producing both the first book and the earliest newspaper in Australia. Robert, his only son, was born in London in 1795 and came to Australia when his father was transported; Robert’s mother died on the voyage. As a young man he was known for his dissipation, and fathered an illegitimate child in 1819. Conversion to Methodism cured him of his sinful ways and he remained a strong Methodist throughout his life. Inheriting £4000 from his father, Robert Howe took over the family publishing business and in 1821 produced Australia’s first periodical, the Australian Magazine, as well as editing The Sydney Gazette, his father’s newspaper. Many Australian ‘firsts’ are credited to Robert Howe, such as the publication of the first almanac on the continent in 1806 and the publication in 1826 of the first
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book of poems written by a colonial-born poet. For his fostering of local writing, Robert Howe is sometimes known as ‘the father of Australian literature’. Like so many other early settlers, his life was full of controversy: for instance, in 1827 he was publicly horsewhipped by William Redfern (no. 66), his brother-in-law. In 1829 Howe drowned while fishing at Pinchgut (today’s Fort Denison), aged only 33.
49. William Kerr Landowner in New South Wales
Wealth: £33 000 0.527% of GDP Current Value: $3.78 billion
(d. 1842)
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What little is known of William Kerr indicates that he led an interesting life. When he died in London in January 1842, he was described in the probate records as ‘of Sydney and Pisa, Italy’, and he left £3000 in England as well as £30 000 in New South Wales. Kerr was an extensive landowner in Montgomery County, and may have been the William Kerr who was described in 1832 as of the ‘Australian College’ on Jamison Street, Sydney, and of the ‘Colonist Office’, Jamison Street, four years later. At his death he left a wife, five sons and a daughter.
52. Rev. Samuel Marsden (1764–1838) Anglican minister and landowner in Sydney and New South Wales
Wealth: £30 000 0.509% of GDP Current Value: $3.65 billion
William Kerr
One of the most famous and important early settlers, Samuel Marsden left a significant mark on the development of society in Australia and later in the South Pacific region. The son of a Yorkshire blacksmith, he early became a Methodist lay preacher but, remaining within
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1788–1849
Rev. Samuel Marsden
the Church of England, accepted an appointment as assistant to the chaplain of New South Wales. Ordained as an Anglican priest in May 1793, a few months later Marsden sailed to Australia with his wife, being for some years the only Anglican clergyman on the continent. In 1810 he was appointed senior chaplain of New South Wales. Marsden also pursued a second career as a landowner, sheep breeder and wool producer and became known as ‘the best practical farmer’ in New South Wales. By 1827 he owned more than 5000 acres and unsuccessfully sought to buy another 5000. Marsden, however, remained an Anglican clergyman and was soon appointed a magistrate. He became notorious as ‘the flogging parson’, who came to court armed with a horsewhip and was renowned for the severity of his sentences. On one occasion in 1800 he
had a suspect in the Irish uprising flogged mercilessly in hopes of finding out about hidden weapons. Governor Macquarie, who detested him, had him removed from his offices, and Marsden refused to mix socially with any ex-convict. Nevertheless, he also took a keen interest in the welfare of female convicts, Aborigines (whom he despaired of ever converting), Pacific Islanders and New Zealand Maoris (of whom he thought very highly). Marsden visited New Zealand seven times between 1814 and 1837, and was important in converting most of the natives to Protestant Christianity. Despite his sincere evangelical piety, many have found his combination of illiberality, severity and worldly wealth very off-putting, and symbolic of the very worst features of the new Australian society.
53. Edward Terry
(1811–38)
Inherited an urban property and financial fortune in New South Wales
Wealth: £30 000 0.509% of GDP Current Value: $3.65 billion Edward Terry was the only son of Samuel Terry (no. 1), Australia’s richest-ever
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man in comparative terms, but he died less than a year after his father, at the age of only 27. He inherited a share of his father’s vast wealth, but only a small part of it, as Samuel Terry’s property was spread among his family. At the time of his death Edward Terry had been married to a Sydney girl, Elizabeth Mann, for four years.
54. Caleb Wilson (c. 1760–1838)
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In 1822, when a widower, Wilson applied to marry Catherine Ferrier, whom he had lived with and made pregnant. But Robert Stewart, also of Sydney, claimed that Ferrier was already married to him. She denied it, but in 1824 the governor of New South Wales declared that a marriage between Ferrier and Stewart had indeed taken place in Edinburgh. While little is known of Caleb Wilson’s early life, he may have been the Caleb Bradford Wilson recorded as having been christened in January 1760 in Woodbury, Devon, the son of Robert and Mary Wilson.
Merchant in Sydney
58. John Terry
Wealth: £30 000 0.509% of GDP Current Value: $3.65 billion
(c. 1806–42)
Inherited an urban property and financial fortune in New South Wales
Caleb Wilson was an important Sydney merchant who, at the age of 45, arrived as a free settler in 1804 on board the Experiment. He set up as a general dealer on George Street and acquired land at Richmond, New South Wales. By the time of his death he owned a string of businesses in Sydney: C&F Wilson, general dealers, on George Street, in partnership with his son Felix; Wilson Brothers, merchants; and Wilson’s Wharf on Lower George Street. As well, he owned more than 100 acres of pastoral land.
Wealth: £30 000 0.479% of GDP Current Value: $3.44 billion John Terry was the adoptive son of Samuel Terry (no. 1), the wealthiest-ever Australian in comparative terms. John Terry’s real father is unknown; his mother, Rosetta Marsh, who came to Australia as a convict, married Samuel Terry and he adopted her son John as his own. Born around 1806, the younger Terry won prizes at school, inherited a portion of the
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1788–1849 vast Terry fortune and, in 1831, married into the respected, genteel Rouse family, but died at the age of only about 36.
59. Charles Fletcher
64. Robert Futter
(c. 1793–1839)
Landowner in New South Wales
Wealth: £30 000 0.429% of GDP Current Value: $3.08 billion
(d. 1822)
Settler in Van Diemen’s Land
Wealth: £5000 0.472% of GDP Current Value: $3.39 billion Charles Fletcher arrived in New South Wales as a convict in 1807, having been convicted at Liverpool, Lancashire, in 1806 and transported for seven years. He arrived on The Duke of Portland and shortly thereafter migrated to Port Dalrymple. By 1819 he owned nearly
Robert Futter arrived in New South Wales as a free settler on the Medina in 1824. Previously, he was a half-pay lieutenant in the Royal Navy, where few opportunities for active service existed after the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. By the late 1820s he had acquired a substantial holding of more than 4000 acres at Lumley Park, Inverary (New South Wales), Argyle County, and had been appointed a justice of the peace. In 1828 he owned 1700 sheep and nearly 400 cattle, but died at the age of only about 46, leaving two sons.
1000 acres, with 1500 sheep and 160 cattle. At some stage Fletcher married Mary Atkinson, a female convict who also came from Lancashire and had arrived in 1807 as well. They soon fell out, since by 1819 they had separated and Fletcher ‘cautioned the public not to give credit to his wife as he would not be responsible for [her] debts’. Nevertheless, his widow applied for the administration of his estate in March 1822 after his death, and quickly married an innkeeper.
65. John Dickson
(1774–1843)
Engineer, pastoralist and businessman in Sydney and New South Wales
Wealth: £25 450 0.429% of GDP Current Value: $3.08 billion John Dickson was an enterprising Scot who was associated with such notable
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engineers as James Watt and John Rennie. By 1808 he had taken out two patents for steam engines and had moved to London. In 1813, for unclear reasons, he applied to settle in New South Wales and was enthusiastically given permission to emigrate, especially as he brought £10 000 worth of equipment with him, including a working steam engine. Granted 15 acres for a factory in Sydney and another 3000 acres of agricultural land near Camden, in 1815 Dickson erected one of the very earliest steam engines on the continent, in what is now Darling Harbour, used for milling grain. He quickly became a wealthy man, owning 17 000 acres by 1828 with 3000 cattle and 2000 sheep. He branched out into brewing, soap making and the import–export trade before returning to London in 1834, where he died nine years later. Most of his seven children continued to live in Australia.
66. William Redfern (c. 1774–1833) Surgeon and landowner in Sydney and New South Wales
Wealth: £12 000 0.426% of GDP Current Value: $3.06 billion
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William Redfern
William Redfern, one of the first qualified medical practitioners in Australia, was a famous first citizen. He was probably born in Canada, passed his medical examinations in 1797 and joined the Royal Navy as a surgeon’s mate. Redfern made the crucial mistake of joining the 1797 Mutiny of the Fleet at the Nore (Thames estuary), and was sentenced to death. His sentence was initially commuted to life imprisonment and then to transportation. Redfern arrived in Sydney in 1801 and began as an assistant surgeon on Norfolk Island. Pardoned, he moved up the medical ranks in New South Wales, his considerable skills being recognised by the colony’s leading families. Because of his convict background he was, however, passed over for the post of principal surgeon. Redfern became one of the notable
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1788–1849 leaders of the emancipists, securing them enhanced rights while he was on a trip to London in 1821–24. Redfern was also responsible for important reforms in the sanitary conditions on prison ships, and ultimately developed the largest private medical practice in the colony. Much of Redfern’s wealth came from grants of land and pastoralism. Most famously, he named one block of 100 acres in Sydney for himself—Redfern— and also developed the Campbell Fields area. At his death he owned more than 23 000 acres in New South Wales, mainly in Bathurst and Airds. A brusque man who once publicly horsewhipped Robert Howe (no. 48), his lack of a gracious bedside manner to accompany his obvious medical competence was widely noted. Redfern died in Edinburgh, where he was taking his son to be educated.
owner. He was a highly intelligent and well-educated man who was a friend of Jeremy Bentham, the famous philosopher. For unknown reasons, in 1822 Lawrence decided to emigrate to Van Diemen’s Land. On route he spent several months in Rio de Janeiro, where he quickly became a confidant of the chief minister. On arriving at George Town, Lawrence—who was owed money by the British government—was given an enormous grant of 12 000 acres, known as Formosa, on the Lake River. More land purchases in and around Launceston followed. In the colony he tried to establish a high school and was important in developing Tasmania’s midlands and north. As well, he became a ship owner of note, a banker and a highly regarded citizen who was appointed to the Van Diemen’s Land Legislative Council in 1838.
67. William Effingham
68. George Howe
(1769–1821)
Lawrence (1781–1841) Printer and publisher in Sydney Landowner and merchant in Tasmania, chiefly around Launceston
Wealth: £4000 0.424% of GDP Current Value: $3.04 billion
Wealth: £30 000 0.426% of GDP Current Value: $3.06 billion William Effingham Lawrence was the son of a London merchant and ship
Some of the life story of George Howe has already been described in the sketch of his wealthier son Robert Howe (no. 48). George Howe was the son of the
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feet again under Governor Macquarie, he became the partner of Mary Reibey, the best-known woman entrepreneur of the period, and published many of the colony’s most notable early books. Howe died at the age of 52 just as he was about to produce Australia’s first magazine. (This was later accomplished by his son.)
Official letter by George Howe
government printer on St Christopher’s Island in the West Indies, and was born on St Kitts. Well-educated, he was apprenticed in the printing trade and went to London, where he worked for the London Times. The way ahead seemed clear when, in 1799, he and a friend were convicted of shoplifting in Warwickshire and were transported for life, arriving in Sydney in 1801. Like many other convicts, Howe found that transportation to Australia was not a condign punishment but a second chance in life. With talent in short supply he was immediately appointed government printer. In 1802 he produced the first book ever published in Australia and in 1803 began the first Australian newspaper, The Sydney Gazette, a success despite the shortage of printer’s type and paper. Like many others he quarrelled with Governor Bligh, who forced him temporarily to close his paper. On his
71. Benjamin Orman (1784–1824) East India Company captain and merchant
Wealth: £5000 0.402% of GDP Current Value: $2.89 billion Benjamin Orman was born in Dedham, Essex, joining the East India Company’s Maritime Service at the age of 20. He eventually became the master of merchant vessels which plied between Sydney, Batavia (now Jakarta) and India, and he reached Sydney for the first time in 1816. One of his ships, the Haldane, so impressed Governor King with her soundness that he purchased the vessel for £3000. Orman continued as a merchant ship owner until his early death in Sydney at the age of only 40. He is buried in St John’s Cemetery, Parramatta.
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1788–1849
74. Peter McIntyre
75. Daniel Robertson
(1783–1842)
(c. 1809–1842) Landowner in New South Wales
Merchant and landowner in and near Launceston
Wealth: £25 000 0.399% of GDP Current Value: $2.86 billion
Wealth: £25 000 0.399% of GDP Current Value: $2.86 billion
Peter McIntyre was born in Perthshire, Scotland, and in 1824 was appointed the agent of Thomas Potter MacQueen, who had just received a free land grant of 10 000 acres in New South Wales from the Colonial Office. McIntyre reached Sydney and immediately built up a considerable landed estate of his own, being granted 4000 acres for himself by Governor Darling and another 4000 acres for his brother. McIntyre continued to work as MacQueen’s agent until 1830, when he and his brother Donald
Daniel Robertson was the youngest of four brothers who arrived in Tasmania from Scotland in the 1820s. Originally a draper in Launceston in partnership with his brother James (c. 1800–74), operating as ‘London House’ on Brisbane Street, he also became a landowner in the Macquarie District. Daniel Robertson drowned at the age of only 33 while fishing on the North Esk River.
76. George Blaxland
(1803–49)
Occupation unknown; the son of a pioneering merchant, pastoralist and explorer
McIntyre built up a very extensive pastoral estate in the Liverpool Plains and New England districts. The McIntyre River was named in Peter’s honour by the explorer Allan Cunningham. In 1837 McIntyre was convicted of malicious conspiracy to prevent fair competition at a Crown lands auction and fined £1000. Nevertheless, he died as one of the richest men in the colony.
Wealth: £40 000 0.396% of GDP Current Value: $2.84 billion George Blaxland was one of five sons of Gregory Blaxland (1778–1853), a pioneering free settler who arrived in Sydney with his family in 1806. Originally a merchant, Gregory was involved in the deposition of Governor Bligh and
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George Blaxland
Richard Fitzgerald
then, under Governor Macquarie, was one of the leaders of the famous 1811 expedition across the Blue Mountains; Mount Blaxland is named in his honour. Gregory Blaxland became a successful pastoralist but then lost heavily and committed suicide. Little is known of the career of George Blaxland. In 1843 he married the niece of New South Wales Governor Sir Ralph Darling, but died at the age of only 46.
Little is known of Richard Fitzgerald’s early life beyond the fact that he was transported for seven years from London to Sydney in 1791. A responsible and wellrespected man from the start, Fitzgerald was increasingly given supervisory posts by local officials. In 1802 Governor King appointed him inspector and director of all agricultural settlements belonging to the Crown. Fitzgerald also became a landowner in and around Sydney and in the Hawkesbury district. Although Governor Macquarie especially liked and favoured him, in later years Fitzgerald found himself increasingly in disfavour with Macquarie’s successors, and he was removed from his government positions by Governor Brisbane. In the meantime Fitzgerald had built up extensive agricultural holdings and had
77. Richard Fitzgerald (1772–1840) Public servant and settler in New South Wales
Wealth: £34 000 0.395% of GDP Current Value: $2.83 billion
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1788–1849 become a close friend of John Macarthur (no. 12). He was also a major shareholder in the Bank of New South Wales. Fitzgerald was a radical in politics and a liberal in religion who was known for his kindness to the Aborigines and was one of the founders of Freemasonry in Australia.
78. Robert Wardell
(1793–1834)
Lawyer and newspaper editor in Sydney; landowner in Petersham and Sydney
John Jenkins, 26, executed for the murder of Robert Wardell
Wealth: £15 000 0.393% of GDP Current Value: $2.82 billion Robert Wardell was a Cambridgeeducated barrister who, in 1824, sailed to Sydney to seek his fortune. On the voyage Wardell met fellow-passenger William Charles Wentworth (no. 216) who would become his longtime law partner and provided evidence of his temperament by suing the ship’s owner for giving him a ‘wet and comfortless cabin’, winning £200 damages. In Sydney Wardell practised as a solicitor, but was chiefly responsible for the legal decision which established the division in the legal profession between barristers and solicitors, as was done in
England but not originally in the new colony. Wardell also pursued a second career as a journalist. When he came to Sydney he had been editor of the Statesman, a London evening newspaper, and in 1824 he and Wentworth founded the Australian, a weekly newspaper which he edited for four years. (This newspaper was not the progenitor of today’s Australian newspaper, founded in the 1960s.) As editor, Wardell became notorious for his wounding sarcasm and, unsurprisingly, was in constant conflict with Governor Darling. Wardell offended many influential people in New South Wales, and was forced to fight two duels with pistols with men he attacked in his newspaper. Wardell’s joint career as a lawyer and newspaper editor brought him considerable wealth, and he became
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a large landowner in the Petersham area. Visiting his farm one afternoon in September 1834, he spotted three convicts unlawfully at large. Following an altercation, one of them, John Jenkins, shot and killed Robert Wardell, who was 41 and unmarried.
died at only 48. His wife was a convict woman, transported on the Second Fleet.
84. Robert Nash
Wealth: £20 000 0.357% of GDP Current Value: $2.56 billion
(1771–1819)
86. Thomas Marsden
(d. 1837)
Merchant in Sydney
Miller and contractor in Hobart
Wealth: £2500 0.359% of GDP Current Value: $2.58 billion Born in Kent, the son of a millwright, Robert Nash was sentenced to death at the Old Bailey in London in 1790 for housebreaking and stealing, a sentence commuted to life with transportation to New South Wales. Nash arrived in Australia on board the Albemarle in 1791 and was sent to Norfolk Island. Pardoned by Governor King in 1796, he remained on Norfolk Island as storekeeper until 1808, when he was sent to Hobart with the island’s other inhabitants. There he pursued a successful career as a miller, and became one of the largest contractors for supplying wheat to the Van Diemen’s Land Commissariat. Surviving floods and attacks by bushrangers, Nash nonetheless
Thomas Marsden was a Sydney merchant, a partner in Marsden & Flower of 120 Pitt Street, Sydney. Marsden is not listed in the 1828 Census, and may have been in New South Wales for only a short period of time when he died in August 1837 at O’Connell Plains.
87. George Galbraith
(1801–37)
Landowner in New South Wales
Wealth: £20 000 0.357% of GDP Current Value: $2.56 billion George Galbraith arrived as a free settler aged nineteen on the Deveron in 1824. He was a Presbyterian, who had been born in Stirlingshire, Scotland, in 1801, the
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1788–1849 son of George Galbraith and Janet nee Anderson. After arriving in New South Wales, Galbraith was given land grants at Narriga by Governor Brisbane. By 1828 he owned 2000 acres and 1700 sheep. Galbraith returned to Scotland in the mid–1830s where, in 1835, he married in Argyllshire. Back in New South Wales, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace and was described as living at Kent Street, Sydney, when he died at the age of only 36 in October 1837.
88. Thomas Williams
(1801–41)
also acted as the Launceston agent for the Australian Marine Assurance Co., and for passenger and cargo ships from Launceston to England. He was chairman of the Tamar Banking Company in Launceston, and owned 4500 acres of pastoral land. Having already amassed a considerable fortune in relative terms, Williams died aged only 40 in November 1841. His death might have been preventable, since his doctor was ‘charged with negligence’ following the operation which led to his death.
90. Edward Aspinall
(1800–40)
Merchant and banker in Launceston and pastoralist in Van Diemen’s Land
Merchant in Sydney and landowner in New South Wales
Wealth: £25 000 0.355% of GDP Current Value: $2.55 billion
Wealth: £30 000 0.349% of GDP Current Value: $2.50 billion
Little is known of Thomas Williams’s early life before he arrived as a free settler on the island colony in 1822, on board the colonial brig Nereus, which plied between Sydney and Van Diemen’s Land. By 1828 he was established as a merchant in Launceston, dealing in goods (including cheese and wine) brought from Sydney. Williams had extensive dealings with Robert Campbell, Junior (no. 72), the prominent Sydney merchant, and
Edward Aspinall came from Liverpool, Lancashire, in 1825 as a free settler on board the Lalla Rookh. He may have been connected with the Liverpool mercantile firm of Aspinall, Browne and Aspinall. In Sydney he set up as a merchant at Charlotte Place and, within only three years, also owned 5000 acres and 1500 sheep in New South Wales. Aspinall’s widow Sophia lived until 1874, leaving £29 000 when she died.
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98. Mary Cooper
(1788–1842)
Lived in Sydney
Wealth: £20 000 0.320% of GDP Current Value: $2.30 billion Mary Cooper, the widow of Thomas Cooper, was, in comparative terms, the richest woman in Australian history, yet very little is known of her. She arrived as a convict in 1806, aged eighteen, and married Thomas Cooper, a convict 21 years older than herself. By 1828 Thomas had become a blacksmith and farrier at George Street, Sydney, aged 61, and died sometime later. How Mary Cooper amassed her relatively large fortune is unclear.
99. Richard Dry
(1771–1843)
Pastoralist in Tasmania, chiefly around Launceston
Wealth: £19 000 0.320% of GDP Current Value: $2.30 billion
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and transported to New South Wales for life, arriving in 1800. By 1805 he was sent to Port Dalrymple, Van Diemen’s Land, where he was appointed storekeeper by Lieutenant-Governor Patterson, yet another instance where a friendly colonial governor recognised talent in a convict and began his upward path. Dry received a free pardon in 1809 when he married a woman born free in Australia. He remained in the Van Diemen’s Land public service until 1818, when he was given a 500-acre land grant to add to the land he had already farmed. By then he already owned 7000 sheep and 4000 cattle. By 1827 Dry owned 12 000 acres, and became involved in the commercial life of Launceston as a banker and shop owner. Dry had five children; his eldest son was Sir Richard Dry (1815–69), a popular and important Tasmanian politician who was premier of the colony in 1866–69 and was the first Tasmanian to be knighted—colonial Australia indeed produced some amazing examples of upward social mobility.
101. Nathaniel Ayres
(d. 1818)
Merchant, public servant and landowner in Hobart
Richard Dry was an Irish-born wool draper, the son of a Protestant farmer, who was convicted of illegal political activities during the insurrectionary year of 1797
Wealth: £2000 0.315% of GDP Current Value: $2.26 billion
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1788–1849 An American from Boston, Massachusetts, Nathaniel Ayres arrived in 1811 as the supercargo on the American brig Brutus. Within two years he was established as a merchant in Hobart. He chiefly imported goods from Britain and Europe, working from his house on Collins Street, Hobart. In 1813 he married in Hobart and was also granted 300 acres of land. At the time of his death in December 1817 Ayres also served as clerk to the Lieutenant-Governor’s Court and clerk to the deputy judge advocate.
103. George Bunn
In 1828 Bunn was appointed a justice of the peace and acted as principal superintendent of Sydney’s police in the absence of its permanent head. Bunn was a Protestant; his Catholic wife, Anna Maria nee Murray, was an author of some note. Bunn died at the age of only 43 in January 1834, on the threshold of what would probably have been an even more spectacular business career.
108. Walter Jacob Levi (d. 1828)
(1790–1834) Merchant and landowner in Sydney
Merchant, ship owner and banker in Sydney, and landowner in New South Wales
Wealth: £5000 0.292% of GDP Current Value: $2.10 billion
Wealth: £12 000 0.314% of GDP Current Value: $2.25 billion George Bunn emigrated to Sydney from England as a free settler in 1825, and quickly became one of Sydney’s leading merchants, with his premises at 98 George Street. Bunn was also a ship owner and an early chairman of the Bank of Australia. As well, he quickly amassed considerable landed property, owning more than 2600 acres with 6000 sheep within three years of arriving.
Walter Levi was a merchant in London who had written to Lord Bathurst, the colonial secretary, in 1826, explaining that he had worked for many years in the West Indies as a dealer in military clothing and real estate, and also owned a plantation there; he requested 5000 acres of land in Port Macquarie to grow cotton and sugar. His request was granted, and Levi arrived in 1827, one of the very earliest Jewish free settlers in Australia. Levi began as a merchant selling oil and
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paint in Sydney and also operated as a shipping merchant. In the short time he spent in Australia, Levi also became one of the leaders of the small Jewish community of Sydney, organising a meeting to protest at the oppression of Jews in Czarist Russia. After barely a year in Australia, however, in August 1828 Levi died suddenly. His wife Rebecca and his four children then returned to England.
109. John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley (c. 1785–1828) Surveyor and merchant in Sydney, and landowner in New South Wales
Wealth: £5000 0.292% of GDP Current Value: $2.10 billion John Oxley was baptised in Yorkshire in July 1784; his mother, Isabella Molesworth, came from the Irish aristocracy. Oxley joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman at the age of fourteen and came to Australia on the Buffalo in 1802; he settled permanently in New South Wales around 1810. Governor Macquarie gave him land grants and, in 1812, following a visit to London, he was given the post of surveyor-general.
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Oxley was a notable explorer of the interior of the continent. He discovered the Lachlan River, was among the first Europeans to travel to the New England region and charted much of coastal Queensland. By the 1820s he was earning about £1500 a year, a very considerable sum, as surveyor-general, a post whose duties included drawing up the division of New South Wales into counties. Oxley was also involved in many mercantile activities and was a cattle and sheep breeder. He was one of the founders of the Bank of Australia, meant for ‘exclusivists’ rather than convicts. Oxley was notably bad at managing his own money, and his estate included considerable debts. He was only about 43 when he died, his death apparently hastened by ‘privations’ he experienced in exploring the interior of the continent.
110. William Gibson Whitfield (1791–1828) Tanner and landowner in Sydney
Wealth: £5000 0.292% of GDP Current Value: $2.10 billion Born in Stepney, London, in September 1791, William Gibson Whitfield was
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE FIRST ERA
1788–1849 transported in 1815 on the Baring, and married in New South Wales in 1819. With a ticket-of-leave, Whitfield settled down in George Street, Sydney, where he became a successful tanner and also owned 80 acres of land at his death. Whitfield was sometimes in trouble with the law and was arraigned in 1820 for purchasing stolen government stores. He was killed in a fight in early 1828, aged only 36; his assailant was charged with manslaughter.
112. Thomas Sterrop Amos
to Sydney in 1799 and was allowed to renew his legal practice. Unfortunately for Amos, it was then decided in 1817 that Crossley should not be allowed to practise law; as Crossley’s partner, Amos’s name was also struck off the list of qualified solicitors. Sometime later Amos was allowed to resume his own practice, and had also purchased some land by the time of his death. When Amos died in 1819 at the age of about 43, he left two sons who were students at Sydney Grammar School.
113. Thomas Howard
(1776–1819) Solicitor in Sydney
(d. 1819)
Chief constable at Port Dalrymple, Van Diemen’s Land
Wealth: £2000 0.287% of GDP Current Value: $2.06 billion Thomas Sterrop Amos, born in Stepney, London, in or about January 1776, was the son of John Amos and Elizabeth nee Sterrop. He began his career as a solicitor in England around 1798 and was known for his ‘suavity of manners’. Emigrating to New South Wales around 1815, he became the law partner of George Crossley (1749–1823), a shady former convict who was transported
Wealth: £2000 0.287% of GDP Current Value: $2.06 billion Thomas Howard was sentenced to life imprisonment in Kent, England, in 1801 and sent to Australia on the Glatton in 1803. He received 50 acres of land at Port Dalrymple in 1809 and was also appointed chief constable and superintendent of convicts there. He was granted a full pardon in 1810.
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114. William Townsend Jones (d. 1819) Shipmaster in Sydney and India
Wealth: £2000 0.287% of GDP Current Value: $2.06 billion Little is known of William Townsend Jones, the master of the brig Bridgewater, which carried goods between Bombay, Bengal and Sydney. He was probably the William Townshend Jones who was recorded as having married in Bengal in 1792. William Townsend Jones arrived in Sydney for the first time in May 1816, and was in the process of suing George Weston Gunning, an early settler in Hobart, for debt when he died suddenly in 1819.
115. Denis McCarty (or McCarthy) (d. 1820)
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transported to Sydney on board the Friendship in 1800, probably for engaging in insurrectionary acts. His record of conduct was very mixed and he was often in trouble with the law. Originally sent to New Norfolk, Van Diemen’s Land, where in 1808 he built the first house, McCarty was pardoned in 1810. From about that year he lived in Hobart, where he was a successful farmer producing potatoes, and was appointed superintendent of stock and deputy-provost-marshal. He was a particular favourite of Governor Macquarie, who stayed with him overnight at his farmhouse. During the 1810s, however, McCarty—described as ‘one of the most turbulent . . . men in the Settlement’—was arrested and imprisoned for smuggling, arrested for assault, and refused payment for a road he built from Hobart to New Norfolk because of its poor quality. When he was found drowned in March 1820, rumours of foul play were rife.
116. William Parker
Farmer and superintendent of stock in Hobart
Wealth: £2000 0.287% of GDP Current Value: $2.06 billion
Merchant in Sydney
An Irishman from County Wexford, Denis McCarty (or McCarthy) was
Wealth: £4000 0.283% of GDP Current Value: $2.03 billion
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(d. 1826)
THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE FIRST ERA
1788–1849 William Parker was the son of John Parker, a ‘park-keeper’ in Stowe, Bedfordshire. It is not known when he first emigrated to New South Wales, but at the time of his death he was a prosperous merchant of George Street, Sydney. When he made his will in October 1824 he was in England, about to depart for New South Wales on the ship Elizabeth. In Sydney, Parker’s mental state deteriorated and, in September 1826, while—according to the Coroner’s Court—he was ‘labouring under an aberration in intellect’, Parker shot himself. The Court made a point of noting that at his death Parker was in a prosperous state, his assets exceeding his debts by four times.
James Meehan High School
‘not serious’. Arriving in 1800, he was assigned as a servant to Charles Grimes, acting surveyor-general, and helped to explore the Hunter Valley and the Port Phillip District. Soon pardoned, Meehan was engaged in surveying and exploring the interior of New South Wales. By 1812 Meehan had been appointed
117. James Meehan
(1774–1826)
deputy-surveyor of lands, and held a number of other lucrative official appointments as well. As deputy-
Surveyor, public official and landowner in Sydney and New South Wales
surveyor, Meehan played a major role
Wealth: £4000 0.283% of GDP Current Value: $2.03 billion
settlement in Australia, laying out the
in designing the foundations of urban official boundaries of Hobart in Van Diemen’s Land, Windsor, Castlereagh and Liverpool in New South Wales,
Born in Ireland, James Meehan was transported to Sydney for his part in the Irish rebellion of 1798, though his offences were later described as
and many other towns. Meehan was also granted 1300 acres of land as a settler. Everyone who met Meehan was impressed by his integrity and skill.
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125. John Harris
(1754–1838)
Surgeon, public official, banker and landowner in Sydney and Parramatta
Wealth: £16 000 0.272% of GDP Current Value: $1.95 billion John Harris was born in Londonderry, in Northern Ireland, the son of a farmer, and was apparently trained as a surgeon at Edinburgh University. Harris had served for ten years as a naval surgeon when he was appointed surgeon’s mate in the New South Wales Corps, travelling to Sydney with the Second Fleet in 1790. He was sent to Parramatta and was then officially appointed surgeon of New South Wales in 1791. Harris quickly built up substantial landholdings in the Parramatta area, practised as a surgeon and was appointed to a variety of other public positions, such as justice of the peace, superintendent of police and naval officer of the Port of Sydney. In the difficult early years of the colony Harris came in for his share of troubles, being dismissed and reinstated from his posts several times in the 1800s, and returning to England in 1809 to give evidence at the trial of George Johnston (no. 18) before moving permanently to Sydney in 1814. In 1819 he served as
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a surgeon on Oxley’s expedition to the Bathurst region, and he was also one of the first directors of the Bank of New South Wales. Harris became a major landowner in and near Sydney, owning and developing Ultimo—which occupies the site of his farm—as well as Harris Park near Parramatta and Shane’s Park west of Sydney. By 1822 he owned 5100 acres and lived the life of a prosperous landowner in the Parramatta region. At his death in 1838 Harris was reputed to be worth £150 000, which would have placed him second on the All-time Rich List. The actual value of his estate, however, was only £16 000, still enough to place him among the colony’s wealthiest men.
126. James Chisholm (1772–1837) Merchant, property owner and landowner in and near Sydney
Wealth: £15 000 0.272% of GDP Current Value: $1.95 billion James Chisholm was born in Midlothian, Scotland, and first arrived in Sydney in 1791 as a private in the New South
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE FIRST ERA
1788–1849 Wales Corps. Chisholm was chiefly a prosperous merchant on George Street, Sydney, and became a notable property owner, acquiring much of the east side of George Street. In 1880, long after his death, his descendants sold his Sydney holdings for £160 000, an astronomical sum at the time. Chisholm was also a pastoral landowner, chiefly in the Campbelltown area, in 1828 owning 7500 acres with 4600 cattle. In 1816 he purchased and named Gledswood, in the Camden Valley, now a famous homestead and winery. Eventually Gledswood came to measure 92 square metres, and to have a wine cellar with the capacity to hold 20 000 bottles. Chisholm’s family lived in Gledswood for 120 years.
Regiment from Sydney. Captain Blyth had sailed from London to Sydney, arriving there in February 1814. He decided to settle in Van Diemen’s Land and in 1816 was given a grant of 400 acres. Within a few years he was also given three more land grants and he owned two estates where he had ‘considerable’ stock. In 1818 Lieutenant-Governor Sorrell appointed him a member of the Civil Court. Five years later, in May 1823, Blyth died, aged only 40, on his estate The Rope Walk, Jericho. His estate was then involved in a lengthy lawsuit which was not settled until 1835.
128. John Jones
(d. 1837)
Landowner in New South Wales
127. William Blyth
Wealth: £16 000 0.268% of GDP Current Value: $1.92 billion
(1783–1823) Ship’s captain and settler in Van Diemen’s Land
Wealth: £3000 0.269% of GDP Current Value: $1.93 billion William Blyth arrived at the Derwent River in April 1814 as captain of the Windham, carrying soldiers of the 46th
Little is known of John Jones, a free settler and sheep grazier at Mount Jones in Turee, county. Bligh, beyond the fact that he was murdered in Turee in October 1837, stabbed in the groin with a pair of sheep shears by a ticket-of-leave man he employed. Jones left a widow and a large family.
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129. Archibald Bell
(1773–1837)
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Line (now called Bell’s Line of Road) through the Blue Mountains.
Public official and landowner in New South Wales
Wealth: £15 000 0.268% of GDP Current Value: $1.92 billion
130. Edward Nicholas (d. 1837)
The son of a Nonconformist minister in Hertfordshire, England, Archibald Bell worked as a schoolteacher before joining the New South Wales Corps as an ensign in 1806. Bell arrived in Sydney with his wife, nine children and £500 worth of property but, unfortunately, without his cow, which it was deemed ‘totally impracticable’ to transport. With recommendations from leading London merchants, Bell was immediately given 500 acres near Richmond, and quickly became a leading figure in New South Wales society. Bell held a variety of military positions and, in 1820, was appointed chief police magistrate in the Windsor area, occupying an expensive official residence. In 1832 Bell was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council, and he became one of the leading landowners in the Richmond and Windsor areas. He was regarded as a harsh magistrate but was notably tolerant of all religions. His son Archibald Bell (1804–83) was a wellknown explorer who discovered Bell’s
Settler and corn-mill owner in Van Diemen’s Land
Wealth: £15 000 0.268% of GDP Current Value: $1.92 billion Edward Nicholas arrived from Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, south Wales in 1821 with his family as a free settler, bringing a recommendation to Lieutenant-Governor Sorrell for a grant of land. He was given 1000 acres on the River Clyde in central Van Diemen’s Land at Bothwell which he named Nant (Welsh for ‘brook’). There he built a stone cottage and a corn mill. As a prosperous settler, he was given another 1000-acre land grant in 1829. Nicholas’s career came to an abrupt end in October 1837 when, on the way to church at Bothwell, his horse bolted, throwing him and his wife from their gig. He died of a fractured skull three hours later; his wife was injured but survived.
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1788–1849
132. Robert Brady Hazard
death was a landowner and publican at Parramatta, where he had lived for the previous decade.
(d. 1820) Publican and merchant in Sydney
134. Thomas Ferris
Wealth: £2000 0.265% of GDP Current Value: $1.90 billion
Occupation unknown; lived in Sydney
Robert Hazard was twice transported to New South Wales as a convict (he was first transported, returned to England, then transported again). By 1819 he had served his sentence and was in business as a publican on Castlereagh Street and as a merchant who supplied iron to the New South Wales government. His widow was the daughter of the chief constable of Parramatta.
133. Robert Cable
(d. 1829)
Wealth: £5000 0.264% of GDP Current Value: $1.89 billion Virtually nothing is known of Thomas Ferris, who was described as a ‘gentleman’ of Sydney ‘about to depart on board the Albion for England’ when he made his will some time before his death. By letter, he requested Rev. J.H. Hassall to exercise powers of attorney for him in his absence. Ferris left a widow, Sarah, and two sons.
(d. 1820)
135. Richard Charles
Settler and publican in Parramatta
Pritchett (1787–1834)
Wealth: £2000 0.265% of GDP Current Value: $1.90 billion
Auctioneer and merchant in Sydney, and landowner in New South Wales
Convicted in Middlesex, London, in October 1805 and sentenced to be transported for fourteen years, Robert Cable arrived in Sydney on the Duke of Portland in 1807. He received a conditional pardon in 1811 and by the time of his
Wealth: £10 000 0.262% of GDP Current Value: $1.88 billion Richard Pritchett was born in 1787, apparently the son of an Anglican
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clergyman in Pembrokeshire, Wales. He emigrated to Australia as a free settler on the Nimrod in 1822 and set up as a merchant and auctioneer on Park Street, Sydney, originally with the firm of MacQueen, Atkinson and Pritchett, but then on his own at Charlotte Place, Sydney, and finally as an auctioneer on George Street. By 1828 he owned 2000 acres of pastoral land in New South Wales. Pritchett appears to have been unmarried at his death.
137. Andrew Frazier (or Frazer) (d. 1827) Baker and publican in Sydney
Wealth: £4000 0.260% of GDP Current Value: $1.87 billion Andrew Frazier (his name was also spelled Frazer) was convicted in Perth, Scotland, in 1801 and sentenced to transportation for life. He arrived in Sydney on HMS Glatton in 1803, and received a free pardon in 1812. By that time he was an established baker on Cambridge Street, The Rocks, Sydney. Frazier’s bakery did considerable business with the government. By the 1820s he
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had also branched out as a publican, having been granted a spirit licence.
140. James Ross
(1786–1838)
Editor, printer and landowner in Hobart
Wealth: £15 000 0.255% of GDP Current Value: $1.83 billion Born in Aberdeen, Scotland, the son of a solicitor, James Ross was educated at Aberdeen University and became a schoolteacher in England until the financial difficulties caused by fathering thirteen children forced him to emigrate to Van Diemen’s Land in 1822. Although he was given a land grant by LieutenantGovernor Sorrell, Ross’s life was difficult until about 1825, when he became joint editor of the Hobart Town Gazette. In 1827 he was put in charge of the Van Diemen’s Land government printing office and he also founded the Hobart Town Courier, a pro-government newspaper. Ross continued to publish a variety of almanacs and periodicals, including Tasmania’s first magazine, and was a pioneer of the press in that colony. Always struggling to support his large family, Ross nevertheless sold his printing works for £12 000 in
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE FIRST ERA
1788–1849 1836 and left a substantial fortune at his death. Marcus Clarke used some of Ross’s publications as the basis for parts of his For the Term of His Natural Life.
144. Edward Wollstonecraft (1783–1832) Merchant and banker in Sydney; landowner in New South Wales
Wealth: £6000 0.250% of GDP Current Value: $1.79 billion Edward Wollstonecraft’s father was a London solicitor; he was also the brother of MaryGodwin,theproto-feministwriter,and the uncle of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the celebrated author of Frankenstein and the second wife of the famous poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. The early death of Edward Wollstonecraft’s parents, and the notoriety of his relatives, already very great, was an important factor in his seeking his fortune abroad. An international merchant based in London, Wollstonecraft, in 1812, met Alexander Berry (1781–1873), the brother of David Berry (no. 37), the millionaire merchant and landowner, who was a London merchant and later a merchant and settler in Australia, and Wollstonecraft
became his agent. In 1819 he sailed to Sydney and was given 2000 acres on the North Shore by Governor Macquarie. Wollstonecraft quickly became a leading merchant and banker in Sydney, a director of both the Bank of New South Wales and the Bank of Australia, and chairman of the Sydney Chamber of Commerce. Wollstonecraft was in partnership with Alexander Berry as an import–export merchant on George Street, Sydney, and received a large grant of land at Shoalhaven, used to produce timber and tobacco. Wollstonecraft lived at Crow’s Nest and never married, but became more and more notorious for his irascible temper and sardonic bitterness— a Frankenstein monster of sorts.
146. Richard Brooks (c. 1765–1833) Mariner, merchant and landowner in Sydney and New South Wales
Wealth: £7000 0.248% of GDP Current Value: $1.78 billion Richard Brooks, the son of a clergyman in Devon, had a highly controversial career as a mariner with the East India Company and then on his own. He first arrived in New South Wales in 1802 as
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His children became prominent members of New South Wales high society.
147. William Hutchinson (1772–1846) Public servant, businessman, property owner and pastoralist in Sydney and New South Wales
Wealth: £20 000 0.247% of GDP Current Value: $1.77 billion
Richard Brooks
the captain of the Atlas, a convict ship which became notorious for her high death rate and overcrowded conditions. Brooks supported Governor Bligh during the 1809 rebellion, coming into conflict with John Macarthur’s (no. 12) supporters when they wished to travel back to England on Brooks’s ship. In the meantime he had been developing many business interests in Sydney and buying land in New South Wales. From 1814 Brooks lived permanently in Sydney, starting a prosperous meat and provisions business and acting as an insurance broker. He then became a major landowner, moving to Denham Court near Liverpool. At his death he owned properties in Sydney and in the Illawarra, Williams River and Lake George districts. Brooks met his end in October 1833 when he was gored to death by a bull.
William Hutchinson was another convict who made good. Convicted in London in 1796 of stealing goods worth £40, he was sentenced to death and then transported for seven years, arriving in Sydney in 1799. He was soon convicted again for theft, from the King’s Stores, and was sent to Norfolk Island. Despite this bleak record, Hutchinson was quickly appointed as overseer of government stock and superintendent of convicts. He remained in Norfolk Island until 1814, when Governor Macquarie appointed him as principal superintendent of convicts and public works, a post he held until the Bigge Report forced his replacement in 1823. Hutchinson then began a career as a banker and merchant in Sydney. Despite his convictions for theft, he was made a
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE FIRST ERA
1788–1849 director of the Bank of New South Wales, and was a partner of Samuel Terry (no. 1) in the Waterloo flour mill. Hutchinson was also a marine insurance broker and then branched out to become an important pastoralist. Like Terry, he owned Sydney properties as well as real estate in other cities, and was increasingly active in public life. Hutchinson’s first wife, by whom he had eight children, was a convict, and his second wife the widow of a convict.
148. Robert Campbell
the
Elder (1769–1846) Merchant and pastoralist in Sydney and New South Wales
Wealth: £20 000 0.247% of GDP Current Value: $1.77 billion Robert Campbell was the earliest of several prominent merchants of the same name. To distinguish him, in particular, from his son, he is always known as ‘Robert Campbell the Elder’. Born at Greenock, Scotland, to a middle-class family, he joined his brother in Calcutta as an agent and merchant, trading under the name of Campbell Clarke & Co. From 1796 he began to expand his business to carry goods to and from Sydney and, in 1798,
moved to Dawes Point, Sydney, where he opened a warehouse and private wharves and built an ‘elegant’ house and garden. Campbell & Co—as his Sydney concern was known—quickly became one of the leading mercantile firms in Australia, as well as a major supplier of imported goods, and the firm also gained an enviable reputation for fairness and generosity in extending credit. Campbell himself was a notable philanthropist and helped to found the King’s School at Parramatta. On the other hand, he was largely responsible for founding the sealing industry, which would now be regarded as barbaric. Unlike most men of property in the colony, Campbell was a friend of Governor Bligh at the time of the ‘Rum Rebellion’ and was one of his strongest supporters. He was placed under military arrest by the mutineers and remained in considerable danger until the arrival of Governor Macquarie. Campbell suffered business setbacks over the next few years, but revived in the 1820s as a merchant, ship owner and banker. He also became an extensive landowner, being one of the first pastoralists in the Canberra region. Campbell died in 1846 at his new home, Duntroon (now in the Australian Capital Territory), which was named by him in honour of the ancestral home of the Clan Campbell.
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149. William Wilson
(d. 1846)
Brewer in Hobart
Wealth: £20 000 0.247% of GDP Current Value: $1.77 billion
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Company, which was opening the Hunter Valley. On the voyage, he superintended the transport of sheep and then became a flockmaster in the Hunter Valley. By the 1830s he was a major landowner in the area, owning the Edenglassie estate near Muswellbrook. The famous White family, among them Patrick White, Australia’s Nobel Prize–winning novelist, is descended from him.
156. Charles Hadley (1768–1828) William Wilson’s residence
Settler in the Nepean district, New South Wales
Because his name is so common, little could be traced about William Wilson beyond the fact that he was a ‘wellknown brewer’ who lived at Davey Street, Hobart, and was subject to epileptic fits, finally dying of one in November 1846.
153. James White
(1799–1842)
Pastoralist in New South Wales
Wealth: £15 000 0.240% of GDP Current Value: $1.72 billion James White left London in 1826 to become an overseer for the Australian Agricultural
Wealth: £4000 0.233% of GDP Current Value: $1.67 billion There is some confusion about the background of Charles Hadley. It appears that he was transported to New South Wales as a convict in the late eighteenth century, granted an absolute pardon and then returned to England. In 1806 he reemigrated to New South Wales as a free settler on board the Argo. Hadley then became one of the best-known early settlers in the Nepean district, owning 400 acres at Hadley Park in Evan by the early 1820s, where he developed a stallion stud. He was also granted a liquor licence in 1810 and an
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE FIRST ERA
1788–1849 auctioneer’s licence in 1821, and was a major contractor of meat to the government. At his death aged 60 in September 1828, Hadley was described as ‘a respectable settler of many years standing . . . remarkable for his probity and industry’.
157. Thomas Moore (1762–1840) Boatbuilder and pastoralist in Sydney and Liverpool
Moore is chiefly remembered as a generous philanthropist, especially towards religious bodies of all denominations. Dying after his wife and leaving no children or close relatives, Moore left almost all of his property to the Church of England in New South Wales. Moore Theological College, founded in Liverpool but rebuilt in 1891 adjacent to the University of Sydney, was founded with part of his legacy.
164. George James Molle
Wealth: £20 000 0.233% of GDP Current Value: $1.67 billion
(1773–1823) Soldier and Lieutenant-Governor in New South Wales
Thomas Moore was born to poor parents in England; he became a sailor and first arrived in Sydney in 1791. From 1796 he settled permanently in New South Wales and became the master boatbuilder in the dockyard at Port Jackson, as well as a boat owner and private builder. From 1799 he received the first of several land grants and lived next to the Tank Stream (now Bridge Street) in Sydney. Moore remained master boatbuilder until 1809, when he moved permanently to what is now Liverpool, becoming known in time as ‘the King of Liverpool’. He became a very large landowner as well as a director of the Bank of New South Wales.
Wealth: £2500 0.224% of GDP Current Value: $1.61 billion George James Molle (born Mow) was a Scotsman from a landed Berwickshire family who became an army officer, serving throughout the Empire and in the Napoleonic Wars. His stay in Australia was brief: Molle arrived as a lieutenantcolonel, became Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales in 1814 and departed in 1817 after a series of quarrels with Governor Macquarie, D’Arcy Wentworth, William Charles Wentworth
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(no. 216), and other local notables. (Wentworth bitterly lampooned Molle in a skit he wrote.) In his short stay, Molle managed to accumulate an estate in New South Wales, Molle’s Mains, which his son inherited when he died in India aged 50. The Molle Islands in the Whitsunday Passage are named for him.
extensive pastoral estate near Concord in Sydney. He was unmarried; rather oddly, by his own request he was buried in the same grave as his friend Ellis Bent, a deputy judge advocate, who had died in 1815 (leaving a wife and five children). The Ovens River in Victoria and a mountain near Bathurst are named for him.
166. John Ovens
171. Thomas Rose
(1788–1825)
(d. 1837)
Property and landowner in Sydney and New South Wales
Engineer and landowner in New South Wales
Wealth: £3000 0.223% of GDP Current Value: $1.60 billion
Wealth: £12 000 0.214% of GDP Current Value: $1.54 billion
John Ovens was born in County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland and then joined the army as an ensign with the 73rd Regiment. Promoted to lieutenant and then to captain, he served in New South Wales in 1810–11 as engineer in charge of public works. He then returned to Europe and was seriously wounded in Spain while fighting in the Napoleonic Wars. Ovens returned to New South Wales in 1821 as aide-de-camp to Governor Brisbane and as acting chief engineer, specialising in supervising gangs of convicts who were clearing the land. He was also an early explorer in Queensland. Promoted to major in 1824, he gradually built up an
Nothing is known of Thomas Rose’s life before he was convicted at Shrewsbury,
58
Thomas Rose
THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE FIRST ERA
1788–1849 whose
waterworks
provided
many
farmers with relief during droughts.
173. Thomas Wylde
(1758–1821)
Crown Solicitor in Sydney
Wealth: £2000 0.212% of GDP Current Value: $1.52 billion Thomas Rose headstone
Thomas Wylde was the forefather of a
Shropshire, England, of housebreaking in 1793 and sentenced to death. This was commuted to transportation for life and Rose arrived in Sydney on the Barwell in 1798. He was conditionally pardoned in 1806 and then absolutely pardoned in 1809. Rose became a baker on the corner of King and Castlereagh streets, gradually acquiring a block of land bounded by King, Elizabeth, Market and Castlereagh streets, and also rented a windmill. He then became a major landowner in the Campbelltown area and was a leading early promoter of horse racing and owner of racehorses. Rose owned considerable property in and around Sydney including, among other things, a windmill 60 feet high, one of Australia’s tallest man-made structures at the time. Rose was also an early builder of dams and reservoirs
very distinguished legal family: One of his sons became Lord Chancellor (as Lord Truro), while another son, John (later Sir John, 1781–1859), became a leading legal figure in New South Wales. He also had a great-nephew who became Baron of the Exchequer, a senior judge, as Lord Penzance. Wylde himself was a successful solicitor in London when he sold his London business and, most unusually, migrated to Sydney in 1817 with most of his family. In
1817
Governor
Macquarie
appointed Thomas Wylde to be senior justice of the peace and Crown Solicitor, the first to hold these positions. Wylde was known as a ‘man of fashion’ and was a distinguished amateur naturalist, holding his judicial posts until his death in December 1821, aged 63.
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175. John Brown
(d. 1842)
Saddler and harness-maker in Sydney
Wealth: £18 000 0.209% of GDP Current Value: $1.50 billion John Brown was described as a ‘saddler and harness maker’ of MacDonald’s Buildings, George Street, Sydney, at his death. He was in business from at least the early 1830s. Because his name is so common, nothing more could definitely be learned of him. He may have been the father of Stephen Campbell Brown (1829–82), a prominent solicitor in Sydney and a New South Wales government minister in the 1880s.
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and Edinburgh universities. It is not known what Dr Graham’s connection with Australia might have been nor, indeed, if he ever visited the continent. Somehow, however, he accumulated a very substantial estate in New South Wales, conceivably through a relative. In Scotland, Dr Graham became famous for the ‘enormous doses of calomel and opium’ he gave to his patients. (Graham is listed in the British Dictionary of National Biography, but not in any Australian source.)
182. James Blanch
(1784–1841)
Iron-founder, mathematical instrument–maker and farmer in Sydney
Wealth: £14 000 0.199% of GDP Current Value: $1.43 billion
176. Dr Robert Graham (1786–1845) Physician and Professor of Botany in Scotland
Wealth: £15 000 0.209% of GDP Current Value: $1.50 billion Dr Robert Graham was a prominent physician in Glasgow and then became Professor of Botany at Glasgow
James Blanch was probably born in London, and had been sentenced to seven years’ penal servitude for stealing 10 yards of linen when he was a customs’ house officer in 1814. He arrived in Sydney in 1816 on the Fanny. Given his ticket-of-leave in 1821, Blanch became a mathematical instrument–maker at 71 George Street, Sydney, and established the first private iron foundry in Australia
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1788–1849 in 1822. In 1837 Blanch manufactured Australia’s first official sets of imperial weights and measures, which became the legal standard for all others in the colony. He was married to a free settler and had four children. Blanch also acquired farms in the Sydney area and properties on George Street, dying a comparatively wealthy man.
185. Thomas Reibey
(1796–1842)
Merchant and ship owner in Launceston
Wealth: £12 400 0.198% of GDP Current Value: $1.42 billion Thomas Reibey was the eldest son of Thomas Reibey (1769–1811), one of the first free settlers to become a merchant, and Mary Reibey (nee Haddock, 1777– 1855), probably the most famous early businesswoman on the continent, who had been transported to Sydney in 1792 for horse-stealing. Thomas junior became a mariner, participating in his father’s ship-owning and mercantile ventures, and then a general merchant and commission agent, in partnership with his brother Edward, in Launceston, where he died in 1842.
186. Cornelius Driscoll (1782–1847) Banker and government official in Hobart
Wealth: £17 000 0.198% of GDP Current Value: $1.42 billion Cornelius Driscoll was an English-born Irish Catholic and a relative of Daniel O’Connell, the famous ‘liberator’ of Catholic political rights. Initially unsuccessful in business in London, Driscoll emigrated to Van Diemen’s Land to take the place of his brother, who had been given a land grant there but died en route. Cornelius Driscoll arrived in Hobart in 1831 and then held a variety of government positions, including chief clerk to the colonial secretary. Driscoll purchased land and, from 1838, entered banking, becoming manager of the Hobart branch of the Union Bank of Australia. A further venture as a founding director of the Colonial Bank in 1840 proved ill-timed, the bank being founded at the start of a severe depression. Some years later, Driscoll achieved success as a founding trustee of the Hobart Savings Bank. He was also appointed to the Van Diemen’s Land Legislative Council during a time of local political crisis.
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One of the more prominent and successful Catholic businessmen in Australia, Driscoll left half of his estate to the Catholic Church in Hobart for the education of priests and missionary work.
187. Lancelot Iredale (c. 1778–1848) Ironmonger and property owner in Sydney
Wealth: £20 000 0.198% of GDP Current Value: $1.42 billion
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transported, arriving in Sydney on The Mariner in 1816. He established an ironmonger’s business at 67 (later 371) George Street, Sydney, and lived at Aubin Cottage, Surry Hills. He was married twice, and his widow remarried Rev. William Schofield, a prominent Wesleyan minister. There were—strangely enough —several men named Lancelot Iredale in Sydney at the time; the man on the All-time List was probably the Lancelot Iredale who became a Sydney city councillor in 1844–47 and owned parts of Camden. This man was also a noted Wesleyan philanthropist.
193. George Druitt (c. 1775–1842) Military officer, engineer and settler in Sydney and New South Wales
Wealth: £12 000 0.192% of GDP Current Value: $1.38 billion
Lancelot Iredale
Apparently from the north of England, Lancelot Iredale was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment and then
George Druitt, who was probably born in Ireland, was a captain in the 48th Regiment who had seen action throughout the Napoleonic Wars when he was first sent to New South Wales in 1816. From 1817 he became the
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1788–1849 government’s civil engineer, supervising construction on the building of many early projects including Fort Macquarie and St James’s Church. As with so many early figures Druitt’s life was controversial. He was accused of peculation (embezzlement) by Governor Brisbane and made many enemies, among them the famous architect Francis Greenway, whom he had supervised in many of Greenway’s building projects. Druitt resigned from the army in 1822 to devote himself to pastoralism, especially his estate at Mount Druitt in the west of Sydney.
which sailed between Sydney and Parramatta. His son Thomas Whistler Smith took over the business and became a prominent Sydney banker. Apart from his mercantile interests, Thomas Smith was also an early accountant in Sydney.
195. Thomas Smith (c. 1775–1822) Settler and meat contractor in Van Diemen’s Land
Wealth: £2000 0.189% of GDP Current Value: $1.36 billion
194. Thomas Smith (1795–1842) Merchant and accountant in Sydney
Wealth: £12 000 0.192% of GDP Current Value: $1.38 billion Thomas Smith was born in Northamptonshire, England, the son of a land agent. He came to Sydney with his family in 1830 at the invitation of his brother Henry Gilbert Smith, an importer and merchant of Macquarie Place, and became his partner, trading as Smith Brothers. Together, they built the first steam ferry in New South Wales,
Thomas Smith was convicted at a court in Essex, England, in March 1801 and transported for life, arriving in New South Wales on board the Perseus in 1802. He was then sent to Port Dalrymple in 1809, and pardoned in 1810. By then, Smith had received a small grant of land from Lieutenant-Governor Patterson for his ‘good conduct’, and developed a significant meat-supply business. In 1816 he was commissioned to supply 2150 pounds of meat to the Launceston government stores, and by 1819 he owned 250 acres with 1500 sheep and 140 cattle. In 1811 Smith married a convict widow, Mary Bowater, who had arrived in Van
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Diemen’s Land in 1805. At the age of only 47, however, Smith drowned on 30 December 1822 while fording a river on horseback at Norfolk Plains. He had lifted his legs to keep them out of the water and accidentally pricked the horse with his spurs. The horse bolted and threw him into the water.
196. James Squire
(1754–1822)
Brewer and landowner in Sydney and New South Wales
Wealth: £2000 0.189% of GDP Current Value: $1.36 billion James Squire was born in Surrey, England, and was sentenced at Kingston-uponThames in 1785 to transportation for seven years for the theft of chickens and other goods. He arrived on the First Fleet, and was swiftly to receive 350 lashes—150 at once—for theft from the Fleet’s hospital stores in Sydney. Despite this record, Squire quickly became important as one of the first brewers in the colony. By 1795 he had been granted 30 acres at Ryde for a brewery and tavern—the Malting Shovel—and had started a hop plantation.
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Squire was such a success that he was known as the ‘Whitbread of New South Wales’, in honour of one of England’s most famous brewers. Opinion about his beer was distinctly mixed, however, with one gravestone in Parramatta allegedly stating ‘Ye who wish to lie here/Drink Squire’s beer!’ Also a pastoralist in the Ryde area, Squire was especially known for his kindness to the Aborigines: Bennelong lived on his property during his last years and is buried on his farm. He was also noted for his generosity towards other emancipists. Squire had at least eleven children by his wife and several other women. His grandson James Squire Farnell was premier of New South Wales in 1877–78.
200. Nathaniel Lawrence (d. 1825) Brewer and publican in Sydney
Wealth: £2500 0.186% of GDP Current Value: $1.33 billion Nathaniel Lawrence was sentenced to life imprisonment in Somerset, England, in 1792, and was transported on the Ganges, arriving in 1797. One of the earliest persons
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1788–1849 to brew beer in New South Wales, he was granted a free pardon in 1809 and became a brewer in Sydney. Lawrence was also a publican at the ‘Pineapple’ in Sydney, and became a major supplier of yeast to the government.
201. Robert Kerr
(1808–46)
Merchant in Hobart
Wealth: £15 000 0.186% of GDP Current Value: $1.33 billion Robert Kerr was born in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, and arrived in Hobart from Liverpool, England, in 1832. There he founded, with two partners, Kerr, Alexander & Co. in 1834. They became successful merchants, with extensive stores and warehouses at Battery Point, and were also agents for the whaling vessel Sir George Arthur. Kerr’s business partner James Alexander had been a merchant in Glasgow before emigrating. Robert Kerr died of ‘pulmonary disease’ at the age of only 37 in January 1846, and was buried in the Presbyterian cemetery in Hobart.
210. Nicholas Bayly (1770–1823) Soldier, landowner and banker in Sydney
Wealth: £2000 0.180% of GDP Current Value: $1.29 billion Nicholas Bayly was the son of a Welsh landowner and member of parliament, and he was related to many members of the British aristocracy. Bayly came to Australia in 1797 as an ensign in the New South Wales Corps, having allegedly discovered a plot to seize the ship by junior officers en route. His stay in New South Wales was marked by much controversy: Bayly was courtmartialled for illegal possession of liquor and was also tried on several occasions for a variety of offences. These had no negative effects on his career, since he was promoted to lieutenant and given land grants before his resignation from the military. Always a troublemaker, Bayly, not surprisingly, played a role in the mutiny against Governor Bligh. He also became a landowner at Bayly Park in Cabramatta and, curiously, cashier and secretary of the Bank of New South Wales. Bayly left eight children at his death aged 53.
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211. Daniel Watson Stalker (1795–1823) Settler in Van Diemen’s Land
Wealth: £2000 0.180% of GDP Current Value: $1.29 billion Little is known of Daniel Stalker before he arrived as a free settler in Sydney in February 1821. Probably born in Maryport, Cumberland, England, in December 1795, the son of Joshua and Esther Stalker, he brought with him a letter to Governor Macquarie listing his relatively extensive possessions and monies which, including cash and treasury bills, amounted to £1731, and stated that he wished to settle in Van Diemen’s Land. Macquarie granted Stalker 800 acres of land, and he arrived in Hobart in April 1821. Apart from the fact that he lived at Coal River, nothing more is known of Stalker except that he died two years later and was apparently only 27 at the time.
212. James Whyte Brewer in Hobart
Wealth: £2000 0.180% of GDP Current Value: $1.29 billion
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James Whyte was born in Scotland and travelled extensively in Europe and America before arriving at the Derwent River in November 1823 on the Cockburn from London. He had been recommended as a free settler. Described as an ‘intelligent industrious man’, Whyte set up as a brewer in Hobart, naming his beverage ‘Tasmania’s Stingo’. Less than a year later, however, he was dead at the age of 47. A ‘slight contusion of the shin bone’ led to a leg infection and then to an amputation, but Whyte died the day after the operation. His widow Sarah, of Liverpool Street, Hobart, then carried on as a brewer.
213. Edmund Harrison Cliffe (c. 1797–1837) Sea captain and merchant between New South Wales and India
Wealth: £10 000 0.178% of GDP Current Value: $1.28 billion
(1776–1823) Edmund Harrison Cliffe was born in 1797, probably in Stepney, London, the son of Charles Cliff (sic) and Lucy nee Ellis, although he wasn’t baptised until 1802. Cliffe was originally a sea captain and trader on the route between
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1788–1849 India and New South Wales. He was apparently living in Sydney by February 1822, when he married his first wife, Jane Forbes. In May 1835 he married his second wife, Julia Talbut, at St James’s Anglican Church in Sydney. He was living at Chowder Bay, Port Jackson, at the time of his early death, aged 40.
217. Henry Dumaresq (1792–1838) Army officer and pastoralist in New South Wales
Wealth: £17 000 0.176% of GDP Current Value: $1.26 billion Henry Dumaresq was the son of a colonel in the British army who had served in the American Revolutionary wars; the family, from Shropshire, was of Norman descent. Bred to the military—he was educated at Royal Military College, Great Marlow, England—Dumaresq served in the Peninsular campaigns, in Canada, and at Waterloo, where he was wounded. He rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, coming to Australia as private secretary to Governor Darling, who had married his sister; explorer Charles Sturt was Dumaresq’s cousin. These connections did not please everyone, however, and
charges of nepotism, repeated in the local press, meant that Dumaresq was not confirmed when Darling appointed him clerk to the Executive Council. Dumaresq lived in England in 1827– 29, but returned permanently to New South Wales in 1829, quickly acquiring a 13 000-acre estate at Muswellbrook. He served as commissioner for the Australian Agricultural Company, but died at the age of only 46, well-known for his quick temper and ‘brilliant wit’. His brother, William John Dumaresq (1793–1868), was a landowner and member of the New South Wales Legislative Council whose daughter married the brother of Lord Hopetoun, Australia’s first Governor-General.
223. Thomas Steele
(d. 1840)
Probably a miller in Sydney
Wealth: £15 000 0.174% of GDP Current Value: $1.25 billion Almost nothing is known of Thomas Steele, who died in 1840 at St Clair, Falbrook, County Durham, New South Wales. The 1828 Census lists a Thomas Steele, then aged 54, who arrived as a free settler in 1817. This man was a
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Thomas Steele
Protestant, was employed as a miller on Princess Street, Sydney, and was married. (In 1825 this man’s premises were on Liverpool Street.) Another Thomas Steele, a successful coal merchant of Sydney, died in 1846; they apparently had no connection with one another.
224. David Lord
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cipation, became a major landowner and spirit dealer in Hobart. Sixteen years after the father was transported, his son David arrived in Van Diemen’s Land, and was given an estate of his own. Over the next 30 years David Lord built up an enormous series of holdings throughout the island, and was regarded as one of the richest men in the colony, chiefly from success as a cattle breeder. He also became a director of the Van Diemen’s Land Bank and was a generous benefactor of the Anglican and Methodist churches. Two of his sons became members of the Tasmanian Legislative Council.
229. George Gatehouse (c. 1778–1838) Settler, brewer and businessman in Hobart
Wealth: £10 000 0.170% of GDP Current Value: $1.22 billion
(1785–1847)
Landowner in Van Diemen’s Land and banker in Hobart
Wealth: £15 000 0.174% of GDP Current Value: $1.25 billion David Lord’s father James Lord (c. 1757–1824), originally a fustian maker in Yorkshire, was transported to Van Diemen’s Land in 1801 and, after eman-
George Gatehouse arrived as a convict in Sydney in 1804 on board the Coromandel. Under the alias John Simpson, he had been convicted in Middlesex, London, in 1803 of stealing from a dwelling house and sentenced to seven years’ transportation. Returning to England after his sentence was completed, he re-emigrated to Hobart in 1816 and was granted 400 acres of land. At this time he brought with him recommendations
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1788–1849 from a leading London banker and from Lieutenant-Governor Davey. In Hobart, Gatehouse grew tobacco, became a large supplier of meat to the government and was involved in a range of businesses, especially brewing. He was one of the largest brewers in the colony and built a three-storey mansion at New Town, where he also developed what became known as the best garden in Van Diemen’s Land. Gatehouse died a respected citizen at the age of 60 in November 1838.
230. Alexander Mackenzie (1768–1838) Banker, financier and landowner in Sydney and Bathurst
Wealth: £10 000 0.170% of GDP Current Value: $1.22 billion Little is known of Alexander Mackenzie’s early life. He was probably born in Scotland, but emigrated with his family to Sydney in late 1822. He soon showed signs of considerable success, being appointed secretary and cashier of the Bank of New South Wales in 1823, and acquiring more than 5000 acres of land near Bathurst. A scandal over his use of the bank’s printed banknotes led to his resignation from the Bank of New South
Alexander Mackenzie
Wales, although he was then appointed secretary of the Bank of Australia. From the early 1830s Mackenzie lived in Bathurst, where he was a successful pastoral financier and president of the Bathurst Bank. At the end of his life he lived at Parramatta, and was closely connected with the Church Missionary Society and other religious bodies.
233. John Thorn
(c. 1793–1838)
Chief constable of Parramatta and landowner in New South Wales
Wealth: £10 000 0.170% of GDP Current Value: $1.22 billion Born in Australia around 1793, John Thorn was listed as owning cattle and
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running a cart-hiring business in the Parramatta area in 1818. By 1823 he had been appointed a constable in Parramatta and in 1824 he became chief constable. In 1828 he owned 1850 acres in the area and 275 cattle and 300 sheep. The most notable moment of John Thorn’s life came in 1830, when he was shot at by two bushrangers on the Windsor Road. Luckily, they missed
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and, in response, Thorn shot one of them dead. He turned out to be John MacNamara, leader of the North Rocks Gang, who had a price on his head. (His accomplice was soon captured.) As a reward, Thorn was given 640 acres on Pennant Hills Road which, after Thorn’s death at the age of only 45 in 1838, his son developed into the suburb of Thornleigh, named for him.
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The Second Era: 1850–99
D
uring the half century between 1850 and 1899 Australian society was transformed in every way. Unquestionably, the 1851 Gold Rush was a most important factor in this but so too were developments in sea transport and other forms of communications, which made emigration to Australia, and trade between Australia, Britain and elsewhere, categorically easier and more rapid than in the early days of Australia’s history. The continent’s population rose from 405 000 in 1850 to 3 765 000 in 1900, an incredible nine-fold increase. By 1901, 1 352 000 people lived in Australia’s capital cities, with ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ being regarded (despite the severe depression of the 1890s) as one of the wonders of the world—its infrastructure as advanced as anything known on earth, its architecturally distinguished public and private buildings having been built, almost without exception, within the previous 50 years. (Needless to say, Australia’s cities also contained hideous slums, while Aborigines continued to live largely outside of white society.) Australia’s gross domestic product (GDP) also rose incredibly during this half century, from £11.7 million in 1850 to £189.1 million in 1900, nearly a sixteen-fold increase. By 1900 the component of Australia’s GDP in agriculture (£38.6 million) was already being closely trailed by the distribution sector (£24.1 million), manufacturing (£23.8 million), mining (£20.1 million) and other services (£26.6 million). On the eve of Federation, Australia was evolving into a recognisable modern society. Some—but certainly not all—of these patterns were reflected among the wealthiest Australians of the 1850–99 era. Compared with the earlier period, the scale of wealth rose enormously in absolute terms (although not in comparative terms), with five millionaires and thirteen halfmillionaires among the 81 wealth-holders of this period. The very wealthiest in absolute terms, James Tyson (d. 1898, no. 5), who left £2.3 million, and William John Turner Clarke (d. 1874, no. 4), who left £1.6 million, would have been among the very richest men of
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this time in Britain. In fact, in the decade 1870–79, only seven fortunes were left in Britain which exceeded that of ‘Big’ Clarke, and even then not by all that much. The very largest British fortune of this period was that left by Thomas Brassey (d. 1870), the king of railway contractors, who left £3.2 million. Similarly, in the eleven years from 1893–1903, only five estates in Britain were larger than James Tyson’s, headed by the £2.8-million fortune of John Gretton (d. 1899), a brewer from Burtonon-Trent—not so much larger than Tyson’s fortune. (Unlike Australia, however, British probate figures at that time did not include land and there were certainly landed aristocrats who were far wealthier.) On the other hand, both the wealth in Britain and Australia was dwarfed by the enormous fortunes of ‘Gilded Age’ America, whose super-rich tycoons were in a class by themselves. In 1875, the richest man in the United States, Cornelius Vanderbilt, was worth US$105 million (£21 million); his son William K. Vanderbilt (1840–1920) was the richest man in America in 1890, worth US$200 million (£40 million). (It was W.H. Vanderbilt who, when asked what ‘the public’ would think of one of his business ventures, made the legendary reply ‘The public be damned!’) America’s fortunes, however, were soon to grow even larger still—indeed, astronomically larger. By 1912, America’s then-richest man, John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937), the ‘Titan’ of petroleum, was worth US$1 billion (£200 million), a Midas-like wealth which made anything in Australia look like poverty. There was a common pattern among many wealthy Australians of returning to the ‘old country’ greatly wealthier than when they left. The figure of the nouveau-riche Australian returnee was reflected in English fiction, most famously in Magwitch, the former convict in Great Expectations, and also in several of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. Real life often matched fiction, for instance, in the career of Sir Samuel Wilson (no. 44) who, when he returned to Britain, bought the country house, Hughenden manor, formerly owned by Britain’s Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and became a Tory MP, or in the case of
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Robert ‘Tertius’ Campbell (no. 94), who became probably Britain’s bestknown experimental farmer at Buscot Park, Berkshire. Most of Australia’s wealthy, however, remained here, building palatial mansions in St Kilda, Toorak or around Sydney Harbour, or great country homesteads where they occasionally entertained visiting royalty. The amazing development of Victoria, which was not even a separate colony at the beginning of this period, is reflected in the geographical spread of those wealthy individuals dying in the 1850–99 era. Although assigning a wealth-holder to a specific locality is often difficult, with many of the rich having substantial interests in a number of colonies, 38 of the very rich in this period were primarily residents of New South Wales, of whom 21 were in Sydney and seventeen (almost all pastoralists) elsewhere in the colony. But nearly as many lived primarily in Victoria, with eight from ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ and 27, all chiefly pastoralists, from other parts of that colony—a total of 35 from Victoria. The two large colonies dwarfed the others in terms of producing wealthy men: only five South Australians, two Queenslanders and one Tasmanian represent the rest of the continent (although many from New South Wales and Victoria had substantial interests in the smaller states). The decline in Tasmania was particularly striking compared with the plethora of wealth-holders from the earlier period. While some fairly large Tasmanian estates continued to be left in the second half of the nineteenth century, their number was only a fraction of the previous era. There was, indeed, a common pattern of hopeful emigrants to Van Diemen’s Land from abroad soon moving on to the other colonies, especially to the Port Phillip District once it opened to settlement in the 1830s and 1840s. Estate valuations are available in Western Australia only from 1895 and those left in the closing years of the nineteenth century were much too small to appear on the All-time Rich List. Despite the Gold Rush and the phenomenal growth of the manufacturing and service sectors, for the very rich of the 1850–99 era wealth assuredly grew on the sheep’s back, with no fewer than 49 of
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the 81 richest of this era being wholly or primarily pastoralists, graziers, squatters or farmers. Almost all were sheep owners on a grand scale, with a minority involved with cattle or horse bloodstock. Another three were primarily owners of urban real estate. The minority who were urban businessmen or professionals included eight merchants, four bankers or financiers, two brewers, two miscellaneous businessmen, two solicitors, as well as a building contractor, wool buyer, retailer and a printer. The Gold Rush and minerals boom were directly represented by a mere four fortunes, three mining magnates and a gold buyer, proving the truth of the old adage that it wasn’t gold prospectors who became rich, but the men who sold them picks and shovels. In terms of birthplace and ethnic background, one conclusion which seems absolutely clear is that the Scots did extraordinarily well at this time, with Scotsmen or Scots–Irishmen holding an amazingly prominent position among the very rich. Among those whose birthplace and background could be traced, 37 (46 per cent) were born in Scotland or were Scots Presbyterians from Northern Ireland; in addition, three other men of Scottish descent appear on the list, meaning that one-half of Australia’s top wealth-holders in this era were Scots Presbyterians, a far higher percentage than their proportion among the whole population. Nearly all came from rural backgrounds and from counties like Fifeshire and Inverness-shire which were bypassed by the Industrial Revolution. It is, indeed, an ill wind which blows no-one any good, for the rural and pastoral skills, especially in sheep farming, which were declining and marginalised in Britain, supplied the expertise and human capital which made many a fortune in Australia. Hard work, sobriety and a discerning eye for opportunities—values found among many Scotsmen and the classical ‘Protestant ethic’ virtues—certainly provided the impetus for much of their success. In many respects the fortunes accumulated by so many Scots immigrants, who came from agricultural areas where rural poverty was prevalent, highlights what is arguably the best aspect of colonial Australian society throughout its history, that it gave many people a second chance. Convicts, displaced farmers and the poor from Britain’s
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slums plus, during the 20th century, immigrants and refugees from Europe and, more recently, from Asia, were able to achieve success, often great success, which was impossible in their country of origin. That Australia gave so many a genuine ‘second chance’ is a positive, indeed moving and even noble, facet of Australian history which too few appreciate. Most of the remainder among the wealth-holders in the second era came from England, generally from rural or lower middle-class backgrounds, although among the fathers of this rich group were a Count of the Holy Roman Empire and an admiral on half-pay. Only four of the wealthy were of Irish Catholic background, and only one of non-British descent, the Danish-born pastoralist Severin K. Salting (no. 69). Only one woman makes this list—Mary Ann Burdekin (no. 227), a Sydney retailer’s widow who left a considerable fortune when she died many years after her husband. The ‘convict stain’, a significant factor of the first era, had just about vanished by the second half of the nineteenth century, with only two wealth-holders (William Moffitt, no. 174, and Thomas Kite, no. 202) having arrived as convicts and only a handful being the sons of convict fathers (or, occasionally, of convict mothers). Probably the majority of this period’s wealth-holders served in one of the colonial parliaments, with several holding ministerial positions, as was the case with wealthy men in the western world’s parliaments at this time. Many were notable religious or educational philanthropists. While only a few were well-educated, a handful were learned men or university graduates. Three became knights, although none had the chance to enter William Charles Wentworth’s proposed Australian House of Lords, which was laughed out of serious consideration. While some sailed very close to the wind in their business dealings or, like ‘Big’ Clarke and James Tyson, the two richest men of this era, had widespread reputations for doing so, none was proven to be an out-andout crook—at least as shown in any records which survive—and no-one here fell into bankruptcy during the depression of the 1890s. But many of them lost heavily at the end of this era, and there were fewer very large fortunes in the mid-1890s than just before or after.
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE SECOND ERA
1850–99
4. William John Turner Pastoralist and landowner, chiefly around Melbourne
Wealth: £1 640 931 1.496% of GDP Current Value: $10.74 billion
William John Turner Clarke
‘Big’ Clarke, as he was often known, was born in London in April 1805, the son of William Clarke, a tenant farmer in Somerset, and Sarah Turner. Left penniless as a teenager when his father died, Clarke became a drover taking cattle from Somerset, in the west of England, to Smithfield Market in London, thus becoming an expert in the cattle trade. (Like many early successful settlers,
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Clarke (1805–74)
Clarke brought valuable skills with him to Australia.) In 1829 he emigrated to Hobart, setting up as a butcher and meat contractor and then branching out into pastoralism. Within 24 years he owned 80 000 acres in Van Diemen’s Land and rented another 50 000. When the Port Phillip District opened, Clarke became one of the earliest and biggest pastoralists around Melbourne, acquiring pastoral licences for vast stretches in the area from Melbourne to Geelong and out to Ballarat. By 1842 he owned 100 000 sheep in Port Phillip, and lived permanently in Victoria after 1850. The Gold Rush of 1851 increased demand for his sheep enormously. At his death he owned 215 000 acres throughout Australia, and was also a substantial shareholder in the Colonial Bank and other financial and insurance companies. Like many rich men of the time Clarke entered politics, serving in the Victorian Legislative Council for twelve years. According to one historian, Clarke was a ‘ruthless pursuer of profit’ who was ‘universally feared, hated, and respected’. Despite his reputation, ‘Big’ Clarke was a shy, parsimonious man who suffered from a weak chest and malformed hip; however, his ‘ruthless land hunger’ never ceased until he died. Clarke was widely believed to be the richest man of his time in Australia,
THE ALL-TIME AUSTRALIAN
estimated to be worth anything up to £2.5 million. His actual wealth at death, more than £1.6 million, marked him out as the fourth wealthiest man in Australian history. Living in a mansion, Rupertswood, in Sunbury in outer Melbourne, he left most of his property to his eldest son Sir William John Clarke (no. 32) and to his youngest son Joseph. His wife, Eliza nee Dowling, from whom he was estranged, was left only £800 a year, and his other children were left only £20 000 each. Clarke’s eldest son became the leader of Melbourne high society, the very symbol of the old ‘Melbourne Club’ financial and pastoral aristocracy which dominated Victoria’s social life until after the Second World War—not bad for the offspring of a cattle drover to Smithfield Market!
5. James Tyson
(1819–98)
Pastoralist, chiefly in Queensland, and also New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria
Wealth: £2 338 442 1.313% of GDP Current Value: $9.42 billion While he was alive, the fabulously wealthy James Tyson was regarded as synonymous with pastoral wealth. He was probably the largest landowner in
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James Tyson
Australia in the nineteenth century, and one of the very richest. Tyson was born near Narellan, New South Wales. Unusually, it was his mother rather than his father who had been transported to the Antipodes, sent out (accompanied by her husband) with a seven-year sentence for theft in Yorkshire. Tyson’s father became a smallscale farmer; after some initial setbacks, around 1846 James Tyson established a successful run with his brother near where the Lachlan River meets the Murrumbidgee in the Riverina. Tyson’s real break, however, occurred in 1852 in Bendigo just as the Gold Rush was reaching its peak. He established an abattoir and butcher’s shop for the prospectors which he sold three years later for £80 000. From this, Tyson began to establish a pastoral empire throughout
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1850–99
21. Henry Miller
(1809–88)
Financier and property owner in Melbourne
Wealth: £1 620 497 0.839% of GDP Current Value: $6.02 billion
James Tyson Vault
northern New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and especially Queensland, which by the time of his death totalled 5.3 million acres (of which 352 000 acres were held freehold), an area onefifth larger than Wales and probably the largest individual landholding in Australia. He also bred livestock exclusively for the urban market, a continuing and evergrowing source of profit. Tyson was a pioneer of water irrigation techniques and of Queensland’s railways. He served a term in the Queensland Legislative Council but made only one speech. Frugal and taciturn, he was an enigma to many, a legendary Midas, and was the subject of Banjo Paterson’s poem ‘T.Y.S.O.N.’. At his death he left more than £2.3 million, the largest estate (in current terms) ever probated in Australia up to that time. Tyson died childless. After a protracted legal battle, his immense fortune was divided among many distant relatives.
Henry Miller’s house
Henry Miller, born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, was so renowned for his financial skills that he was universally known as ‘Money’ Miller, one of the greatest figures of the (literally) golden age of ‘Marvellous Melbourne’. Miller’s father, an army captain and Waterloo veteran, came to Sydney in 1823 and died in 1866 in Hobart, where he had been in charge of the town’s ordnance stores. Henry Miller, a clerk in Hobart, settled in Melbourne in 1839, a few years after the city was founded. With remarkable speed he became one of the central figures in Melbourne’s financial life, founding the Victorian Fire and Marine Insurance Company, the Bank of Victoria and some of the earliest building
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societies in the colony. The origins of
22. Thomas Budds Payne
what became the Melbourne Stock
(1819–97)
Exchange can be found in the group of stock traders who used to congregate in the 1850s under the verandah of Miller’s offices on Collins Street. Miller strenuously avoided wild speculation and never invested in the goldfields nor, in the 1880s, in the
Solicitor and property owner in Melbourne; pastoralist in Victoria
Wealth: £1 163 614 0.759% of GDP Current Value: $5.45 billion
dubious schemes which led to the great collapse of the 1890s. Instead,
Relatively little is known about the
he favoured the most conservative and
Melbourne millionaire Thomas Budds
safest of investments in city properties,
Payne, despite the vast size of his fortune. He
public works loans, mortgage companies
was born in Carlow, Ireland, to a landowning
and pastoral holdings. As a result he died
family of Protestant descent and arrived
ever richer, an enormously wealthy man
in Melbourne in 1839. Quickly acquiring
little subject to speculative pressures.
pastoral properties in Victoria, Payne was
‘Money’ Miller was also a prominent
also admitted as a conveyancer—the first
Victorian politician, serving in the
in the colony—by the Victorian Supreme
Legislative
1851–67,
Court. Retiring from active practise in 1854,
and holding a number of ministerial
Payne continued to maintain an office at
positions. The press of his time had
35 Queen Street and lived in a mansion,
a field day claiming that his political
Martino, on Toorak Road. He was one of
career had helped to further his financial
the first large-scale urban land purchasers
wealth, and this speculation eventually
in Port Phillip, buying properties at an early
led to his retirement from politics in
date in Port Melbourne, South Melbourne
1867.
and Geelong, as well as sites in central
Council
from
Miller spent his declining years
Melbourne. According to one source,
living at his 30-acre site, Findon, in
Payne gained his enormous fortune by
Kew, Melbourne. The father of a large
‘quiet, sound financing’ and by avoiding
family, and a staunch Protestant, he
speculation, just as Henry ‘Money’ Miller
disinherited
(no. 21) had done. Unlike Miller, however,
any
married a Catholic.
descendants
who
Payne managed to avoid the spotlight
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE SECOND ERA
1850–99 almost completely, and remains little known to historians.
32. Sir William John Clarke, 1st Baronet (1831–97) Pastoralist and banker in Melbourne and Victoria
Wealth: £951 126 0.620% of GDP Current Value: $4.45 billion Sir William was the eldest son of William John Turner Clarke (no. 4), born in Van Diemen’s Land before his father had yet made a fortune. Clarke was educated in Hobart and in Shropshire, England, and then managed his father’s Tasmanian and Victorian properties with his brother. From the age of 29, in 1860, he was settled permanently at Sunbury in suburban Melbourne, where his father built a princely mansion, Rupertswood. In 1874 Clarke inherited £1.5 million from his father and became one of the greatest leaders of Melbourne society. When guests attended one of Clarke’s lavish parties at Rupertswood, they stepped out at his private railway station. Clarke held virtually all of the key posts at the top of the local pecking order— commodore of the Royal Victorian Yacht Squadron, first president of the
Victorian Football Association and president of the Melbourne Cricket Club for six years, and first grand master of the United Grand Lodge of Freemasons in Victoria. Anything but a member of the ‘idle rich’, however, Clarke was a notable exponent of scientific farming and breeding, and in particular became renowned for his shorthorn cattle. As well, he was governor of the Colonial Bank, in which he lost heavily in the depression of the 1890s, but still retained a considerable fortune. Clarke was also a philanthropist on a grand scale, giving tens of thousands to the Church of England and University of Melbourne. He was president of the Melbourne International Exhibition of 1880–81, Australia’s first ‘world’s fair’, for which he was awarded a baronetcy (a hereditary knighthood) in 1882. Sir William and his second wife, and former governess, Janet, Lady Clarke (no. 107) decided in 1888 to live closer to central Melbourne, so they built Cliveden, an enormous Italian Renaissance–style mansion in East Melbourne, which was eventually demolished to make way for a hotel in the 1960s. Sir William Clarke, barely half a century after the colony’s foundation, dominated Victorian high society to an extent which would be almost impossible to replicate at a later time.
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37. David Berry
(1795–1889)
Pastoralist in New South Wales, especially in the Shoalhaven area, and property owner in Sydney
Wealth: £1 255 937 0.591% of GDP Current Value: $4.24 billion One of the richest Australians of his time, David Berry was born in Fifeshire, Scotland, the son of a farmer, and came to Sydney in 1836 with two brothers and a sister to join his eldest brother Alexander Berry (1781–1873). Alexander was a prominent and generally successful merchant in Sydney, pioneer of the Shoalhaven area, and member of the New South Wales Legislative Council; and he had also inherited property in the Shoalhaven area from Edward Wollstonecraft (no. 144). For the first part of his stay in New South Wales, David Berry was the joint manager of his brother’s Shoalhaven property where, using extensive convict labour, they bred cattle and horses and leased out farms to tenants. When Alexander Berry died childless in 1873, David inherited almost all of his property, which also included 500 acres in North Sydney. The value of these properties grew prodigiously, and at the time of his death David Berry was probably among
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the fifteen or so richest men in Australia, and one of the few genuine millionaires. As he was unmarried, some of his property passed to his cousin Sir John Hay (1816–92), a prominent New South Wales politician. Much of it, however, went for charitable bequests to Scottish universities, to hospitals and to the Presbyterian Church. David Berry died at the age of 93, but was reputed to have been even older. A persistent rumour claimed that he was actually born in 1788, making him more than 100 at the time of his death.
38. William Walker (1787–1854) Merchant and ship owner in Sydney; landowner in New South Wales
Wealth: £300 000 0.582% of GDP Current Value: $4.18 billion William Walker—like so many other successful early Australians—was a Scotsman, the son of a Fifeshire laird. At sixteen he joined the London branch of a Scottish bank, then went to Calcutta as a merchant and, in 1813, arrived in Sydney to collect debts owed to his firm by Robert Campbell the Elder (no. 148). Walker decided to settle in New South Wales in 1820 where, with some
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE SECOND ERA
1850–99
41. Donald Larnach
(1817–96)
Banker and financier in Sydney and London
Wealth: £884 768 0.554% of GDP Current Value: $3.98 billion
William Walker
relatives, he founded William Walker & Co., a firm at Dawes Point on Sydney Harbour engaged in coastal shipping and whaling. Walker also became a substantial landowner in central Sydney, at Twofold Bay and on the upper Castlereagh River. With merino sheep bought from England, Walker’s firm became a major exporter of wool to Britain. From 1831 Walker lived chiefly in England, returning to Australia on only a few occasions. He left an enormous fortune in England—five-sixths of his estate was probated there. In the relatively short time Walker was in New South Wales, however, he became a prominent businessman, serving as a director of the Bank of New South Wales and as the first president of the Sydney Chamber of Commerce. He was also a notable philanthropist to the Presbyterian Church.
Born in Caithness, Scotland, the son of a naval purser, Donald Larnach emigrated to Sydney in 1834 to join his brother. He rose steadily as manager of a flour mill, merchant and property speculator. In 1845 Larnach first became associated with the Bank of New South Wales, being appointed its auditor, and again rose steadily, becoming its president in 1852. From 1853 Larnach lived chiefly in England, where he became managing director of the London branch of the Bank of New South Wales. For the next few decades he was probably the most important and influential figure in the London banking world, dealing with Australian finance, and was also important in organising emigration to the continent. Although Larnach revisited Australia several times, he basically made a second career as a banker in London, becoming president of the London Joint Stock Bank. Larnach joined the English upper classes, buying an estate in Sussex and lands in Suffolk. He held the post of high sheriff of Sussex in 1883 and died at his mansion in affluent Kensington Palace
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Gardens, leaving most of his large fortune in England. Larnach was married to a daughter of William Walker (no. 38).
42. Thomas Walker
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one-half of the estate, eventually valued at £800 000, went to 35 distant relatives scattered around the world.
44. Sir Samuel Wilson
(1804–86)
(1832–95) Banker and merchant in Sydney; landowner in Victoria and New South Wales
Pastoralist in Victoria, also in New South Wales and Queensland
Wealth: £937 984 0.551% of GDP Current Value: $3.95 billion
Wealth: £762 667 0.542% of GDP Current Value: $3.89 billion
Another highly successful Scot, Thomas Walker was born in Leith near Edinburgh, the son of a merchant, and came to Sydney around 1822 to join his uncle William Walker (no. 38), a leading pastoralist and Sydney businessman. Thomas Walker pursued a varied and enterprising career. From 1869–86 he was president of the Bank of New South Wales, whose deposits increased from £5.5 million to £14.5 million in that time. In the late 1830s Walker was one of the first to visit the newly opened Port Phillip District (publishing a journal of his overland trip) where he bought four blocks on Bourke Street for £135 and 12 700 freehold acres of agricultural land in the Port Phillip District. He was also a director of a number of leading firms. Despite his pioneering role in Melbourne, Walker lived and died in Sydney, at Yaralla, his mansion in Concord. When Walker’s only daughter died in 1937,
Sir Samuel Wilson
Sir Samuel Wilson was born in Ireland, the son of a Protestant farmer in County Antrim, and worked as a farmer and linen manufacturer before arriving in Victoria in 1852 to join his brother John (no. 102) and two other brothers. They had already established themselves as
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE SECOND ERA
1850–99 successful squatters in the Wimmera region. Samuel Wilson initially made money from success as a goldminer in Ballarat and as the proprietor of a carrying business between Melbourne and the goldfields. He then turned to pastoralism, becoming the dominant figure in his family and one of the most successful pastoralists in Australia. By 1880 he owned nearly 300 000 freehold acres in Victoria, and leased no less than 2.5 million acres in Queensland and New South Wales. Samuel Wilson was one of the great creative forces in Australian agriculture, experimenting with ostrich farming, goat breeding and trout fisheries, and building pioneering dams and channels in the Wimmera area. By the 1870s he was generally regarded as one of the richest men on the continent, being estimated by Sir George Bowen (who recommended him for a baronetcy) as having an annual income of £100 000 and owning 600 000 sheep, ‘possibly more than anyone else in the world’. Wilson was knighted in 1875. Samuel Wilson never did anything by halves. In 1881 he moved to England, where he bought, as his country seat, Hughenden Manor in Buckinghamshire, the country house of Benjamin Disraeli (who had just died), the former prime minister. One of Wilson’s sons married Winston Churchill’s aunt, while his daughter married an earl. Wilson served in the Victorian parliament from 1861–81 but made little impact. He also served
in the British parliament as a Tory MP from 1886–92. As well, he was a notable philanthropist, donating Wilson Hall to the University of Melbourne.
50. Thomas Monahan Wallace (1871–93) Melbourne property owner
Wealth: £805 505 0.526% of GDP Current Value: $3.78 billion Thomas Monahan Wallace, who died at the age of only 22, was the son of John Alston Wallace (1824–1901), a wealthy hotelier, mining magnate and Victorian politician who left more than £121 000 when he died. He was also the grandson of Thomas Monahan (no. 62), an enormously wealthy Melbourne property owner. It is somewhat surprising that Thomas Monahan Wallace left such a vast fortune, since his grandfather’s will had been the subject of litigation by his children; and his father was still alive but had been estranged from his own children. Young Wallace, however, died at his father’s mansion, Quat Quatta, on Glen Eira Road, East St Kilda, and also owned a Melbourne mansion of his own, Dual Dualla. His estate consisted of nearly £370 000 in real estate and £436 000 in stocks and other personality.
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51. John Thomas Neale
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women in comparative terms in Australian history.
(1821–97) Investor and carcass butcher in Sydney
55. John Moffatt
Wealth: £804 945 0.526% of GDP Current Value: $3.78 billion
Pastoralist in Victoria
John Thomas Neale was born in June 1821 at Denham Court, Campbelltown, the son of John Neale (1797–1875), an early settler. John Thomas Neale was described throughout his life in local directories and even in his will as a ‘carcass butcher’ of King Street and later Macleay Street, Sydney. Although he may well have been a very large scale meat dealer, Neale appears to have accumulated the bulk of his enormous fortune as an important and very shrewd investor in leading Sydney firms such as the Commercial Banking Company, the Bank of New South Wales and various insurance companies and estate agencies. Living in a mansion in Potts Point, he served as a justice of the peace and was also an alderman of the Sydney City Council. Neale was a generous benefactor of the Wesleyan church, and his widow Hannah (no. 160), who inherited most of his fortune, became one of the richest
(1817–71)
Wealth: £396 923 0.506% of GDP Current Value: $3.63 billion
John Moffatt was born in Scotland (some sources say Cumberland) in 1817 and emigrated to Van Diemen’s Land in 1839. Within a year he migrated to Port Phillip, where he was employed by the Clyde Company at its property at Hopkins Hill. For the next decade he was a station overseer and gradually built up an enormous pastoral holding around the Hamilton and Hopkins Hill areas. Here he built Chatsworth House, a princely mansion which cost him £20 000, a vast fortune at the time, where in 1867 he entertained the Duke of Edinburgh and his royal visitor developed a taste for hunting kangaroos. In 1864–65 Moffatt sat in the Victorian Legislative Assembly. Dying unmarried, Moffatt willed his estate to his brother William, who came from Britain after his death.
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE SECOND ERA
1850–99
56. John Boyd Watson
57. Sir Thomas Elder
(1818–97)
(1828–89) Mining magnate, wool broker and pastoralist in Adelaide and South Australia
Mining magnate in Victoria; property owner in Melbourne; business interests in Sydney and Queensland
Wealth: £736 704 0.480% of GDP Current Value: $3.44 billion
Wealth: £1 053 423 0.495% of GDP Current Value: $3.55 billion One of the richest men to emerge from the Victorian Gold Rush, John Boyd Watson was born in Paisley, Scotland, the son of a cabinetmaker, and emigrated to Sydney with his family in 1841. At the age of 22, Watson went to California to seek his fortune in the gold rush which began in 1849 and then, in 1852, returned to Australia to try his luck at the Bendigo diggings. Good fortune was his almost at once, with major and profitable discoveries of gold and quartz. One goldmine yielded him and his partners £1.5 million in the decade of the 1870s alone. Unlike many prospectors, Watson had the good sense to invest in solid blue-chip holdings, especially real estate in central Melbourne. He became the founder of the Federal Bank and was the principal shareholder in tramway and shipping companies in Melbourne; Watson also had business interests in Queensland and New South Wales and was one of the founders of the Sydney Daily Telegraph. Unlike many rich men of his time, however, Watson never entered politics.
One of the great entrepreneurial figures of nineteenth-century South Australia, Sir Thomas Elder was the youngest of three sons of a ship owner in Kirkaldy, Scotland. His brother Alexander had emigrated to the newly established colony of South Australia in 1839, travelling on his father’s schooner with an extensive cargo he hoped to sell there. He was joined by another brother, William, in 1840. In 1854 Thomas Elder arrived in Adelaide, where he soon established a business partnership with such leading local businessmen as Edward Stirling (no. 139) and Robert Barr Smith (no. 34) to form Elder, Stirling & Co., the most important financier of South Australia’s coppermining industry. Later, renamed Smith Elder & Co., it became one of the world’s greatest wool-broking firms. Thomas Elder (whose sister married Barr Smith) also became a pastoralist on a colossal scale in outback South Australia, owning nearly 7000 square miles of holdings, an area larger than many small countries. Thomas Elder was also a man of restless creative energy. It was he who
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was chiefly responsible for introducing camels, and their Afghan drivers, to the Australian outback. Elder financed many of the later nineteenth-century explorations of central Australia. At his estate at Glen Osmond he grew bananas and owned a private zoo. Unmarried, he served in the South Australian parliament for nearly fifteen years, and was one of the most generous benefactors of the newly established University of South Australia, philanthropy for which he was knighted in 1878. A statue of Elder was erected in central Adelaide.
61. William Campbell (1810–96) Pastoralist in Victoria and other states; financier in Melbourne
Wealth: £720 673 0.451% of GDP Current Value: $3.24 billion William Campbell was born in Perthshire, the son of the forester on the Duke of Montrose’s estate. In Scotland he had been an estate manager, dealing chiefly in sheep farms, an experience which served him—and many other successful nineteenth-century Australians—in good stead when he emigrated to Sydney in
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1838. Upon arrival he was appointed superintendent of John Macarthur’s (no. 12) sheep station in the Blue Mountains, where he remained for seven years before moving to the Port Phillip area in the mid-1840s. Over the next few decades Campbell built up a vast pastoral empire in Victoria which later extended to most of the mainland states. He used the profits from his stations to become a pastoral financier, obtaining numerous mortgages as security, and was a chief shareholder in Goldsbrough Mort & Co. Campbell also built up a great portfolio of shares in most of Australia’s leading business companies. His daughter married Sir Samuel Wilson (no. 44), who was even richer than Campbell—no mean feat. Campbell served in the Victorian Legislative Council for many years, where he was one of the leading so-called ‘Men of Yesterday’ who opposed the imposition of land taxes on large estates and other reforms. In part as a result of his fear of ‘communism’ in Victoria, he lived in England after 1882, although he continued to stay in close touch with his old home. One curiosity of Campbell’s career is that in 1850 he discovered gold on one of his Victorian stations, a year before the more famous discovery leading to the 1851 Gold Rush. Although Campbell deliberately hushed up his discovery,
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE SECOND ERA
1850–99 fearing that his labour force would leave his employ to try their luck at the diggings, he always claimed to be the original discoverer of gold in Australia.
62. Thomas Monahan
later in New South Wales. Although he speculated in one mining venture, Monahan had no real business interests apart from real estate. He lived frugally at his mansion, Erindale, in St Kilda, and did not enter public life.
63. Henry Dangar
(1812–89) Property owner, chiefly in Melbourne
(1796–1861)
Pastoralist in New South Wales
Wealth: £959 413 0.450% of GDP Current Value: $3.23 billion
Wealth: £280 000 0.434% of GDP Current Value: $3.11 billion
Thomas Monahan was born in Dublin, the son of a farmer; his beginnings were unusually humble. He worked as a hospital assistant in Kildare for seven years before being given free passage on an emigrant ship to Sydney in 1839. On board, Monahan’s excellent behaviour during a typhus epidemic led to his appointment as a hospital attendant in Sydney. In 1841 Monahan moved to Melbourne where he began his career as a builder, property developer and real estate owner. Starting with building stables, he became one of the largest hotel (pub) owners in the city, branching out to owning real estate of all kinds in Melbourne and its suburbs, and
Henry Dangar
The son of a farmer in Cornwall, England, Henry Dangar arrived as a free settler in Sydney in 1821 (subsequently followed by five of his brothers), and was appointed assistant in the Survey
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Department. Dangar was sent to the
69. Severin Kanute Salting
Newcastle and Hunter River areas,
(1805–65)
which he was engaged in surveying and exploring. He was one of the members of an 1824 expedition which discovered the confluence of the Goulburn and Hunter rivers, and also quickly built up a growing pastoral domain in the area. In the late 1820s Dangar was in considerable trouble for allegedly using his position of surveyor for private gain and was forced to resign. However, his publication in 1828 of an excellent guide to the Hunter region led to Dangar being appointed as a surveyor again, this time to the Australian Agricultural Company, a position he held until 1833. From then until his death Dangar became solely a pastoralist, acquiring vast rural properties and grazing runs, chiefly in the Liverpool Plains area, which by 1850 comprised 300 000 acres. He also entered politics in 1843, campaigning to enter the first elected Legislative Council in New South Wales, but was defeated, chiefly because two of his brothers supported his opponent! Dangar did serve, however, as a Member of the Legislative Council from 1845–51. In his last years Dangar lived at Grantham, Potts Point, in a castlelike mansion and at his chief property, Neotsfield, near Singleton.
Merchant and businessman in Sydney; pastoralist in New South Wales and Victoria
Wealth: £275 000 0.420% of GDP Current Value: $3.01 billion Severin Kanute Salting was a Dane from Copenhagen who apparently grew up in England, becoming a merchant in London and then in India. In 1834 he arrived in Sydney, where he quickly became a prominent and successful businessman. Beginning as a marine stores and ship’s chandler, Salting became a director of several leading insurance and banking firms, and then became a large-scale international
merchant,
trading
as
Flower, Salting & Co., of Hunter Street, Sydney. As well, he emerged as an extensive pastoralist in New South Wales and Victoria. From 1858 Salting lived in England, chiefly on his estate at Chertsey, Kent, where he died. Although much of Salting’s large fortune was left in England, he still owned extensive holdings in Australia at his death. Two of his sons, who were educated in Australia but lived in England, became millionaires (nos 41 and 43).
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE SECOND ERA
1850–99
72. Robert Campbell, Junior (1789–1851) Merchant and businessman in Sydney; landowner in New South Wales
Wealth: £55 000 0.401% of GDP Current Value: $2.88 billion
merchant, and was immediately sued by John Macarthur (no. 12) for the illegal seizure of property. In short order, Robert Campbell, Junior, became a remarkably prominent Sydney merchant, doing business worth between £20 000 and £30 000 in 1811–13 as an importer, retailer and fish merchant. He also became a notable banker and a landowner in and near Sydney, with property on Bligh Street (now the Union Club). Campbell was an important bloodstock breeder, a patron of the ‘turf’, and society bon vivant. He was, however, regarded as respectable enough to be on the 1835 list of potential members of the New South Wales Legislative Council, and was an active Freemason. Campbell lost much of his fortune in the depression of the 1840s but recovered through shrewd investments in Queensland and New Zealand.
Robert Campbell Junior
This Robert Campbell was the nephew of Robert Campbell the Elder (no. 148); rather confusingly, for the last five years of his life, after his uncle’s death, he was also known as Robert Campbell the Elder, to distinguish him from his own son. Another enterprising Scot, Robert Campbell, Junior, was born at Greenock, the son of a solicitor, and was well-educated. In 1806, at sixteen, he came to Sydney with his uncle, a leading
79. Peter Tyson
(1825–79)
Pastoralist, chiefly in New South Wales
Wealth: £500 000 0.388% of GDP Current Value: $2.78 billion Peter Tyson was the younger brother of the celebrated James Tyson (no. 5),
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the multimillionaire who was one of Australia’s richest-ever men. Peter was not exactly a poor relation, leaving half a million pounds in his own right. Like his brother, he was also a squatter and pastoralist on a large scale, chiefly in the Lachlan district, and he had built up an enormous fortune of his own when he died at the age of 54. Peter Tyson was married twice and left eight children.
80. John Peter
(1812–78)
Pastoralist in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria and mine owner in South Australia
Wealth: £476 027 0.378% of GDP Current Value: $2.71 billion
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food, Peter accumulated vast holdings in the Murrumbidgee and Lachlan districts, and also expanded into Queensland and Victoria. By the late 1860s ‘Big Peter’ (as he was known) owned 740 000 acres, a giant holding larger than many English counties. Gifted with the ‘Midas touch’, he also became one of the magnates of South Australia’s copper mines. Peter’s wife, Mary Bourke, was regarded as just as competent as he was, and was a major influence in his success. His yearly income was reputed to be £40 000, as much as many English lords. From the late 1860s Peter moved to London, where he lived in a mansion in Mayfair’s Park Lane; the bulk of his estate was left in England.
81. Edwin Tooth
One of the greatest pastoralists of his day, John Peter was—like so many other successful nineteenth-century immigrants—a Scotsman, born near Glasgow, the son of a well-off farmer. Determined to make his own way, Peter sailed to Sydney in 1832 with £50. His knowledge of farming techniques came in useful, and he quickly became a station manager. Real success came, however, around 1837 when he moved to the Murrumbidgee district. Particularly after the Gold Rush increased demand for
(1822–58)
Brewer and merchant in Sydney; pastoralist in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania
Wealth: £159 000 0.371% of GDP Current Value: $2.66 billion Edwin Tooth was the younger son of a hop merchant in Kent. His uncle, John Tooth (d. 1857), emigrated to Sydney in 1828 and became a merchant and brewer in Sydney and a cattle farmer in New South Wales. Edwin and his
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE SECOND ERA
1850–99 brother Robert arrived in Sydney in 1843 (a third brother, Frederick, arrived later) and immediately took over their uncle’s brewery, renaming it R.E. and F. Tooth. It became one of the largest and bestknown breweries in Australia. Although he died at the early age of 36, Edwin Tooth had already acquired extensive pastoral properties in New South Wales, Gippsland in Victoria and Tasmania, where he had lived for some years. As well, he was a shareholder in the Colonial Sugar Refining Co. (CSR). Edwin Tooth returned to England in 1855, living in a townhouse in Cleveland Square, London, and at his country estate in Staffordshire. Not only did the beer ‘Tooth’s KB’ flourish, but his son Sir Robert Lucas-Tooth (no. 100) became a baronet (an hereditary knight) and a millionaire, and the progenitor of a line of Tory MPs in the British parliament.
82. John Gilchrist
Starting out in the whaling business, he became a prominent general merchant and agent on Lower George Street; among his other accomplishments, he brought thousands of Scottish settlers to Australia as an emigrants’ agent. Gilchrist was a multi-talented businessman who was also a ship owner, bank director, financier and wool broker. Unlike the majority of his successful contemporaries, Gilchrist did not invest in land or possess pastoral holdings. He lived at Miller’s Point and then in a large mansion, Greenknowe, which he built at Potts Point. For the last twelve years of his life, however, Gilchrist lived in London, in a townhouse in posh Porchester Terrace, and left the major part of his large estate in England.
91. Richard John Moffatt Broughton (1863–91)
(1803–66) Pastoralist in Victoria
Merchant in Sydney
Wealth: £698 918 0.345% of GDP Current Value: $2.48 billion
Wealth: £260 000 0.366% of GDP Current Value: $2.63 billion John Gilchrist was a Scotsman from Falkirk who arrived in Sydney in 1828.
Richard John Moffatt Broughton died of influenza at the age of only 28. He was the son of John Brown Broughton
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(no. 172), a pastoralist in Victoria who left £315 545 nine years earlier. Richard Broughton was described in his will as a ‘grazier’ of Wando, near Casterton, Victoria, and had been married for two years before his untimely death.
94. Robert ‘Tertius’ Campbell (1811–87) Gold buyer and merchant in New South Wales; lived in England
Wealth: £617 743 0.329% of GDP Current Value: $2.36 billion Robert ‘Tertius’ Campbell was the son of Robert Campbell, Junior (no. 72), a wealthy Sydney merchant. Robert ‘Tertius’ (i.e., the Third) was so called to distinguish him from his father and from his uncle Robert Campbell the Elder (no. 148). The third Campbell was born in Sydney, apparently before his parents’ marriage in July 1812, was a successful gold trader, and also had New Zealand interests. ‘Tertius’ lived in England after the 1860s, where he became a well-known landowner and experimental agriculturalist on his estate at Buscot Park, near Faringdon,
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Berkshire, where he died in 1887. In fact, he is remembered today almost exclusively for his efforts at Buscot Park, which has been described as ‘the most productive farm of its time’ in Britain, chiefly producing sugar beets and their by-products. There, ‘Tertius’ built a six-mile narrow-gauge railway, constructed concrete farm buildings 30 years before anyone else in England, and granted his agricultural labourers a ninehour working day, unheard of at the time. After his death, his estate and mansion were purchased by a millionaire London stockbroker, Sir Alexander Henderson (later given a peerage as Lord Faringdon), one of the great art collectors of his time, and is today open to the public as a National Trust property. The whole of the great fortune left by ‘Tertius’ was probated in England: he left nothing in Australia.
95. Charles Hotson Ebden (1811–67) Pastoralist in Victoria; businessman and property owner in Melbourne
Wealth: £235 000 0.327% of GDP Current Value: $2.35 billion Born in Cape Town, South Africa, the son of a prominent businessman there
94
THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE SECOND ERA
1850–99 an active Melbourne businessman with major interests in banking, insurance and railways. From 1857–61 he was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly and served as the colony’s treasurer in 1857–58. A respected figure in early Melbourne society, Ebden lived in mansions on Collins Street, in Black Rock and at the Melbourne Club (of which he was president), where he died. Like many of the early rich, Ebden also spent years in London, where he left part of his substantial fortune.
Charles Hotson Ebden
and his German wife, Charles Hotson Ebden visited Australia several times before settling in Sydney in 1832 as a merchant. Like so many other leading early businessmen, Ebden also became a pastoralist. As most of the best lands near Sydney had been taken up by the time of his arrival, Ebden was forced to organise runs in southern New South Wales, and then, in 1835–37, in what is now northern Victoria. Eden was, in fact, the first pastoralist in northern Victoria, settling in the Mount Macedon region and naming Carlsruhe for his mother’s ancestral home. He also became one of the earliest land purchasers in Melbourne, buying three half-acre sites on Collins Street for £136. He developed a largescale sheep overlanding business from rural Victoria to Melbourne, and was
96. Peter Manifold
(1817–85)
Pastoralist, chiefly in Victoria, also Queensland and New South Wales
Wealth: £560 399 0.324% of GDP Current Value: $2.33 billion Peter Manifold was the youngest of three brothers who emigrated from Cheshire to Van Diemen’s Land and then to Victoria; his elder brother was John Manifold (no. 105). In the newly opened Port Phillip District, which he and his brothers reached in 1836, Peter Manifold established major sheep stations in
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the Geelong and Camperdown areas. His large estate included more than £220 000 left in Queensland and New South Wales, where he also had extensive pastoral interests. Although he served in local government positions, he lived unostentatiously, dying, unmarried, at his estate, Purrumbete, near Camperdown in the Victorian Western District, at the age of 68.
97. Charles Smith
(1816–97)
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traded throughout the South Pacific; he also became a general merchant. Like a number of other nineteenth-century business magnates, he continuously branched out into other fields, including banking—he was director of the Bank of New South Wales’s insurance companies and of railway companies. Like many other Scottish immigrants, he was a pillar of the Presbyterian Church and a generous philanthropist.
102. John Wilson
(c. 1813–88)
Shipping merchant and businessman in Sydney Pastoralist in Victoria and New South Wales
Wealth: £494 468 0.323% of GDP Current Value: $2.32 billion
Wealth: £608 055 0.315% of GDP Current Value: $2.26 billion
Born in Forfarshire, Scotland, Charles Smith was the son of a man who had emigrated to the Riverina in 1832, become a grazier and helped to found the local wine industry. Charles Smith arrived in New South Wales in 1836, some years later than his father, after serving in the merchant navy and was initially the manager of a leading whaling firm. He then built up a mercantile shipping business which was centred at Smith’s Wharf, Millers Point, and
John Wilson was the elder brother of Sir Samuel Wilson (no. 44), one of the most famous pastoralists of his time. Their father was a farmer in County Antrim, Ireland, and John Wilson emigrated to Victoria in 1841, taking up stations at Woodburn and in the Avoca and Stawell areas in central Victoria. At the time of his death John Wilson owned more than 220 000 acres, and was one of the richest pastoralists in his own
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE SECOND ERA
1850–99 right. His main estate was at Woodlands near Crowlands, where in 1868 he built a ‘large and imposing’ mansion. Wilson also owned considerable property in New South Wales, leaving £250 000 in that colony. He died in Lonsdale House, Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, at the age of 75.
breeding. The Manifolds were known for employing, and preferring, Aboriginal stockmen. Their descendants have remained prominent and well-known pastoralists ever since.
106. John Lang Currie (1818–98)
105. John Manifold
(1811–77)
Pastoralist, chiefly in Victoria, and businessman in Melbourne
Pastoralist in Victoria, chiefly around Camperdown
Wealth: £546 115 0.307% of GDP Current Value: $2.20 billion
Wealth: £379 084 0.313% of GDP Current Value: $2.25 billion John Manifold was a member of a famous pastoral family in Victoria. Born in Cheshire, England, he arrived in Hobart with his brother Peter (no. 96), his parents and his sisters in 1831, joining his brother Thomas, who had emigrated a few years earlier. Farming in Van Diemen’s Land proved less promising than the prospects of the newly opened Port Phillip District, where he and his two brothers settled in 1836. Pioneers of the Port Henry, Moorabool and Camperdown areas, the Manifolds were based at Purrumbete near Camperdown, specialising in cattle
John Lang Currie
The son of a tenant farmer in Selkirkshire, Scotland, John Lang Currie sailed to Port
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Phillip in 1841 to join his cousins. By saving the wages he earned working on his cousins’ cattle stations and borrowing, Currie bought the first of his pastoral holdings in 1844, a 32 000-acre run with 1500 sheep at Larra near Camperdown. At first plagued by drought, he eventually built up enormous pastoral holdings based on high-quality merinos. By the 1880s Currie owned 80 000 acres in Victoria, to which he added thousands more acres in Queensland and elsewhere. He also developed woollen mills and was a company director in Melbourne. After living in Osborne House in Geelong, in the 1870s Currie built Eildon, a mansion on Grey Street, St Kilda. One of his daughters married Richard Grice (no. 138).
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the time he drew it up he was resident at 8 Hyde Park Terrace, London. He may have been connected with Brown & Co., merchants of 472 George Street North, listed in the 1851 Sydney directory. He was the brother of William Brown and the uncle of Edward Wyld, who was a London merchant in 1890. Thomas Brown was evidently a successful Sydney merchant who returned to London, having made no wider impact; the whole of his large fortune was left in England.
120. Robert Rand
(1819–94)
Pastoralist in central New South Wales
111. Thomas Brown
Wealth: £412 971 0.279% of GDP Current Value: $2.0 billion
(d. 1890)
Merchant in Sydney; lived in London
Wealth: £600 012 0.291% of GDP Current Value: $2.09 billion Virtually nothing is known of Thomas Brown, who is described in his will as ‘formerly of Sydney, merchant’, but at
Born in Hadleigh, Suffolk, the son of a farmer, Robert Rand emigrated to Australia around 1832 and became one of the earliest settlers in central New South Wales, obtaining Mohonga Station in 1849 and the adjacent Urangeline in 1864. By the time of his death he owned 290 000 sheep on nearly 160 000 freehold acres and was also a large-scale cattle
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1850–99 breeder. He was unmarried and known as an abstainer from strong drink.
in the New South Wales parliament for seven years.
121. Henry Osborne
122. John Bell
(1821–76)
(1803–59) Pastoralist in Victoria, chiefly around Geelong Pastoralist in New South Wales
Wealth: £326 067 0.276% of GDP Current Value: $1.98 billion
Wealth: £170 000 0.278% of GDP Current Value: $2.0 billion
A Scotsman from Dumfriesshire, John Henry Osborne was the son of a Protestant farmer from County Tyrone, Ireland, and arrived in Sydney in 1829. He got his first ‘leg-up’ by selling his farm in Ireland prior to departure, investing in Irish linen, taking this with him to Australia and selling it at a handsome profit. Osborne quickly bought pastoral properties in the Liverpool area, then established Marshall Mount, an estate near Dapto in the Illawarra. By the time of his death Osborne owned extensive properties in the Murrumbidgee and Murray River regions, specialising in transporting his livestock to South Australia. He also owned lands in the Illawarra and coalmines near Maitland. Before he died at the age of 56, Osborne had served
Bell trained as a surveyor and joined his uncle, Captain John Bell (1790–1841), a
prominent
early
merchant
and
pastoralist in and near Hobart, in Van Diemen’s Land in 1839. Another uncle, John Calvert (1807–69), was also a successful pioneer of Victoria who came to Australia at Captain Bell’s behest. In 1840 John Bell moved to Port Phillip, obtaining land in the Colac region. From this Bell expanded to own major holdings in the Lake Colac and Watch Hill areas in and around Geelong, where he built Bell Park, his mansion. Bell served in the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1858–59 and was a major in the Geelong Mounted Rifles. His pastoral estate at Warrambine alone was worth £158 000.
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131. John Donald McLean
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136. Silas Harding
(1820–66)
(1821–94)
Pastoralist in Geelong, Victoria
Wealth: £386 487 0.261% of GDP Current Value: $1.87 billion
Pastoralist in Queensland and businessman in Sydney
Wealth: £190 000 0.267% of GDP Current Value: $1.92 billion One of the wealthiest early Queenslanders, John Donald McLean was born on the Isle of Skye, in Scotland, and arrived in Sydney in 1837. He then quickly became one of the pastoral pioneers of southern and western Queensland, by the time of his death reputedly owning more runs than anyone in the colony. McLean, however, chiefly resided in Sydney, where in 1865 he built a mansion at Edgecliff for the then-astronomical sum of £16 000. Nevertheless, at the same time he was a prominent early conservative politician in Queensland, serving in the Legislative Assembly from 1862–66. Indeed, the question of where he resided became a major issue after his death, with an important judicial decision declaring that he had been a New South Wales resident, making his estate exempt from stamp duty in Queensland despite the fact that he had served in the Queensland parliament. McLean’s early death at only 46 was caused by a fall from a horse.
Little is known about Silas Harding apart from the fact that he moved to Victoria in about 1841 with his brother Elias, married twice and died at his home, Edgecumbe, on Aberdeen Street, Geelong. Harding was a grazier in the district, chiefly at Devon Park; however, his fortune included more than £100 000 left in Queensland. In early 1897 his widow, then aged only 36, died of injuries following a carriage accident. At the time she was living at Devon Park, Dunkeld, Victoria.
138. Richard Grice
(1813–82)
Pastoralist in Victoria and merchant in Melbourne
Wealth: £382 664 0.259% of GDP Current Value: $1.86 billion The son of a farmer and banker in Cumberland, England, Richard Grice emigrated to the Port Phillip District in 1838 with some capital he had inherited and a good deal of farming experience. At
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1850–99
139. Edward Stirling (1804–73) Pastoralist, financier and mine owner in South Australia
Wealth: £280 000 0.258% of GDP Current Value: $1.85 billion
Richard Grice
once, Grice began a dual career as a largescale pastoralist in Victoria’s Western District—on one occasion he was speared in the back by Aborigines (whom, as a people, he admired) near Castlemaine— and also as a well-known import–export merchant trading in Melbourne, a firm that went through several changes of name but eventually became Grice, Sumner & Co. Grice branched out to own pastoral properties in Queensland and New South Wales, and was also a bank director. A widely respected man in Melbourne, in 1859 he chaired a Royal Commission into the public services, and was one of the greatest philanthropists of the Anglican Church and its missionary activities. Grice died in Fitzroy, Melbourne, at the age of 69, the founder of a large family. He was married to the daughter of John Lang Currie (no. 106).
Edward Stirling arrived in South Australia from Glasgow in 1839, bringing with him the parts of a wooden house to rebuild in the new colony. He took up a run of 800 acres at Strathalbyn, and also became a large-scale pastoralist in the Mount Lofty and Lake Alexandrina districts in partnership with the brother of George Grote, the historian. Returning to Scotland in the 1850s to gain mercantile experience, he then became a leading financier and merchant in Adelaide as the business partner of Sir Thomas Elder (no. 57) and other leading South Australian businessmen. Their firm, Elder, Smith & Co., became a leading financier of South Australia’s copper mines. From 1855–65 Stirling served in the South Australian parliament and helped to frame the colony’s constitution. He also retained extensive pastoral interests. From 1865 Stirling lived in London, and was chairman of the London branch of the South Australian Banking Company. Three of his four sons lived in South
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Australia, two of whom were knighted; one as an eminent medical professor and scientist, the other as a leading businessman and state politician. Stirling died in London, where he left nearly a third of his large estate.
141. William Robertson (1798–1874) Pastoralist in Victoria, chiefly around Colac; merchant in Hobart
Wealth: £289 067 0.255% of GDP Current Value: $1.83 billion
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his brother in 1822, and built up both pastoral runs and, in Hobart, a successful mercantile business. He maintained his Tasmanian merchant house until the 1860s. One of the original pioneers of Port Phillip—he bore much of the costs of John Batman’s expeditions—Robertson was an early explorer of western Victoria. In the late 1830s and 1840s, he built up a substantial series of pastoral runs west of Melbourne and, in particular, in the Colac area, where he acquired a 40 000-acre estate at Ondit. Specialising in cattle breeding, Robertson saw his four sons succeed him as leading pastoralists.
143. John Frazer
(1827–84)
Merchant and company director in Sydney
Wealth: £405 000 0.250% of GDP Current Value: $1.79 billion
William Robertson
Another immigrant from the Scottish Highlands, the son of a sheep farmer from Inverness-shire, William Robertson emigrated to Van Diemen’s Land with
John Frazer’s was a genuine ‘rags-toriches’ story. Born to Scots Presbyterian parents in County Down, Ireland, Frazer was a carpenter and joiner when he arrived as a poor immigrant in Sydney in 1842. After some years as an unsuccessful squatter, he became a clerk and in 1847 opened a wholesale grocery business in Sydney. With two of his brothers-in-law, he developed this into
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE SECOND ERA
1850–99
John Frazer
Edward Flood
Frazer & Co., a major wholesale merchant house on York Street, Sydney. A respected figure, he became a director of many banking, insurance, shipping and mining companies, and also had some pastoral interests. Living in a mansion in Edgecliff, Frazer made frequent trips to Britain and Europe, and served in the New South Wales Legislative Council in the 1870s. He was also a notable collector of books and art, and a benefactor of the Presbyterian Church and of the University of Sydney.
Edward Flood was born in Sydney, the illegitimate son of an Irish convict, Joseph Flood, who had several children by three different women; his mother was apparently named Ann Germaine. Apprenticed to a carpenter, Flood later became a major building contractor in Sydney, constructing the wool stores at Circular Quay, and also branched out into a wide variety of other business and pastoral activities. These included directorships in five insurance companies, as well as interests in banks, shipping companies, mines and pastoral holdings on a vast scale. By the 1850s Flood owned 650 000 acres in the Lower Darling region and later acquired nearly 800 miles of runs in Queensland. As if this was not enough, Flood also served as mayor of Sydney in 1844 and as a radical member of the New South Wales parliament in the 1850s, holding office as secretary for
150. Edward Flood
(1805–88)
Building contractor and businessman in Sydney; pastoralist in New South Wales and Queensland
Wealth: £468 487 0.243% of GDP Current Value: $1.74 billion
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Public Works in 1859–60 and again from 1869–72. Flood’s private life was rather scandalous. In 1826 he married the daughter of a former convict, by whom he had nine children, but lived for many years with another woman, by whom he had three more children. His legal wife died in poverty in 1879. Born and married as a Catholic, Flood died an Anglican and left almost all of his property to the children of his de facto relationship, leading to a protracted lawsuit by his legitimate offspring.
151. James Sutherland
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warehouse at Circular Quay. He was also connected with many other companies, and was a director of the Joint Stock Bank and of mining and railway firms. Mitchell’s rise appears to have been closely connected with the fact that his brother-in-law was Thomas Sutcliffe Mort, a leading Sydney merchant; both had married daughters of James Laidley (d. 1835), deputy-commissariat-general of New South Wales. After the death of his first wife, Mitchell married well again, this time the sister of the wealthy Sir George Wigram Allen (no. 204). Mitchell lived in the mansion Eltham at Darling Point.
Mitchell (1821–93)
152. Alexander William
Warehouse owner and merchant in Sydney
Robertson (1831–96)
Wealth: £369 000 0.241% of GDP Current Value: $1.73 billion
Coachline proprietor and businessman in Victoria; pastoralist in Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales
James Sutherland Mitchell was born in Orkney, Scotland, the son of a civil servant, and emigrated to Australia around 1841. Originally in the Commissariat Department in Hobart, he moved to Sydney, where he became a major businessman, being the proprietor of the Argyle Bonded and Free Stores, a
Wealth: £385 003 0.241% of GDP Current Value: $1.73 billion Alexander William Robertson was born at sea between Scotland and Canada, when his Inverness-shire-born father was emigrating with his wife and
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE SECOND ERA
1850–99 ten children. For unknown reasons,
155. John Hepburn
(1803–60)
Roberston decided to emigrate from Ontario to the Victorian goldfields, arriving in 1853. As with many successful entrepreneurs of the gold-rush period, Robertson wisely decided that a business in the infrastructure offered richer pickings than the goldfields themselves, and opened a carrying service between Melbourne and Bendigo, Robertson, Simpson & Co., and by the 1860s was closely connected with Cobb & Co., the famous carrying and coaching firm. In 1862 Robertson’s syndicate won the mail contract between Melbourne and Bendigo, and he gradually built up a near-monopoly of coach and carrying services between northern Victoria and Melbourne. Robertson’s second wife was the daughter of a relative of Richard Goldsborough (1821–86), the wellknown wool broker. Robertson joined Goldsborough and other leading Victorian businessmen in a number of ventures, and served as chairman of R. Goldsborough & Co. in 1886–93. He also became an extensive pastoralist in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, leaving more than £145 000 in the latter colony. Robertson, however, continued to live in Melbourne, at his mansion Ontario in Caulfield.
Pastoralist in central Victoria
Wealth: £170 000 0.234% of GDP Current Value: $1.68 billion There is some doubt as to where John Hepburn was born: differing sources suggest Whitechurch, East Lothian, Scotland, or Huntingdonshire in England. There is also doubt as to his father’s occupation, with some saying that Hepburn was the son of a farmer and others claiming he was the son of a naval captain. Hepburn went to sea, eventually becoming the shipmaster of The Alice, a vessel which traded with Sydney and Hobart. As a result, he was often known as ‘Captain Hepburn’. Around 1830, on a voyage to Hobart, Hepburn formed a partnership with an ex-banker aboard his ship to export sheep from Australia, and settled in New South Wales. In 1836 he then became one of the original pioneers of Victoria and one of the first pastoralists in central Victoria. (More accurately, Hepburn was originally a ‘squatter’, a pastoralist who placed his stock on public land without a licence.) He founded Hepburn Springs, eventually owning a run of
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30 000 acres in the area, and also owned
159. George Fife Angas
a string of other well-known runs such
(1789–1879)
as the Campapse Plains and Smeaton Hill, where he built a country mansion. Hepburn died there in August 1860 at
Merchant, banker and landowner in England and South Australia
the age of 57.
158. John Simson
Wealth: £292 150 0.230% of GDP Current Value: $1.65 billion (1822–96)
Pastoralist in Victoria, and also Queensland and New South Wales
Wealth: £372 541 0.233% of GDP Current Value: $1.67 billion John Simson arrived in Victoria in 1850 from Scotland, the son of a Fifeshire farmer, to join his brother Robert (1819– 96), who had emigrated in 1842 to Van
George Fife Angas
Diemen’s Land and then, a year later, moved to Victoria’s Western District. John Simson became a pastoralist at Trewalla near Beaufort, from 1853 to 1873, then lived in a mansion in Toorak, Melbourne. In later years he also bought extensive properties in the other states, including Gurley Station near Moree, in New South Wales, but especially in Queensland, where he left £170 000.
One of the great figures in the foundation of South Australia, George Fife Angas was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne to a successful coachmaker and businessman of Scottish descent. A devout Protestant from his earliest years, at 20 he became a Baptist; severe religious discipline was the major influence on his life. Angas headed a variety of mercantile and shipping businesses in London and
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE SECOND ERA
1850–99 Newcastle then, around 1832, he became interested in the growing movement, headed by Edward Gibbon Wakefield and others, to establish a colony in South Australia where Protestant Nonconformists could enjoy full religious equality, and which would be settled by relatively prosperous farmers and exclude convicts. From then until 1848 Angas was one of the foremost financial backers of the scheme, and actually owned thousands of acres of land in South Australia before he set foot there. He persuaded hundreds to settle in South Australia, and was one of the formative influences on the important German Lutheran settlement in the new colony. Finally in 1851 at the age of 61 Angas arrived in South Australia, preceded by his family, and immediately became one of the major political figures in the colony, serving in the colonial parliament from 1851 until 1866, invariably on the conservative side of any issue. He also became one of the largest landowners and sheep farmers in South Australia, and promoted many banking and mercantile activities there. His devout Protestantism contained many contradictions. Angas supported full religious equality and was significant in making South Australia, in 1851, the first part of the British Empire without an established church, yet he also made
no secret of his detestation of Catholics, especially the Irish. He championed the Aborigines but opposed universal manhood suffrage. He gave away thousands of pounds a year through generous philanthropy, but supported self-help and opposed private and public borrowing. This great patriarch of South Australia died at the age of 90, having founded an important local dynasty.
162. Thomas Austin
(1815–71)
Pastoralist in Victoria, especially near Geelong, and in Tasmania
Wealth: £177 386 0.226% of GDP Current Value: $1.62 billion Thomas Austin was born in a Somerset village in England; his uncle, James Austin (1776–1831), a convict deported to Van Diemen’s Land, was among the founders of Hobart. Thomas Austin emigrated there in 1831, preceded or accompanied by his family. He began as an innkeeper and coach proprietor, and learned about Australian pastoral conditions from two brothers who had become extensive pastoralists in Tasmania. In 1837, with his
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brother James (1810–96), Thomas Austin became one of the earliest, and then greatest, pastoralists in the Port Phillip area, first around Winchelsea and later in the Geelong district. Austin built an imposing mansion, Barwon Park, in Geelong, and owned more than 29 000 acres. Thomas Austin’s widow Elizabeth founded the Austin Hospital in Melbourne; however, Austin himself is infamous in Australian history because in 1859 he introduced rabbits to the Australian mainland for the first time. They bred—‘like rabbits’—and became one of Australia’s worst animal pests. Millions of them were killed in an attempt to stop them foraging for food also eaten by livestock. This was one case where nostalgia for olde England and its ways was definitely misplaced.
Simms was poor, and was said to have worked as a stable boy before starting a brewery in 1851. Known as the West End Brewery, W.K. Simms & Co. became one of the largest in South Australia, and Simms became known as one of the richest men in the colony. As well, in 1854 Simms became a mail contractor. In 1888 Simms’s brewery merged with the South Australian Brewing, Malting, Wine and Spirit Company. From 1868 Simms served in the South Australian parliament, and was also elected to the Adelaide City Council.
163. William Knox Simms
Pastoralist in Victoria, especially around Geelong
167. Adam Swanston Robertson (c. 1818–73)
Wealth: £240 503 0.220% of GDP Current Value: $1.58 billion
(1829–97) Brewer in Adelaide
Wealth: £345 000 0.225% of GDP Current Value: $1.61 billion Born in England, William Knox Simms arrived in Adelaide in December 1845.
Probably born in 1818 in Edinburgh, Adam Swanston Robertson arrived in Port Phillip around 1840, and was a pioneer of the Corangamite district around Geelong. His first wife was the sister of Francis Ormond (1829–89), the famous grazier and philanthropist.
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE SECOND ERA
1850–99 Robertson, who lived in Geelong, was a great builder of Presbyterian churches, among them a famous Gothic Revival chapel he built at Lismore, New South Wales, in 1867.
the Napoleonic Wars. One of the besteducated of pioneering pastoralists, he attended schools on the European continent and in England, and formally graduated from Cambridge University in 1841, just after emigrating with his brother Charles to Adelaide in September 1840. There they were joined by a
168. George Charles
third brother, James Collins Hawker, who was a surveyor working for Governor
Hawker (1818–95) Pastoralist in South Australia
Wealth: £305 800 0.217% of GDP Current Value: $1.56 billion
George Charles Hawker
George Hawker was born in London, the son of an admiral on half-pay after
Gawler. With money from their father, George Hawker and his brothers bought land and also sheep which they brought to the Barossa Valley and then to the Bungaree area. Within ten years the Hawkers owned an amazing total of 500 000 acres, becoming well-known for their robust sheep. George Hawker then pursued a second career as a politician, holding office in the South Australian parliament between 1858 and 1895. He served as speaker from 1860–64 and held a variety of Cabinet positions including colonial treasurer. Well-known for his sporting activities—he was a steward of the South Australian Jockey Club—and for his Anglican philanthropy, Hawker fathered fifteen children before dying at the age of 76. Because he was about to be knighted at the time of his death, his widow was allowed to use the title of ‘Lady’.
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169. Andrew Chirnside
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Geelong, where he bred bloodstock and was a well-known sportsman. A trustee of three local Presbyterian churches and president of the shire council, Chirnside was allegedly the first pastoralist in Victoria to employ Aborigines as station hands, at his Wannon estate.
(1818–90) Pastoralist in Victoria
Wealth: £443 696 0.215% of GDP Current Value: $1.54 billion
172. John Brown Broughton (1831–82) Pastoralist, chiefly in Victoria
Wealth: £315 545 0.213% of GDP Current Value: $1.53 billion
Andrew Chirnside
The eighth son of a farmer in East Lothian, Scotland, Andrew Chirnside emigrated in 1839 to South Australia to join his brother, moving a year later to the Port Phillip area. During the 1840s he became well-known as the owner of a substantial number of runs in the Grampians, near Wannon, and throughout the Western District, totalling nearly 100 000 acres. He is still remembered today as the owner of Werribee Park near
John Brown Broughton was the son of Richard Brown Broughton (1806–82; he died four months after his son), a Devon-born pioneering pastoralist at the Kout Norien Station at Harrow, Victoria. The father arrived in Victoria in 1841 and opened a sheep station in the Goulburn River area. John Brown Broughton assisted his father at the Ballarook Station and then at Kout Norien. His son Richard John Moffatt Broughton (no. 91), who died at the age of only 28, left nearly £700 000. John Brown Broughton was very rich, but
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE SECOND ERA
1850–99 not as rich as his son, and the details of this family’s fortune and inheritance remain obscure.
of the Oddfellows (a fraternal society). Moffitt invested wisely in Sydney properties but owned no pastoral lands. In the 1880s the firm he founded was taken over by W.C. Penfold & Co., which is still a major force in Australian
174. William Moffitt
stationery and office supplies.
(1802–74) Bookseller, stationer and printer in Sydney
180. John Christian
Wealth: £230 000 0.210% of GDP Current Value: $1.51 billion
(1806–63) Pastoralist in New South Wales
William Moffitt pursued a highly original path to wealth. Born in Liverpool, England, and apprenticed to a bookbinder, he was sentenced in 1823 to seven years’ transportation for stealing tea, arriving in Sydney four years later. When set free Moffitt began a career as a bookbinder, stationer and engraver in Sydney, later branching out as a banker. Although Moffitt’s firm printed many notable early books, his main source of income was as a wholesale and retail stationer on a large scale, especially for Australia’s burgeoning business community. He also printed New Zealand’s first banknotes, and was the co-founder of the Australian branch
Wealth: £130 000 0.206% of GDP Current Value: $1.48 billion John Christian was born in Cornwall in 1806, the son of a farmer, and was still living in Devonshire, England, when he married in 1835. Beyond that, little is known about him apart from the fact that he became a large-scale squatter and pastoralist around Hinton, near Port Stephens, New South Wales, where he died aged 56 in November 1863. He may also have had some role in the early pastoral development of southern Queensland.
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183. James Campbell Telford (1828–81) Grazier in New South Wales and Victoria; physician in Melbourne
Wealth: £283 000 0.199% of GDP Current Value: $1.43 billion James Campbell Telford was born in Airdrie, Scotland, the son of a merchant, and trained as a physician at Glasgow University. Little is known of his career. He emigrated to Victoria around 1851 and became wealthy as a grazier in that colony and in New South Wales. He was living in the Geelong area in the 1850s, where he married his wife Bertha Brown. For the last few years of his life, however, Telford lived in New South Wales, on what was apparently his chief property, Cobran Station in the Murrumbidgee, where he died at the age of 53.
189. John Cox
(1819–77)
Pastoralist, mainly in the Murrumbidgee district, New South Wales
Wealth: £235 000 0.195% of GDP Current Value: $1.40 billion
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The son of a farmer in County Limerick, Ireland, who died young, John Cox emigrated to Sydney around 1834, aged fifteen, and found employment on cattle stations in the Monaro. He eventually became a partner with an old shipmate, John Kean, in stockraising stations around Wagga Wagga and throughout the Murrumbidgee. A keen racehorse owner, Cox founded a well-known pastoral dynasty in southern New South Wales.
190. John McPherson (1798–1875) Pastoralist, mainly around the Canberra area and also in western Victoria
Wealth: £231 004 0.194% of GDP Current Value: $1.39 billion John McPherson’s father, a Scotsman from Skye, emigrated with his family to Sydney in 1825 and settled in the Bathurst area. (John McPherson might have arrived later, since he was married in May 1825 in Edinburgh.) John McPherson lived in the area of Canberra until about 1840, when he moved to Victoria; his
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1850–99 son John Alexander McPherson (1833– 94) was said to be the first European boy born on the site of Canberra. After then living for some time in Melbourne, McPherson became a large-scale pastoralist in the Casterton area and in other parts of the Western District. By the 1850s he owned about 52 000 acres, and much more by the 1870s, including the 62 000-acre Nerrin-Nerrin Station, near Streatham, said to be the largest freehold property in the colony. In his last years McPherson lived at Nicholson Street, Fitzroy, in Melbourne. His son Alexander became a major figure in Victorian politics in the 1870s.
Brunswick, where he built the mansion Phoenix Park, named for the famous gardens in Dublin. Virtually all of Dawson’s wealth consisted of real estate; a shrewd investor, he owned two corner sites on Bourke and Swanston streets and many other Melbourne properties.
192. John Harris
(1810–91)
Farmer in New South Wales
Wealth: £391 636 0.193% of GDP Current Value: $1.39 billion
191. Michael Dawson (d. 1875) Property owner in Melbourne
Wealth: £229 449 0.193% of GDP Current Value: $1.39 billion Probably born in Ireland, Michael Dawson arrived in Melbourne in 1840 and was originally a grocer. By 1843 he was affluent enough to acquire one of the original blocks in the suburb of
John Harris
John Harris was born in Northern Ireland in 1810, and emigrated to New South
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Wales around 1837. He was described in his will and in local directories as a ‘farmer’ of Shanes Park, St Marys, in the Penrith area around 40 kilometres west of Sydney, and died suddenly at Harris Park Railway Station, near Parramatta, aged 81. Unmarried and an Anglican, his other business interests remain obscure, and how he built up a fortune of nearly £400 000 is unclear.
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the island colony, holding a number of government posts, for instance commissariat at Hobart, and quickly built up substantial landholdings throughout the island, especially in the north. An honest and capable man, Archer was praised by most of his contemporaries. He was a member of Van Diemen’s Land’s first Legislative Council in 1826 and served until 1845. His many descendants long remained prominent in Tasmanian affairs.
197. Thomas Archer 198. Niel Black
(1790–1850)
(1804–80)
Commissariat and landowner in Tasmania Pastoralist in Victoria
Wealth: £22 000 0.188% of GDP Current Value: $1.35 billion
Wealth: £252 000 0.188% of GDP Current Value: $1.35 billion
Born in Hertford, England, Thomas Archer emigrated to Sydney in 1811, where his uncle, a London newspaper editor, had obtained his appointment as a deputy-assistant-commissariat-general. Due to a mix-up, however, Governor Macquarie had received no instructions to confirm this appointment and instead made Archer the commissariat at Port Dalrymple, Van Diemen’s Land. Archer spent the rest of his life in
One of the so-called ‘Men of Yesterday’, pastoralists opposed to the extension of democracy and rights for smaller farmers, Niel Black was born in Argyllshire, Scotland, the son of a Gaelic-speaking tenant farmer. In the 1830s he formed a partnership with, among others, British Prime Minister William E. Gladstone’s cousin, a Liverpool merchant, to invest in Australian pastoral properties, and sailed
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1850–99 Glenormiston estate, where he held a large Aboriginal corroboree.
199. George Russell
(1812–88)
Pastoralist in Victoria
Wealth: £361 856 0.187% of GDP Current Value: $1.34 billion Niel Black
to the continent in 1839. Black originally visited Adelaide but preferred Port Phillip, where more of the inhabitants were Scotsmen. By 1840 Black had already purchased a 44 000-acre run, Glenormiston, in the Western District, and in the following years acquired other Western District pastoral estates, where he bred fine merino sheep. In the 1850s he returned to Scotland for five years. Black remained in partnership with Gladstone and others until 1868, when he dissolved the firm amidst much bitterness. Black was best known as a member of the Victorian Legislative Council for more than 20 years, where he opposed any extension of democratic rights to pioneer settlers. Perhaps because of his connections to the Gladstone family, in 1867 he entertained Prince Alfred at his
George Russell
Born in Fifeshire, Scotland, the son of a tenant farmer, George Russell emigrated to Van Diemen’s Land in 1831 to join his brother Philip (c. 1796–1844), a pioneering pastoralist. In 1836 George Russell moved to the Geelong area and in 1839 to the Leigh River area. His main run was at Golfhill near Shelford, where he bred sheep and cattle and had a total run of 28 000 acres.
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202. Thomas Kite
(c. 1789–1876)
Pastoralist in New South Wales, especially around Bathurst
Wealth: £220 000 0.186% of GDP Current Value: $1.33 billion Born in Wiltshire, the son of a farmer, Thomas Kite was sentenced in London in 1812 to transportation for life for theft, arriving in Sydney on the Fortune in 1813. Like many other convicts his worth was recognised by Governor Macquarie, who pardoned him in 1818 and gave him land at Kelso in the Roxburgh area of New South Wales. Kite was one of the earliest settlers in the Bathurst area, and by the time of his death—he was one of the last of the early convicts to survive—he owned much land in the Bathurst area as well as properties in central Sydney.
Lachlan McBean was born in Invernessshire, Scotland, the son of a farmer, and migrated to South Australia in 1838 with his brother Alexander (1827–1903). Originally employed in a mercantile business in Adelaide, he then became a cattle drover on the overland route between South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales, obtaining his first land lease in 1851. By the late 1850s he owned more than 60 000 freehold acres and in the 1860s owned more than 100 000 acres throughout the eastern states. In the 1880s he also bought Goldsborough’s Warehouse on Flinders and Market streets, Melbourne, for £40 000. McBean, who was unmarried, continued to live at Wooroma Station, near Deniliquin, New South Wales, where he died aged 84 in a carriage accident.
204. Sir George Wigram Allen (1824–85)
203. Lachlan McBean
Solicitor and company director in Sydney
(c. 1809–94) Pastoralist in South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland; property owner in Melbourne
Wealth: £276 029 0.186% of GDP Current Value: $1.33 billion
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Wealth: £300 000 0.185% of GDP Current Value: $1.33 billion Sir George Wigram Allen was born in Sydney, the son of George Allen
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1850–99
205. Martin Loughlin (1833–94) Goldmining magnate in Victoria; businessman and property owner in Melbourne and elsewhere
Wealth: £273 791 0.185% of GDP Current Value: $1.33 billion
Sir George Wigram Allen
(1800–77), a well-known early Sydney solicitor and politician. Following in his father’s footsteps as a wealthy and important Sydney solicitor, Sir George Allen’s clients included many of the colony’s elite figures and large business houses; he also served as president of the Law Institute of New South Wales after 1870. As well, Allen served in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for thirteen years and, in 1875, became its speaker. At the time, he was reputed to have an income of £15 000 a year, certainly one of the largest professional incomes on the Australian continent, earned in part from the law but also from the many directorships he held in leading Sydney business firms. As speaker, Allen was knighted in 1877. He was a generous supporter of Methodist causes and helped to extend state and private education in New South Wales.
The son of a Catholic farmer in County Kilkenny, Ireland, Martin Loughlin lived in the United States before emigrating to Victoria with his cousin during the Gold Rush. Unlike many others, Loughlin managed to make a fortune in the goldfields, mining the sub-alluvial gold of the Ballarat region as well as profiting from lead mines. He was also a major shareholder in a number of other mining firms and cooperative ventures. By the early 1860s Loughlin was worth at least £100 000. He continued to profit through the 1890s from further gold discoveries throughout the colony, specialising in extending finance to new mining ventures and floating new companies. He branched out, owning hotels and pastoral holdings in Victoria and Queensland, and was also a major investor in tramways. As well, Loughlin owned horses which won the Melbourne and Caulfield cups. On the other hand, he lost heavily during the depression of the early 1890s
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and also through spectacular wagers on horseraces: At one stage he must have been far richer than when he died. A philanthropist of the Catholic Church and an art collector, Loughlin died unmarried at Craig’s Hotel, Ballarat, where he had lived for many years.
208. David McCaughey (d. 1899) Pastoralist in New South Wales
Wealth: £327 633 0.181% of GDP Current Value: $1.30 billion David McCaughey was the brother of the millionaire pastoralist Sir Samuel McCaughey (no. 93); their father was a Presbyterian farmer and merchant. David was born in Ballymena, County Antrim, in Ireland, and came to Australia in 1874 to join his brother at Coonong, New South Wales. By 1893 David McCaughey owned 112 000 sheep in his own right in the Deniliquin area. He lived mainly at Coree Station near Jerilderie, New South Wales. He was also the nephew of another great pastoralist, Sir Samuel Wilson (no. 44).
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215. Edward Bernard Green (1809–61) Squatter in Victoria; lived in Melbourne
Wealth: £115 000 0.178% of GDP Current Value: $1.26 billion Little is known about Edward Bernard Green apart from the fact that at one time he was a soldier and then became a squatter in central Victoria, owning the Green Vale or Fifteen Mile Creek and Kilawarra runs. He was also a pioneer of the overland mails. At one time a member of the Victoria Club (founded in 1856) in Melbourne, Green returned to England where he died in October 1861 at Tunbridge Wells.
216. William Charles Wentworth (1790–1872) Barrister, newspaper owner and landowner in Sydney, New South Wales and elsewhere
Wealth: £166 000 0.177% of GDP Current Value: $1.27 billion
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1850–99
William Charles Wentworth
One of the most famous and colourful of the early Australian pioneers, William Charles Wentworth was the illegitimate son of D’Arcy Wentworth, physician and ensign on the Second Fleet and scion of an aristocratic family, and a convict woman, Catherine Crowley. Sent to England to be educated at private schools, W.C. Wentworth returned to Sydney in 1810, already a landowner and racehorse owner through his father’s wealth. Wentworth became famous as one of the leaders of the celebrated expedition across the Blue Mountains in 1813. In politics, he was a strange mixture: he was liberal in his opposition to press censorship but also became increasingly a conservative voice, who famously advocated the creation of a hereditary upper house in the New South Wales parliament, denounced as a ‘bunyip aristocracy’ by the scheme’s opponents. Wentworth was, however, an important political figure, serving in the
New South Wales Legislative Council in 1843–54 and 1861–62. Wentworth’s wealth came from a mixture of landowning (he owned fifteen sheep stations and bought Vaucluse in 1827, where he built a mansion), his practice as a barrister, and his profits as editor of the Australian newspaper, founded in 1824 (not connected with today’s newspaper of that name). In 1840, he arranged a deal with seven Maori chieftains to buy one-third of New Zealand, which would have made him ‘the greatest landowner on earth’. (Governor Gipps blocked the purchase.) For most of the period after 1854 Wentworth lived in England, at his estate in Dorset. Much of his life was a paradox: the son of a convict woman who married the daughter of a former convict blacksmith, he nevertheless hoped for the creation of an Australian House of Lords. His body was returned to Sydney and given a state funeral.
218. Thomas Buckland (1814–96) Banker and businessman in Sydney; grazier in New South Wales
Wealth: £280 586 0.176% of GDP Current Value: $1.26 billion
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The son of a farmer in Kent, Thomas Buckland emigrated to Sydney around 1830, gaining commercial experience in a warehouse and working in New Zealand before he began a lengthy partnership with Sir Daniel Cooper (1821–1902; no. 89). Buckland soon became one of the most prominent bankers and businessmen in Sydney, serving as a director of the Bank of New South Wales for many years and its president from 1886–94, and was chairman of CSR in 1883 and 1891–93. As a bank president, he expanded the firm through an astute knowledge of pastoral finance, and he also owned grazing runs on the Dubbo Plains. His nephew Sir Thomas Buckland (1848–1947) became a wellknown mining magnate and company president in the Charters Towers area of Queensland and later in Sydney, leaving £590 000 when he died at the age of 98.
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John Reeve was a squatter and pastoralist, chiefly around Tarraville, Gippsland, and married the second daughter, Fanny, of William Charles Wentworth (no. 216). In 1847 Reeve bought Greycliffe, a fine mansion at Nielsen Point, Vaucluse, from his father-in-law; today the site is the Administrative Headquarters of the Sydney District of the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Like his father-inlaw, Reeve lived his last years in England, in a mansion, Fernwood, at Wimbledon Park. Most of Reeve’s large fortune was left in England, although he continued to own substantial Australian properties at his death.
221. John Rutherford
(d. 1880)
Merchant in Melbourne and pastoralist in New South Wales
220. John Reeve
Wealth: £233 847 0.175% of GDP Current Value: $1.26 billion
(d. 1875)
Pastoralist in Gippsland, Victoria; lived in Sydney and England
Wealth: £208 000 0.175% of GDP Current Value: $1.26 billion
John Rutherford was a Scottish emigrant to Australia of whom little is known. He was a merchant in Melbourne, probably a wine and spirit dealer, and also a largescale pastoralist in the Illawarra region
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1850–99 prominent Australian pastoralist. He was the son of Jerome Fane DeSalis who was, of all things, a Count of the Holy Roman Empire and also a large landowner in Ireland, owning 8000 acres yielding an income of nearly £10 000 in the 1880s, and he also served as a justice of the peace and Deputy-Lieutenant in Ireland. As well, DeSalis’s mother was the daughter of the Anglican bishop of Kildare. William DeSalis attended Eton, England’s most aristocratic private John Rutherford
school, and Oriel College, Oxford, and
of New South Wales. In the last years of his life he moved back to Scotland, living in Edinburgh. His daughter married a Scottish baronet of ancient lineage.
222. William Andrew Fane DeSalis (1812–96) Pastoralist, chiefly near Queanbeyan, New South Wales, and in Queensland; lived in England
Wealth: £245 382 0.175% of GDP Current Value: $1.26 billion William Andrew Fane DeSalis came from a most unusual background for a
became a barrister in 1836. For unknown reasons, several of the DeSalis brothers emigrated to Australia; the first being William’s younger brother, Leopold, who moved to Sydney in 1840 then acquired a sheep station in Queanbeyan, as well as a local pub, and served as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. DeSalis Brothers, as their concern was known, purchased extensive lands in the Queanbeyan area and also in Queensland, although it lost heavily in the 1890s just before William’s death. At some stage William DeSalis moved back to England, where he died at the age of 83 at his estate at Dawley Court, Uxbridge, Middlesex, just outside London; he also owned a second country house, Telfont Manor, near Salisbury in Wiltshire.
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226. Thomas Holt
(1811–88)
Wool buyer and financier in Sydney; pastoralist in New South Wales and Queensland
Wealth: £334 183 0.173% of GDP Current Value: $1.24 billion
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obelisk to Captain Cook in 1870 at the great navigator’s landing place. Thomas Holt was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council for fifteen years, served on numerous commissions and was a notable Congregationalist philanthropist. From 1881 he lived in Bromley, Kent, where he was a generous benefactor of the Salvation Army and of the work of Dr Barnardo among the poor of London.
227. Mary Ann Burdekin (1805–89) Widow of retail merchant and property owner in Sydney Thomas Holt
Born in Yorkshire, the son of a wool merchant, Thomas Holt emigrated to Sydney in 1842 where he quickly became one of the city’s leading businessmen, a prominent wool buyer, financier and director of many goldmining and insurance companies. Holt branched out to acquire a vast pastoral empire in New South Wales, and also in Queensland, centred at his mansion, The Warren, on the Cooks River in southern Sydney, where he erected an
Wealth: £366 493 0.172% of GDP Current Value: $1.23 billion Mary Ann Burdekin was born in Derbyshire, England, the daughter of Thomas Bossley, a landed proprietor. In 1831 she married Thomas Burdekin (no. 31), who had founded a lucrative firm of retail merchants in Sydney. After her husband’s early death (in 1844 at age 43), she inherited much of his property, which included a good deal of Sydney
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1850–99 real estate as well as his business interests. Two of her sons became prominent New South Wales politicians. Mary Ann Burdekin never remarried, remaining a widow for 44 years.
228. Thomas Ware Smart (1810–81) Estate agent and businessman in Sydney; pastoralist in New South Wales and Queensland
Wealth: £243 000 0.171% of GDP Current Value: $1.23 billion
estate agent and auctioneering business on George Street, which immediately prospered. Smart then became associated with an amazingly diverse range of businesses as chairman or director, including banks, insurance companies, railways and shipping firms, and also owned some pastoral runs in the Singleton area and in Queensland. Smart was also a major New South Wales politician, sitting in the State parliament much of the time from 1851 until 1869, and serving as colonial treasurer in 1863 and 1865. He built a fine mansion, Mona, at Darling Point where he acquired probably the best art collection in Australia of its time, featuring works by Raphael, Rubens and Gainsborough. Smart sent his two sons to Eton, presumably the only students at Britain’s most exclusive private school whose grandfather had been a convict bootmaker.
231. Duncan McKellar (c. 1828–84) Pastoralist and mine owner, chiefly in Victoria, also in New South Wales Thomas Ware Smart
Thomas Ware Smart was born in Sydney, the son of an ex-convict bootmaker. Originally a draper, at 26 he founded an
Wealth: £274 784 0.170% of GDP Current Value: $1.22 billion Born in Argyllshire, Scotland, the son of
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a master mariner, Duncan McKellar lived in Victoria from about 1852. He was already in Australia when he married his wife, Margaret McLachlan, at Mount Gambier, South Australia, at the age of 35. McKellar was a squatter in the Stawell District of Victoria, and owned extensive properties in New South Wales. He also became president of the Mine Owners’ Association. He spent the last years of his life at his mansion, Tooronga, in Hawthorn, Melbourne.
232. James White
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punters of his time, breeding dozens of winners. White was reputed to have won £121 000 from stakes placed on his 66 horses which won a total of 252 races; reputedly winning £25 000, an astronomical sum, on one doubles bet. He also served as chairman of the Australian Jockey Club in 1880 and in 1883–90. A cultured man who was a member of both the Royal and Linnean societies, and who served as chairman of the Mercantile Bank of Sydney, White was an art collector of note, filling his mansion, Cranbrook at Rose Bay with Old Masters.
(1828–90)
Pastoralist and racehorse owner in New South Wales; banker in Sydney
Wealth: £349 791 0.170% of GDP Current Value: $1.22 billion James White’s father, also named James White (d. 1842; no. 153), was a pioneering pastoralist in the Hunter Valley. His son, who was educated at the King’s School, Parramatta, spent his early years as a pastoralist in the same area, with Martindale, near Muswellbrook, as its centre. He became famous as one of the leading racehorse owners and
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THE SECOND ERA ‘ALSO-RANS’
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Richard Rouse (1774–1852), public servant in Parramatta and settler, £10 000 Daniel Cooper (1785–1853), merchant and retailer (Cooper and Levey) in Sydney, former convict, £45 000 William Lawson (1774–1850), explorer of the Blue Mountains and pastoralist in NSW, £12 000 John William Gosling (1788– 1852), leading banker and merchant in Sydney, £8000 George Richard Griffiths (1802– 59), merchant and banker in Sydney; friend of Thomas Huxley (scientist), £88 000
6.
Lawrence Myles (1794–1858), settler in NSW who in 1842 petitioned the government to import ‘coolies’ from India, £20 000
7. 8. 9.
Thomas Wooley (1809–58), merchant in Sydney who wrote Reminiscences of the Life of a Bushman, £20 000
George Sutton (1774–1859), settler in NSW and principal of a lunatic asylum who wrote books on grapes and a biography of Sir Joseph Banks, £11 000
11.
Thomas Whistler Smith (1824–59), son of Thomas Smith (no. 194) prominent banker and businessman in Sydney, £13 000
12.
Mary Reibey (nee Haydock) (1777–1855), mother of Thomas Reibey (no. 185), most famous early businesswoman in NSW; arrived as a convict aged fifteen, in 1792, and later ran warehouses and hotels, £10 000
13. 14.
Philip Parker King (1791– 1856), son of Governor King and pastoralist in NSW, £11 200 Archibald Clunes Innes (1800–57), soldier and pastoralist near Newcastle; Glen Innes is named for him; went bankrupt twice but left £10 000
15. 16.
James Dickson (1813–63), merchant, pioneer of the Hunter area, NSW, and MLA, £100 000
Rosetta Terry (1768–1858), widow of Samuel Terry (no. 1), Australia’s richest man in real terms, £27 000
Samuel Cohen (1811–61), general merchant in Maitland and Sydney; Jewish communal leader, £70 000
Samuel Alexander (1824–59), Jewish saddler in Sydney whose son was the eminent philosopher Samuel Alexander OM (1859–1938), £15 000
David Ramsay (1794–1860), physician who became a merchant and developed a plant nursery in Haberfield, NSW, £50 000
125
17.
The Second Era ‘Also-rans’
10.
New South Wales
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18.
John Lamb (1790–1862), naval officer and prominent merchant and banker in Sydney, and longtime parliamentarian, £50 000
19.
Charles John Fairfax (1829– 77), newspaper proprietor in Sydney, son of the founder John Fairfax (1804–77), £50 000
20.
John Verge (1782–1861), famous architect in Sydney who built Elizabeth Bay House and Camden Park, £30 000
21.
Charles Kemp (1813–64), prominent newspaper editor in Sydney turned banker and company chairman, then MLC, £30 000
22. 23. 24.
Margaret Campbell (1795– 1864), widow of Robert Campbell, Junior (no. 72), £32 000 John Tyson (d. 1860), brother of multimillionaire James (d. 1898, no. 5), £25 000 Ambrose Foss (1804–62), dentist, then leading pharmaceutical manufacturer in Sydney, and Wesleyan missionary, £20 000
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27. 28. 29. 30. 31.
William Lithgow (1784– 1864), auditor-general of NSW, banker, MLC, £16 000 William Bradley (1800–68), pastoralist and pioneer of the Monaro, £103 000 James Hume (1798–1868), architect, especially of churches, in Sydney, £99 000 Grace Dangar (1801–69), widow of Henry Dangar (no. 63), £40 000 Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson (1812–67), pastoralist and merchant; premier of NSW in 1856, £77 000
32.
William John Dumaresq (1793–1868), military officer and pastoralist; MLC; brother of Henry (no. 217), £20 000
33. 34.
William Sharp Macleay (1792–1865), British diplomat and naturalist, emigrated to Sydney, £15 000
James Norton (1795–1862), solicitor in Sydney and MLC, £25 000
James White (1785–1865), squatter, pioneer of the Lachlan district; unmarried, left his estate to a nephew and two nieces who lived to be 104, 107 and 100, £12 000
Archibald Mosman (1799– 1863), merchant and pastoralist in Sydney; Mosman is named for him, £25 000
John Dobie (1794–1866), naval surgeon and first Officer of Health, Sydney, in 1838, then pioneer of the Clarence River district, £22 500
25. 26.
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35.
THE SECOND ERA ‘ALSO-RANS’
36.
44.
Samuel Emanuel (1803–68), storekeeper in Sydney and proprietor of ‘Beehive’ store in Goulburn; one of the earliest Jewish elected officials, MLA in 1862, £13 100
Thomas Chaplin Breillat (1804–73), Sydney merchant and chairman of the Bank of Australia; founded the Sydney Chamber of Commerce, £20 000
Dr James Scott-Mitchell (1792– 1869), physician and early copper smelter and Sydney businessman who lost heavily to a confidence trickster, £15 000
Rev. William Purves (1811– 70), minister and moderator of the Church of Scotland in Australia; landowner in Illawarra, £17 000
John Eales (1799–1871), pastoral pioneer of the Maryborough district, ship owner and coalmine owner in NSW, £100 000
Archibald Windeyer (1785– 1870), landowner and wine grower with his brothers in NSW, £16 000
37.
38.
39.
Robert Towns (1794–1873), merchant and ship owner in Sydney; pioneer of Queensland; Townsville is named for him, £74 000
40.
David Jones (1793–1873), founder of the famous Sydney-based retailer David Jones & Co.; MLC, £30 000
41.
Thomas Icely (1797–1874), pastoral pioneer of Carcoar, NSW, then lived in Elizabeth Farm House, Parramatta, £37 000
42.
Hamilton Hume (1797–1873), famed explorer and the first European to reach Lake Bathurst and the Murray River, then pastoralist near Yass, £26 000
43.
John Sands (1818–73), Sydney stationer who founded Sands & McDougall, £20 000
45.
46. 47.
Alexander Berry (1791–1873), merchant in Sydney and settler in the Shoalhaven area; a leading businessman but left only £18 000—he may have given most to his millionaire brother David (no. 37) before his death
48. 49.
Maurice Alexander (1820– 74), merchant and retailer in Sydney and Goulburn; MLA, £18 050 Otto Baldwin (d. 1874), grazier at Maitland, among the first to take stock across the Liverpool Ranges, £16 000
50. 51.
William Long (1797–1876), wine merchant and hotelier (pub) owner in Sydney; former convict, £100 000 Alexander Brown (1816– 77), pioneer of the Newcastle coal industry with his brother John (no. 175), £100 000
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52.
Thomas Sutcliffe Mort (1816–78), famous Sydney businessman, auctioneer, wool buyer and meat shipper, whose £200 000 estate was just below (0.158% of the GDP) the minimum cutoff point of the All-time List
53.
Somerville Livingstone Learmonth (1819–79), pastoralist in Victoria, then NSW, who later lived in England and, with his brothers, founded a famous pastoral dynasty, £200 000
54. 55.
Samuel Bennett (1815–78), newspaper proprietor and founder of the Sydney Evening News, £80 000 John Donnelly (1813–79), grazier in the Murrumbidgee who owned runs with continuous frontages of 100 kilometres, £60 000
56.
Rev. Willam Schofield (1793– 1878), Wesleyan missionary who built up a large fortune, lived in Sydney, £55 000
57. 58.
Ewen Wallace Cameron (1816–76), partner of Thomas Sutcliffe Mort in Sydney, £41 000
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60.
John Henry Challis (1806– 80), merchant in Sydney and major benefactor of the University of Sydney, £161 000
61.
Samuel Deane Gordon (1811– 82), Sydney merchant and company director; parliamentarian from 1856 until his death, £215 862
62. 63. 64.
Lebbeus Hordern (1826–81), brother of Anthony (no. 68); lived in Melbourne most of his life, £107 216 Suetonius Henry Officer (1830–83), well-known pastoralist in Darling Downs, £173 028 George William Lord (1818– 80), large-scale pastoralist and son of the ex-convict and merchant Simeon Lord (1771–1840); NSW parliamentarian and colonial treasurer, £90 000
65.
Robert Johnston (c. 1790– 1882), naval officer and pastoralist; son of the famous pioneer George Johnston (no. 18); discovered the Clyde River in 1820, £74 995
66.
Rt Rev. William Tyrrell (1807– 79), Anglican bishop of Newcastle, NSW, who also owned 106 000 pastoral acres, £41 000
Most Rev. Roger William Bede (1834–83), Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney who, most remarkably, left £61 628, willing it all to his successor as archbishop
John Fairfax (1804–77), famous founder of newspaper dynasty who bought the Sydney Morning Herald in 1841 and developed it, £80 000
Lewis Wolfe Levy (1815–85), leading businessman in the Liverpool Plains area and then Sydney; also a parliamentarian, £245 311
59.
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67.
THE SECOND ERA ‘ALSO-RANS’
68. 69.
Anthony Hordern (1842–86), leading retailer in Sydney and partner of brother Samuel (no. 10), £199 800 Richard Goldsbrough (1821– 86), famous wool broker, one of the founders of Goldsbrough, Mort & Co. in 1888; lived in Melbourne in his last years, £236 818
70.
William Fanning (1816–87), large-scale pastoralist and then importer in Sydney; later lived in England, £247 318
71.
Thomas Holt (1811–88), prominent financier in Sydney who once owned 3 million acres of pastoral land, £334 183
72.
Auber George Jones (1832– 87), grazier near Wagga Wagga; MLA; established the local newspaper, £162 418
73.
Sir Alexander Stuart (1824– 86), merchant and banker in Sydney; MLA; served as premier of NSW in 1883–85, as well as colonial treasurer, etc., £83 760
74. 75.
Sarah Hart (1822–90), widow of the Sydney merchant David Hart, £234 495 Agnes Simmons (c. 1800–90), daughter of the early settler Samuel Thorley, and widow of James Simmons of Sydney, £227 681
76.
Alexander Campbell (1812– 91), merchant and banker; chairman of the Sydney Stock Exchange; MLA; NSW Postmaster-General, £179 105
77.
Joshua Frey Josephson (1815–92), barrister and businessman in Sydney; MLA; Solicitor-General and Judge, £169 247
78.
George Augustus Mein (1822–92), physician and pastoralist in NSW and elsewhere, £216 949
79.
John Williams (1821–91), Crown Solicitor in NSW, 1859–90, £81 273
80.
Sir William John Macleay (1820–91), pastoralist and entomologist; parliamentarian and Speaker of the Legislative Council; benefactor of the University of Sydney, £81 226
81.
Richard Jones, Senior (1816– 92), newspaper proprietor at Maitland; banker and insurance company chairman; MLA and colonial treasurer, £89 699
82.
James Matthew Toohey (1850–95), brewer in Melbourne and Sydney; MLA, £120 000
83.
John Brown Watt (1826– 97), merchant; president of the Sydney Chamber of Commerce; MLC; later lived in England, friend of Robert Browning the poet, £230 125
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THE ALL-TIME AUSTRALIAN
84.
Benjamin Richards (1817– 98), large-scale meat trader at Richmond, NSW, reputed to be the largest in Australia with ‘colossal’ meat works near Windsor, £120 832
85.
Sidney Burdekin (1839–99), Sydney retailer and pastoralist in NSW; later Mayor of Sydney in 1890–91, £252 256
Victoria
1. 2.
Josiah Austin (d. 1859), stagecoach proprietor and pastoralist in Tasmania and Victoria, £60 000
200 RICH LIST
7.
William Lonsdale (c. 1800–64), army officer, land speculator, MLC and colonial treasurer; Lonsdale Street in Melbourne is named for him, £36 000
8.
Rev. Joseph Docker (1793– 1865), Anglican clergyman in Sydney who resigned to become a pastoralist in Victoria, £58 000
9.
Andrew Russell (c. 1808–67), wine merchant in Melbourne; mayor of Melbourne in 1847–48; wrote A Tour through the Australian Colonies (1839), £50 000
10.
John Atkin (c. 1792–1858), pioneer sheep breeder of the Gisborne area; W.J.T. Clarke (no. 4) was said to have forced him out, £42 000
Henry Youngman (c. 1818– 68), wholesale druggist and importer in Melbourne; employed Frederick Grimwade (1840–1910), the leading pharmacist and philanthropist, as manager, £40 500
William Crocker Cornish (1815– 59), building contractor in Melbourne who built the first houses of parliament and many railways, £50 000
William Nicholson (1818– 65), pastoral investor and financier in Melbourne; mayor of Melbourne and premier of Victoria in 1859–60, £20 000
Thomas Fulton (1813–59), pioneering engineer who owned the first steam engine for a mill in Victoria, £42 000
Frederick James Sargood (c. 1805–73), founder of famous softgoods retailer in Melbourne; MLA and MLC, £132 805
3. 4. 5.
Jeremiah George Ware (1818–59), settler in Victoria; owned huge tracts of the Western District; MLA, £100 000—the first in Victoria to reach this sum
6.
George Armytage (1795–1862), pastoralist near Geelong who founded a well-known dynasty, £15 500
11.
12.
13. 14.
Edward Crooke (1810–73), large-scale squatter who opened the Gippsland area, £59 500 Robert Turnbull (c. 1819–72), prominent Melbourne merchant and MLC, £29 145
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THE SECOND ERA ‘ALSO-RANS’
15.
Henry Condell (d. 1871), brewer in Hobart and Melbourne who was the first mayor of Melbourne, 1842– 44, £31 818
16.
Godfrey Howitt (1800–73), physician and naturalist in Melbourne who at one time owned much Melbourne real estate, £33 171
17.
Richard Thomas Tracy (1826– 74), physician in Melbourne who was the first to perform many specialist operations, £23 877
18.
Sir James Frederick Palmer (1803–71), surgeon and company director; mayor of Melbourne in 1845–46; first speaker of the Victorian Legislative Council, 1851, £19 419
19.
William Rutledge (1806–76), settler and businessman who had a ‘turbulent’ political career as MLA and MLC, £188 106
20.
Edward Henty (1810–78), regarded as the first pastoralist in the Port Phillip District, November 1834; founder of Portland, Victoria, £172 114
of Melbourne, and MLC, but was denied a knighthood because of ‘scandalous tales’ hinting that his source of wealth was ‘even less pure than intoxicating liquors’, £50 500
23.
Joseph Anderson (1790– 1877), army major and commander of Norfolk Island; also a pastoralist in Victoria; he named the town of Mangalore, £37 077
24.
Robert Culbertson Hope (1812–78), physician in Geelong and early viticulturalist; MLC and chairman of committees, £31 069
25. 26. 27. 28.
George Hawker (1816–79), grain merchant and banker in Melbourne; MLA; notable philanthropist, £32 090 John Robertson (1809–80), large-scale pastoralist in Victoria and South Australia, £78 465 James Henty (1800–82), wheat and merchandise shipper in Melbourne; MLC for 36 years, £77 559
James Ford Strachan (1810– 75), pioneer of Melbourne who built one of the first brick buildings; then merchant, pastoralist, MLC and minister, £65 493
Rev. George Henry Backhaus (1811–82), German-born Catholic priest who was known as ‘Father Corner Allotments’ for owning much of Bendigo; in 1852 he became the first Catholic priest on the goldfields, £75 200
John Thomas Smith (1816–79), publican and builder in Melbourne who was seven-times mayor
Robert Ramsay (1842–82), solicitor in Melbourne, pastoralist, MLA and minister, £155 018
21.
22.
131
29.
THE ALL-TIME AUSTRALIAN
30.
James Goodall Francis (1819– 84), merchant in Melbourne who arrived as a steerage passenger in 1835; later president of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce, MLA and colonial treasurer, £259 884
31.
Jemima Vans Robertson (c. 1800–84), widow of Colonel Henry Robertson, a squatter in Hexham, £122 648
32.
Robert McCracken (1815– 85), Melbourne brewer known for the high quality of his beer and good labour relations, £173 488
33.
Aaron Waxman (c. 1837–87), money-lender in Melbourne; creditor and enemy of author Marcus Clarke, who in response wrote anti-Semitic sketches, £155 915
200 RICH LIST
founded Ormond College at the University of Melbourne, £295 184
38.
James Blair (c. 1813–89), police magistrate accused of corruption who later became the deputy-chairman of the Bank of Victoria, £88 465
39.
Caleb Joshua Jenner (1830– 90), retailer then businessman and financier in Melbourne; MLC and chairman of committees, £105 359
40.
William Howard Smith (1814–90), ship owner and coal shipper in Melbourne who established a wealthy dynasty, £158 830
41. 42.
Thomas Moubray (1825–91), furniture retailer and banker; mayor of Melbourne in 1868–69, £182 786
Thomas Chirnside (1815–87), well-known pastoralist at Werribee Park who committed suicide from depression, £220 884
William Henderson Glen (c. 1827–92), importer of musical instruments and pianos who opened a concert hall seating 500 on Collins Street, £189 827
Solomon Benjamin (d. 1888), merchant and importer in Melbourne; president of the earliest synagogue there, £197 283
Andrew Livingstone-Learmonth (1825–92), member of a wealthy pastoral dynasty in Victoria who later lived in England, £210 237
John Halfey (1825–89), made a fortune in the Bendigo goldfields then owned the Melbourne Herald newspaper and became MLA, £266 941
William Woodmason (1830– 92), market gardener who bought land in outer Melbourne and developed Malvern, Prahran and Glen Iris, £66 359
Francis Ormond (1829–89), grazier, MLA, then lived in Melbourne;
James Orkney (1821–96), hotel (pub) owner and MLA who sent a
34. 35.
36. 37.
43.
44.
132
45.
THE SECOND ERA ‘ALSO-RANS’
steamer to look for Burke and Wills in the Gulf of Carpentaria, £125 462
46.
George Robertson (1825–98), bookshop owner and publisher (now Angus & Robertson) in Melbourne who published such authors as Adam Lindsay Gordon and Marcus Clarke, £117 476
47.
James Service (1823–99), wellknown tea dealer and businessman in Melbourne; MLA and a radical premier of Victoria in the 1880s, £292 451
South Australia
1.
John Henry Barrow (1817–74), minister of the Independent Church, newspaper editor in Adelaide, MLC and government minister, £12 000
2. 3.
William Allen (c. 1790–1856), master mariner and pastoral pioneer, £75 000 James Chambers (1811–62), mine owner, horse dealer and pastoralist who bought land at the first sale in Adelaide; he funded John McDonald Stuart’s expeditions, £100 000
4.
Sir Dominick Daly (1798–1868), Irish-born; governor of South Australia in 1861–68, probably the first Roman Catholic governor in Australia, £10 000
5.
John Chambers (1815–89), pastoralist and racehorse owner, £65 000
6.
Sir Robert Dalrymple Ross (1827–87), army officer who settled in South Australia; MLA and speaker, £12 000
7. 8.
John Martin (d. 1889), founder of John Martin’s Department Store, Adelaide, £71 000 William Alfred Wearing (1816– 75), Cambridge-educated barrister and South Australian Supreme Court judge who drowned in the Torres Straits, £65 000
9. 10.
Wilhelm Hartwig Eduard Vosz (1840–83), German-born hardware merchant in Adelaide, £117 591 Richard Bullock Andrews (1823–84), QC, colonial attorney-general and South Australian Supreme Court judge, £14 000
11.
Sir William Morgan (1828–83), wholesale grocer and a founder of the Bank of Adelaide, then MLC and premier of South Australia; responsible for many of Adelaide’s fine civic buildings, £157 600
12. 13.
William Ransom Mortlock (1821–84), grazier and controversial MLA, £100 000 Sir Walter Watson Hughes (1803–87), pastoralist and copper magnate who was knighted for gifts to the University of South Australia, £88 600
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14. 15. 16. 17. 18.
Frederick Hansbrow Dutton (1812–90), pastoralist and copper magnate, MLC, £35 000 John Dunn the Younger (1830– 92), large-scale miller and former Wesleyan missionary in Fiji; MLA, £197 200
200 RICH LIST
23.
Alexander Hay (1820–98), business tycoon in Adelaide, and pastoralist, parliamentarian and minister, £170 000
Queensland
1. 2.
George Melrose (1806–94), pastoralist who arrived with the earliest settlers in 1839, £216 914
Sir Joshua Peter Bell (1827–81), squatter at Darling Downs, government minister and colonial treasurer, £97 000
Sir John Cox Bray (1842–94), solicitor in Adelaide and colonial premier of South Australia in 1881–84, £46 000
Sir Arthur Edward Kennedy (1810–83), governor of Western Australia in 1855–62 and of Queensland in 1877– 83, £10 200
John Dunn, Senior (1802–94), self-made miller who owned eleven mills around South Australia at his death; exported 20 000 tons of flour annually around the world, £110 000
19.
William James Browne (1815–94), originally a physician, then pastoralist and major exporter of wool, £126 200
20. 21.
Sir William Milne (1822–95), wine merchant in Adelaide, MLA and minister, £53 000 George Swan Fowler (1839– 96), wholesale grocer, MLA and colonial treasurer who was pro-temperance Baptist, £80 000
22.
Sir Henry Ayres (1821–97), mine owner and company director; MLA and colonial premier of South Australia in the 1860s and 1870s, £226 000
3. 4. 5.
James Swan (1811–91), owner of the Moreton Bay Courier; mayor of Brisbane and MLA, £33 100 Richard Cran (d. 1894), leading sugar planter and manufacturer, £172 321 George Rogers Harding (1838–95), barrister and Justice of the Queensland Supreme Court who also wrote legal works, £24 326
6.
Edward Robert Drury (1832– 96), general manager of the Queensland National Bank, of which James Tyson (no. 5) was the first depositor with £175 000; Drury transacted all government financial business; when he died in 1896, a rumour swept Brisbane that he was alive and his coffin was weighted with stones, £125 000
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THE SECOND ERA ‘ALSO-RANS’
7. 8. 9.
George King (1814–94), Rigaborn merchant in Sydney, then pastoralist and MLA in Queensland, £155 187 John Donald MacAush (d. 1896), pastoralist of Canning Downs, £251 588 Sir Patrick Alfred Jennings (1831–97), pastoralist, MLA and colonial premier of Queensland in 1886–87; also a patron of the arts, Catholic philanthropist and Papal knight, £69 371
10.
Sir Arthur Hunter Palmer (1819–98), pastoralist; MLA; and colonial premier in 1870–74 and lieutenantgovernor of Queensland, in 1896 £23 900
Philip Oakden (c. 1784–1851),
merchant
and
banker
in
Hobart;
Wesleyan benefactor, £15 000
5.
William Kermode (1780–1852),
merchant in Hobart and progressive pastoralist, MLC, £16 000
6.
Charles
Seal
(1801–52),
merchant and ship owner in Hobart; owner of largest whaling fleet in Australia, £33 000
7.
William
Dawson
(1817–79),
lawyer in Launceston, goldmine owner and MLC, £80 000
8.
Sir James Milne Wilson (1812–
80), brewer in Hobart; mayor of Hobart and
Tasmania
colonial
premier
in
1869–72,
£33 000
1. 2.
Thomas Archer (1790–1850), commissariat officer and pastoralist in Van Diemen’s Land, £22 000 Thomas Anstey (1777–1851), pastoralist near Hobart who proposed in 1825 that Aborigines be deported to New Holland, £15 000
3.
4.
Gamaliel Butler (1783–1852), solicitor and property owner in Hobart, £22 000
9.
Arthur Leake (d. 1890), of Ashby
near Ross; one of the first Tasmanians to leave more than £100 000, he left £107 345
10.
Sir William Lambert Dobson
(1833–98), MLA and Chief Justice of Tasmania in 1886–98, £29 126
11.
Arthur James Brock (d. 1898),
goldmining magnate, £229 347
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The Third Era: 1900–80
T
he long period 1900–1980 comprises several different epochs in the economic and political development of Australia. It began with the optimism and sense of national pride created by Federation and the end of the severe depression of the 1890s, a mood which, in retrospect, we see as the Edwardian ‘golden age’ of a worldwide British Empire and of laissez-faire capitalism, the ‘good old days’ as they seemed only a few years later. But from 1914 until 1945—or perhaps into the early 1950s— Australia, together with most of the western world, entered a time of crisis and near-catastrophe: two world wars which caused the deaths of thousands of young men, the near-invasion of the country by the Japanese, wars interrupted by the Great Depression of the 1930s, and a period of austerity and economic regulation for five years or more after 1945, a time when a nuclear war appeared likely. During much of the period up to the 1950s, much of domestic Australian politics revolved around an endemic conflict between capitalism and labour, with mass unemployment, strikes, lock-outs, demonstrations and the continuing threat of trade union militancy being the order of the day. Many, perhaps most, affluent people in Australia feared class war and few entirely ruled out the realistic possibility, in extreme circumstances, of a Bolshevik-style revolution even here. Many on the left welcomed this prospect. As well, many Australians felt a pervasive sense that the entire first half of the 20th century constituted the ‘succeeding generation’ (in the Melbourne University historian Professor Stuart Macintyre’s phrase), an anticlimax following a century of continental settlement and development, when the political and economic (as opposed to the sporting) heroes of Australian life were few and far between. While in the nineteenth century Australia had been a laboratory for new developments in democracy and welfare, the first half of the 20th century was, for the rich, arguably marked by an all-pervasive
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conservatism in which most modernist trends were viewed as inherently subversive. Millions of Australians from all backgrounds mourned the deaths of loved ones in the two world wars, the first of which, although it is seen as making a true nation of Australia, was largely fought thousands of miles from home for obscure and arguably inadequate reasons. During the first half of the century, and perhaps up to the 1970s, Australian economic and political life revolved, first, around the great Australian economic compromise—high tariff walls protecting manufacturing and pastoral interests in exchange for relatively high wage rates (for those in employment), powerful trade unions, the collective ownership of assets like the railways which were often privately owned elsewhere, and a surprisingly regulated economy, backed by the ‘White Australia’ immigration policy aimed at excluding cheap Asian labour. This meshed with the second pillar of Australian political life, unquestioned loyalty to Great Britain and the British Empire, a pillar which only began to crack in the Second World War when the United States, the new superpower, emerged as Australia’s ‘great and powerful friend’. While one may indeed view Australian history in the first half of the 20th century in a largely negative light, there was another side of the coin. Australia grew tremendously during this period, its population rising from 3.8 million in 1901 to 8.3 million in 1951 (and then to more than 13 million by 1970). Despite the Depression and other economic vicissitudes, Australia’s GDP increased from £189 million in 1900 to £841 million in 1939 and then to £2550 million in 1950 (and to $29.9 billion— £15 billion—in 1970). Much of this increase was caused by inflation, a now-persisting part of the economies of the western world, as well as being generated by the sharp growth in Australia’s population, but per capita incomes obviously increased significantly for most people. Even the catastrophe of the Great Depression produced less of a decline in Australia’s GDP than many imagine, with a decline from
138
THE THIRD ERA:
1900–80
£795 million in 1929 to £553 million at the Depression’s nadir in 1932, a decrease of about 30 per cent (even this was somewhat cushioned by an accompanying decline in the cost of living). Australia’s GDP in 1932 was actually higher than it had been in 1919 (£529 million), and much higher—of course in a larger population—than in the golden days of the Edwardian era. The post-World War Two period, and especially the era of Sir Robert Menzies and his Coalition successors, 1949–72, is often seen as another golden age of affluence—indeed, the ‘affluent society’ takes its name from this period. Untouched by the war’s destruction, blessed with vibrant manufacturing and pastoral sectors rapidly exporting their goods, growing strongly in population through both natural increase and beneficial immigration from Britain and Europe, Australia embarked on something like a true golden age of full employment, suburbanisation made possible by ubiquitous car ownership, and a society where most people became home owners and purchasers of an unprecedented range of household goods. The class war and endemic poverty of the pre-war years appeared to be largely buried and forgotten. Australia was now the envy of the world; America without its social problems, a place to which millions emigrated or wished to emigrate. Whatever the obvious omissions and deficiencies in this standard reading of post-war Australian history, it contains enough truth to make the Menzies era keenly remembered with nostalgia by millions. Only with difficulty, however, can trends in wealth-holding by the very rich in Australia be related to these wider Australian economic trends. Indeed, so markedly different were trends among the very rich compared with those for society as a whole that the post-war period seemed to constitute, as it were, an age of affluence for everyone except the very affluent. Some patterns will be apparent from the All-time Rich listed here. There were far fewer top wealth-holders on the All-time Rich List than for either previous period, only 34 persons from a far larger population. None of them, moreover, died more recently than the
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200 RICH LIST
late 1930s: the entire 40-year period from 1940–80 (and beyond) is a complete blank as far as the All-time Rich List is concerned. Looking at the names of the very rich from this era, it is also apparent that a number of well-known figures are nowhere to be found, either on the All-time List itself, or among the lists of the subsidiary wealthy of this period. Notable omissions include the pastoralist Sir Sidney Kidman (1857–1939), Melbourne financier William Lawrence Baillieu (1859– 1936), and the famous chairman of BHP Essington Lewis (1881–1961). Each of these was certainly wealthy by the standards of their time, even by the probate criteria adopted here, with Kidman, for instance, leaving about £300 000 and Lewis about £99 000. Why, then, are they not to be found among the all-time super-rich? A number of key reasons can be given. Unquestionably this period witnessed an increase in the amount of estate duty avoidance and other tax avoidance schemes such as the creation of elaborate family trusts and the shifting of assets abroad. As well, there was a basic change in the nature of capitalism, with managers of corporations increasingly replacing the older type of asset-owning proprietor or tycoon. Corporate managers obviously received a large salary for successfully running their companies, at least for the period when they were in senior positions, but they did not necessarily own the assets of the companies they managed; and so were often not ‘rich’ in the ‘rolling-in-money’ sense that the actual owners of large and successful companies are often rich. This basic change in the nature of capitalism took place throughout the western world in the first half of the 20th century. As well, unprecedented high levels of taxation and other restraints on the acquisition of new fortunes or the expansion of existing ones meant that there was certainly a worldwide trend against the continued growth of large fortunes in this period. This international trend probably reached its maximum impact in the 1950s, and has been strangely neglected as an economic pattern by historians. In Britain, estate duty on a millionaire’s
140
THE THIRD ERA:
1900–80
estate reached 75 per cent, while the top income tax rates on ‘unearned’ (i.e., dividend) incomes reached an incredible 83 per cent. As a result, while about ten to fifteen millionaire estates were left annually in the 1920s and again in the later 1930s, after the worst effects of the Depression were over, by the mid-1950s there were only two or three per year, although because of inflation these were worth much less. By 1953, after many years of high taxation, one British Inland Revenue (i.e., income tax) officer reported that there were only 36 millionaires in Britain, compared with more than 1000 in 1939: only 36 persons in Britain had an after-tax income of £6000 in 1953, representing a pre-tax income of £56 000 or more, the approximate return represented by wealth of £1 million! Although the richest man in America in 1918 (John D. Rockefeller) was worth US$1.2 billion and at the time there were estimated to have been ten fortunes of $100 million or more, in 1957 only two families (the Rockefellers and Mellons) were worth an estimated $1 billion or more, and only 26 men or families worth $100 million or more, despite the enormous expansion of the American economy. Top after-tax incomes diminished even further in what Kevin Philips, in Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich (2002), has called ‘the great compression’. Australia was certainly affected by these trends as well. At this time—the 1940s and 1950s—it was unlikely that anyone in Australia was worth more than, say, £8 million or so, and also unlikely that any more than a handful of persons in Australia were bona-fide millionaires. The low number of very large fortunes from this era found from the probate records is thus arguably an accurate depiction of the actual state of affairs which existed in Australian society, although in some cases the actual wealth of rich persons was certainly camouflaged by taxation avoidance. Because the Australian economy grew so rapidly, however, it is actually very unlikely that the All-time Rich List, with its minimum cut-off point of being worth 0.170 per cent of GDP at the time, omits
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200 RICH LIST
anyone from this era who actually belongs on it. In 1955, to take one year, Australia’s GDP was £4802 million, and thus 0.170 per cent of this figure was about £8.2 million. It is arguable that no-one in Australia at that time was worth as much as £8.2 million: the richest Australian from that time appears to have been worth slightly less than this figure. Thus, even if someone like Essington Lewis was ‘really’ worth ten times as much as his probate valuation suggests, he would still have been worth much less than the minimum cut-off figure to appear on the All-time Rich List. The 34 All-time Rich persons from the 1900–80 era—31 men and three women—have a much more ‘modern’ appearance than do those from the previous periods. While seven earned their fortunes primarily in pastoralism, most were in a range of enterprises where one might have expected more recent Australian fortunes to be earned—in mining, retailing, newspapers, manufacturing, shipping and exporting. Some, like David Syme (no. 85), Hugh Victor McKay (no. 124) (of Sunshine Harvesters) and Sidney Myer (no. 145), were, and are, household names, while many more famous names are to be found among the ‘lesser rich’ of this period, including the Baillieu family, the Fairfax family and John Wren, the famous Melbourne gambling king. Among the 34, nine lived primarily in Sydney and six in other parts of New South Wales, while nine lived in Melbourne and three in other parts of Victoria. South Australia was relatively well-represented, with five top wealth-holders from Adelaide and another from rural South Australia. The other states were unrepresented, although at least two wealthholders had substantial Queensland interests. Seven of these 34 lived for lengthy periods in England, while one was, seemingly, a manufacturer in Belfast with Australian interests. Three received baronetcies or knighthoods, one inherited a baronetcy and one (Lady Clarke, no. 107) married a baronet—perhaps not as much of a shower of honours as one might imagine. Many of the rich of this period inherited substantial fortunes from previous generations of successful Australians, although more than
142
THE THIRD ERA:
1900–80
one-third still appeared to have been ‘self-made’, some starting life in actual poverty. All were of British descent with the exception of Sidney Myer, born Simcha Baevski in a Russian Jewish village and thus a harbinger of the successful new immigrants of the post-war era. Fewer entered politics, or were elected to parliaments, than in the previous period, although philanthropy was just as notable, perhaps more so. While the rich continued to live in city town houses in the obvious centres of urban wealth, or on country estates, there was probably much less over-the-top ostentation than in the past. Worried by national and international events and the intense hostility felt towards the very rich by many on the Australian left wing, most of the wealthy now eschewed conspicuous consumption and ostentatious display of riches and privilege as politically unwise and economically costly. As before, however, the racecourse and other sporting venues continued to provide a safe venue for class mixing. As noted, many expected that capitalism would come to an end and that the rich would disappear; in the 1930s or 1940s few would have imagined the revival in capitalism, and the rewards open to its most successful entrepreneurs, which have unexpectedly become the hallmarks of the post-1980 era.
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE THIRD ERA
1900–80
10. Samuel Hordern Retail merchant in Sydney
Wealth: £3 004 062 1.073% of GDP Current Value: $7.70 billion
Samuel Hordern
Few people today would be able to guess the name of the Australian who left the largest fortune in Australia, in current terms, prior to the Second World War. This great wealth accumulator was Samuel Hordern, the largest retail merchant in Australia at the time of his death. Hordern’s £3 million fortune was not exceeded in size in Australia for many decades after his death. Hordern’s grandfather, Anthony
145
The Richest Australians of the Third Era: 1900–80
(1849–1909)
Hordern, migrated to Sydney from Retford, Nottinghamshire, in 1825, setting up as a coachmaker and later as a grocer and clothier. Hordern’s father, also named Anthony, who died in 1876, founded the retailing business in the Haymarket in 1855. The family had already become wealthy through a variety of business activities and Anthony served on the Sydney City Council. Samuel Hordern was educated at Fort Street School and joined the family firm at seventeen, becoming a partner in 1869 aged only 20. Anthony Hordern and Sons, the ‘universal providers’ (meaning that they sold everything and anything, all under one roof ), grew to become the largest retail concern in Australia, and probably the southern hemisphere. In the decade before Samuel Hordern’s death his company employed 4000 staff, making it one of the largest employers of labour in Australia. In 1901, when Hordern’s premises burned down, the undaunted entrepreneur leased the Exhibition Building and re-opened for business the next day. Hordern, who lived at Darling Point, pursued the usual ‘high life’ career of the very rich in late Victorian times, becoming commodore of the Prince Alfred Yacht Club, vice-president of the Royal Agricultural Society, and breeder of numerous winning racehorses. His
THE ALL-TIME AUSTRALIAN
eldest son Sir Samuel Hordern (1876– 1956) succeeded him as head of the firm.
20. Walter Russell Hall (1831–1911) Goldmining magnate and businessman in Sydney
Wealth: £2 854 124 0.863% of GDP Current Value: $6.19 billion
Walter Russell Hall
Born in Kington, Herefordshire, England, the son of a local miller and a Baptist at birth, Walter Russell Hall grew up in Somerset and arrived in Sydney in 1852
200 RICH LIST
with virtually no money. On his mother’s side he was a relative, probably a cousin, of Charles Carlton Skarratt (no. 118), who emigrated to Australia with him. Hall’s first port of call was an unsuccessful stint on the Ballarat goldfields, although he did manage to witness the Eureka Stockade. Tiring of digging, Hall began a carrying service between Ballarat and Melbourne, and eventually became a member of the partnership which took over Cobb & Co., the best-known carriers (transporters of goods and removal men) in Australia. In the 1860s Hall moved to Sydney, which he made his home for the rest of his life, acting as a manager for Cobb & Co. in New South Wales and Queensland. It was his Queensland ventures, however, which made the alreadysuccessful Hall into a multimillionaire. Invited by his brother, a bank manager in Rockhampton, to join the Mount Morgan Gold Mining Syndicate, Hall thus became a major shareholder in one of the largest goldmining operations in the world, one which produced nearly £8 million in dividends by the time of his death. Ironically, although Walter Russell Hall was probably the richest man in Australian history ever to make a fortune from goldmining, he did so in Queensland rather than in the Victorian goldfields, where he had actually worked.
146
THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE THIRD ERA
1900–80 As was so often the case, success as a gold baron led to a wide variety of directorships in a range of other fields. A patron of the turf whose horses won numerous major cups, Hall lived at Wildfell, a two-storey mansion at Potts Point, in Sydney, filled with Old Master paintings. The childless Hall left most of his vast fortune to his widow Eliza Rawdon Hall (no. 161). She established a philanthropic fund of £1 million which, over the decades, has benefited many worthy causes, including the worldfamous Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, one of Australia’s premier medical research bodies.
34. Robert Barr Smith (1824–1915) Mining magnate and businessman in Adelaide
Wealth: £2 280 616 0.612% of GDP Current Value: $4.39 billion The wealthiest-ever South Australian in real terms, Robert Barr Smith was born, like so many others among the very rich, in Scotland, the son of a Church
Robert Barr Smith
of Scotland minister in Berwickshire. Educated at Glasgow University, he migrated to Melbourne in 1854 and then to Adelaide the following year, and married into the family of Sir Thomas Elder (no. 57), one of the leading pastoral financiers and mining magnates in Australia. Barr Smith became Elder’s business partner until the latter’s death in 1897. They specialised in opening remote pastoral properties, introducing fencing and the sinking of bores, and from the late 1850s invested in mining companies, especially in the copper industry. Barr Smith then became one of the most diversified and influential business tycoons of his day, serving as director of a dozen leading mining, insurance, shipping and financial concerns, and was a founder of the Bank of Adelaide.
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Barr Smith is also remembered as a great philanthropist, giving unprecedented sums to a wide variety of causes such as the University of Adelaide (the Barr Smith Library is named for him), the Anglican church and, rather remarkably, to the local Trades Hall to pay off a debt. He declined a knighthood and avoided political involvement, dying at the age of 91.
43. George Salting
(1835–1909)
Son of a pastoralist in New South Wales; art collector in England
Wealth: £1 531 717 0.547% of GDP Current Value: $3.93 billion George Salting was the elder son of Severin K. Salting (no. 69), a wealthy Danish-born pastoralist in New South Wales who retired to England and left £275 000. George Salting was educated in Sydney and then, from about 1848, at Eton, England’s most exclusive public school. Returning to the newly founded University of Sydney in the 1850s, he won numerous prizes and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1857. Salting again returned to England,
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living in London and building one of the greatest art collections of his time with his ever-growing Australian pastoral wealth, estimated at £30 000 per year in income. Over the years he acquired one of the most wide-ranging private art collections in the world, extending from priceless Chinese porcelain to manuscripts and paintings. With an expert’s eye ‘for more than forty years’ Salting ‘spent each afternoon on a pilgrimage from one [London art] dealer to another’, haggling at length over the price ‘which Salting seems purposely to have prolonged so as to give him continuous occupation’. But he also spent £40 000, an incredible sum at the time, at just one art auction in Paris in 1893. Salting was unmarried and seldom left the vicinity of upper-class St James’s in London’s West End. He also inherited much of the wealth of his millionaire brother William Severin Salting (no. 45). At George’s death his collection was bequeathed to be divided, in London, between the National Gallery, the British Museum and, above all, to the Victoria and Albert Museum where the ‘Salting Bequest’ is one of the cornerstones of its renowned collection. Regrettably, Salting left nothing to any Australian museum; it is believed that legal difficulties precluded this, especially as it was his desire that each part of his collection be bequeathed intact.
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1900–80
45. William Severin Salting (1837–1905) Son of a pastoralist in New South Wales; lived in England
Wealth: £1 202 301 0.537% of GDP Current Value: $3.85 billion William Severin Salting was the younger brother of George Salting (no. 43), predeceasing him by four years. Like his brother William he was educated at schools in Sydney and at the University of Sydney, but received his secondary education at Brighton College in England. He also lived in England, but little is known of his career, and it appears that he lived quietly as a member of English ‘High Society’, profiting from his Australian fortune. Unlike his brother, William was married, with his daughter marrying the heir of the Earl of Haddington, and he was not known as an art collector.
60. William Gibson (c. 1842–1918) Retail merchant in Melbourne
Wealth: £2 226 623 0.453% of GDP Current Value: $3.25 billion
In terms of the size of the fortune he left at his death, William Gibson was one of the very wealthiest Australians of his day, yet he remains less well-known to the public than many others who were only a fraction as wealthy. Born in Glasgow, the son of a clothier in a small business, Gibson was originally a cashier in a Glasgow firm when he migrated to Melbourne at the age of 40 in 1882. Despite this rather late start, Gibson made up for lost time and, within a year of arriving in Australia, became a representative for a drapery wholesalers and the business partner of Francis Foy, the son of the successful retailer Mark Foy. The new firm, Foy and Gibson, opened in Collingwood in 1883; however, a year later the partners fell out, with Foy moving to Sydney to open the well-known retailing firm of Mark Foy’s Ltd. Gibson expanded his Collingwood shop into a department store, one of the earliest in Australia, selling a variety of imported and locally produced products to the burgeoning Melbourne market. He toured Europe several times, spending large sums on goods for import and sale in Melbourne. In 1902 Gibson opened an even larger retail emporium, Maclellan & Co. (named for his nephew and partner), also known as ‘The Big Store’, in Prahran, specialising in clothing, household
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goods, furniture and hardware. It was almost certainly Melbourne’s largest retail outlet until after the First World War, and Gibson also opened branches in Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth. After Gibson’s death a few days before the end of the Great War (in which two of his seven sons had been killed), ‘The Big Store’ continued under his relatives until 1967. William Gibson never entered public life and was seldom heard on a public issue; as a result he was little known when he died, leaving a fortune of more than £2 million.
70. George Scarfe
(c. 1827–1903)
Retail merchant in Adelaide
Wealth: £800 000 0.409% of GDP Current Value: $2.94 billion George Scarfe arrived in Adelaide from England in 1850 and in the same year established a hardware retailing firm in partnership with George P. Harris. Known as Harris, Scarfe & Co., the business evolved into one of Adelaide’s leading department stores, located at the Rundle Mall. As recently as the 1990s,
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this firm operated 32 shops in South Australia and elsewhere, employing 2000 staff, before collapsing in 2002.
73. George Wills
(c. 1825–1906)
Merchant in Adelaide and London
Wealth: £959 000 0.400% of GDP Current Value: $2.87 billion George Wills was the son of a farmer in Devon, England. Little is known of his career. At some stage he lived in Adelaide and became a successful merchant there, leaving £168 000 of his fortune in South Australia. By the early 1880s he had returned to London, where he headed a leading Australian import–export firm at Whitecross Street in the City of London, and also owned a country estate in Devon. The bulk of Wills’s fortune was left in England. His son Arthur W. Wills (1868–1948), who was educated at Harrow and Cambridge, served as a Liberal MP in the British parliament in 1906–10. Another son, Charles Percy Wills (1870–1931), continued the London arm of the Australian import– export firm.
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE THIRD ERA
1900–80
83. John Howard Angas
in high quality stock runs in South Australia, as well as running his elderly father’s pastoral properties. He also bred donkeys and—unlike many others, then or since—made a profit from the South Australian Ostrich Company, in which he was the largest shareholder. Like so many of the rich of his day, Angas also pursued a political career, serving in the South Australian parliament between 1871 and 1894. A deeply religious Congregationalist, he gave away tens of thousands to religious and other charities, including £44 000 to Dr Barnardo’s Homes. Angas was recommended three times for a knighthood, but died before the British government could officially approve it.
(1823–1904) Pastoralist in South Australia
Wealth: £800 000 0.360% of GDP Current Value: $2.58 billion
85. David Syme
John Howard Angas
The second son of George Fife Angas (no. 159), one of the founders of South Australia, John Howard Angas was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, attended London University, and lived in England until 1843, when he emigrated to Adelaide to take charge of his father’s local business interests. (George Fife Angas did not emigrate to Australia until 1851.) John Howard Angas became a pastoralist in his own right, specialising
(1827–1908)
Newspaper proprietor in Melbourne
Wealth: £979 480 0.359% of GDP Current Value: $2.58 billion One of the most famous of Australian ‘press lords’, David Syme was born in North Berwick, Scotland, the son of a local schoolmaster who had a reputation for radical politics and for unpleasantness.
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David Syme
After his father’s death when Syme was seventeen, he held a variety of posts in Scotland and California before arriving in Victoria, where he prospected for gold for three years before founding a road contracting business in Melbourne. When his brother Ebenezer, who had also emigrated, bought the insolvent Melbourne Age for £2000 in 1856, David Syme took a half-share and, with some reluctance, became publisher and editor of the newspaper in 1859. Syme had found his calling: As editor, he espoused a radical programme of democratic rights, protection of local industries and securing the interests of smaller farmers over the wealthy squatters. These became the themes of the liberal agenda in Victoria for two generations. As Melbourne grew phenomenally the Age prospered, its
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circulation growing from 15 000 in 1868 to 120 000 in 1899, one of the highest figures in the British Empire. Syme was also involved in a series of messy disputes about the paper’s ownership with members of his family, resulting in the paper becoming a limited company, David Syme & Co., in 1878. Syme became known for his involvement in a continuing series of high profile lawsuits with members of the public. He also wrote a number of interesting, well-informed autodidactical works on a wide variety of highly unlikely subjects, including a book on Darwinism which suggested that all evolutionary change takes place in the cell; a work on The Soul, which argued that since matter and energy are equivalent, the soul never perishes; and a series of publications which attacked British parliamentary government. The Age, one of Australia’s leading newspapers and now owned by John Fairfax, continues as his legacy.
89. Sir Daniel Cooper, 1st Baronet (1821–1902) Merchant, banker and property owner in Sydney and New South Wales; later lived in England
Wealth: £707 954 0.355% of GDP Current Value: $2.55 billion
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE THIRD ERA
1900–80
Sir Daniel Cooper 1st Baronet
Born in Bolton, Lancashire, the son of a merchant, Sir Daniel Cooper was the nephew of another Daniel Cooper (1785–1853), a convict transported to Sydney in 1816. The first Daniel Cooper established one of the largest mercantile houses in early New South Wales, Cooper & Levey (later known as the Waterloo Company). He also prospered as a brewer, and became a business partner of the great Samuel Terry (no. 1). Sir Daniel Cooper had no children, and took his nephew into partnership soon after he arrived in Sydney from London in 1843. With his brother, who also emigrated from England, he established a number of other mercantile businesses and by the early 1850s was regarded as perhaps the greatest import– export merchant in Australia. Cooper
also became president of the Bank of New South Wales and was an extensive property owner in Sydney and in western New South Wales. He sat in the New South Wales parliament for much of the 1850s and was speaker of the Legislative Assembly from 1856–60. In 1856 Cooper built one of the largest mansions ever constructed in Australia, Woollahra House at Point Piper, costing more than £50 000; the foundation stone was laid by Governor Denison. Although Cooper stated that his mansion was ‘a pledge of his abiding attachment’ to the colony, in 1861 he left for England, where he lived for most of the time until his death more than 40 years later. In London Cooper served as agentgeneral for New South Wales, held posts on a variety of Australian bodies in Britain, and was an early, outspoken advocate of imperial federation. Unlike most colonial new-rich, he had little trouble in obtaining high imperial honours, being knighted in 1857 and created a baronet (an hereditary knight) in 1863, possibly the first Australian to achieve this award. By the time of his death he had also been granted a string of other orders of British knighthood. Cooper certainly still retained important connections with Australia, leaving £557 000 in New South Wales, much more than the £151 000 he left in England.
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93. Sir Samuel McCaughey (1835–1919) Pastoralist in New South Wales and Queensland
Wealth: £1 752 532 0.332% of GDP Current Value: $2.38 billion
Sir Samuel McCaughey
One of the greatest of pastoral kings in Australian history, Sir Samuel McCaughey was born in County Antrim, Ireland, of strictly Presbyterian Scots–Irish farming parents. His father also owned a linen business. In 1856 McCaughey emigrated to Melbourne to join a pastoralist uncle, walking the 200 miles to his property near Horsham. McCaughey was fortunate in his relatives: another uncle was Sir Samuel Wilson (no. 44),
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an enormously wealthy pastoralist who significantly assisted McCaughey’s career. From about 1860, McCaughey began to acquire a vast pastoral empire of his own in the Riverina. He became known for the high quality of his pure merinos and his willingness to invest in agricultural improvements. He pioneered the use of modern agricultural machinery and drainage systems: damming rivers on his properties to improve irrigation, McCaughey found himself successfully sued by farmers down river. By the 1880s he owned the incredible total of 3 250 000 acres at twelve stations in New South Wales and Queensland. Unmarried, McCaughey lived in a mansion at North Yanco in the Riverina. He was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council in 1899 and became known as one of the greatest philanthropists of his time, donating one-half of the residue of his estate (after legacies were paid to his relatives) to the universities of Sydney and Queensland and one-half to veterans, widows and orphans of the Great War. He had already been knighted in 1905 for his philanthropy during the Boer War. Ever on the lookout for agricultural improvements, McCaughey once visited Louis Pasteur, no less, in France to obtain (without success) from the great scientist a means of exterminating rabbits by bacterial means.
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1900–80
100. Sir Robert LucasTooth, 1st Baronet (1844–1915) Brewer and businessman in Sydney and London
Wealth: £1 183 026 0.318% of GDP Current Value: $2.28 billion Sir Robert Lucas-Tooth was the eldest son of Edwin Tooth (no. 81), the founder of the famous Sydney-based brewers, who became one of the first Australians to be worth more than £100 000 and left £159 000 at his death. Lucas-Tooth was sent to England to be educated at Eton, Britain’s premier public school. His father having died when he was fourteen, he became actively involved in the running of the brewery when he came of age. Lucas-Tooth also became a large-scale pastoralist at Kameruka near Bega, on the coast of New South Wales, and was noted for his humane treatment of his tenants and his attempts to develop in Australia the vegetation and wildlife found on estates in England. He was also the first in Australia to make Edam cheeses. A Member of the Legislative Assembly in New South Wales and a Sydney clubman with an enormous Gothic mansion, Swifts, at Darling Point, Lucas-Tooth also became a major Sydney businessman and a director of the Colonial Sugar Refining (CSR) company and other companies.
From 1889 Lucas-Tooth lived chiefly in England, owning a mansion in London’s Queen’s Gate and an estate in Kent. In 1895 he unsuccessfully contested a British parliamentary seat as a Tory, and gave substantial sums to charity. In 1904 he changed his name to ‘Lucas-Tooth’, by which the family has been known ever since. He received a baronetcy (an hereditary knighthood) in 1906 for his services to the Empire. Tragically, all three of his sons were killed in the Great War; in 1920 the baronetcy was re-created for his grandson, the eldest son of his daughter, who changed his name from Warrand to Lucas-Tooth. His descendants became well-known Conservative MPs for many decades— backbenchers rather than ministers— with few people realising that this titled, landed, apparently ancient family had become rich as brewers in convict-era Sydney.
104. Robert Landale (1833–1903) Pastoralist in New South Wales; later lived in England
Wealth: £615 677 0.314% of GDP Current Value: $2.25 billion
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Little is known of Robert Landale’s background. With his brother Alexander he was one of the first to settle in the Moulamein district in the 1860s, and later bought Deniliquin Station and others throughout New South Wales. He served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly from 1864–69 and then lived in England, where he left most of his fortune; a son stayed behind to manage his New South Wales properties.
107. Janet Marion, Lady Clarke (1851–1909) Widow of Sir William John Clarke, 1st Baronet (no. 32), pastoralist in Victoria
Wealth: £846 036 0.302% of GDP Current Value: $2.17 billion Janet Marion, Lady Clarke was seemingly a character out of a romantic novel: a young governess who married an immensely wealthy widower, became a titled society queen and eventually inherited a vast fortune. While there were certainly elements of a Cinderella story in the life of Lady Clarke, in actual fact her origins were not at all humble.
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Her father, Peter Snodgrass (1817–67), the son of an army officer who had been acting governor of New South Wales, was a pioneering pastoralist and an early Victorian parliamentarian who was, if anything, the social superior of the nouveau-riche Clarke family. Janet Marion Snodgrass became the governess to William Clarke’s eight children as a teenager in the 1860s, and became his second wife in 1873, aged only 21, following the death of Clarke’s first wife Mary, nee Walker. Already at home in Australian high society, Janet Clarke quickly established herself and her husband at the very apex of Melbourne’s social scene, holding renowned lavish parties, luncheons and balls at her home at Cliveden in East Melbourne. Lady Clarke also had a much more serious side, becoming one of the most notable philanthropists and charity workers of her day and making numerous donations to educational causes. Particularly interested in women’s education, she founded Janet Clarke Hall, the hostel for women students, at the University of Melbourne. Although a political conservative and an antisocialist, she was also president of the Australian Women’s National League, which organised for women to vote in elections. She survived her husband by twelve years, having inherited much of his vast fortune.
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1900–80
118. Charles Carlton
123. George Lansell
Skarratt (1824–1900)
(1823–1906)
Mining magnate in New South Wales and Queensland
Quartz mining magnate in Bendigo
Wealth: £659 943 0.275% of GDP Current Value: $1.97 billion
Wealth: £533 022 0.282% of GDP Current Value: $2.02 billion Surprisingly little is known of Charles Carlton Skarratt. He was born in 1824 in Kington, Herefordshire, England, the son of a clockmaker, Thomas Carleton (sic) Skarratt and Elizabeth nee Ball. Charles
Skarratt
was
apparently
a
hotelier in Kington before emigrating to Australia at the time of the Gold Rush. In 1864, while living in Melbourne, he purchased shares in the newly formed Avoca Gold Mining Association. In the
George Lansell
1870s Skarratt lived in Sydney, and might have owned a drapery business there. At some stage he became heavily involved in the Broken Hill Syndicate and the Mount Morgan mine, and was a justice of the peace in New South Wales. Later in his career he lived in London before returning to Summer Hill near Sydney. About one-third of his large fortune was left in Queensland, where he also had extensive interests.
George Lansell was born in Margate, Kent, the son of a soap and candle maker. In 1853, after working in his father’s small business for more than fifteen years, he migrated to South Australia with two of his brothers, and the following year walked to Bendigo, where they became soap and candle makers. By the mid-1860s, after ten years of unsuccessful investment in local quartz mines, Lansell finally struck it rich. He
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specialised in sinking seemingly used-out mines to deeper levels where quartz, rather than gold, was to be found. He also bought up former goldmines that were apparently worthless, using a shrewd knowledge of quartz-mining to good effect. As a result, Lansell became extremely rich. He was commonly regarded as a millionaire, and was widely known as ‘Australia’s Quartz King’. Lansell lived in London for seven years in the 1880s, but then returned to Bendigo, where he lived at Fortuna, a 40-room mansion, and was regarded as the town’s most generous philanthropist. He never lived for long in Melbourne or any other capital city, and remained one of the very few enormously wealthy Australians of his time connected solely with a provincial town.
124. Hugh Victor McKay (1865–1926) Agricultural machinery manufacturer at Ballarat and at Sunshine, near Melbourne
Wealth: £2 123 945 0.272% of GDP Current Value: $1.95 billion Hugh McKay’s name will always remain a part of the central strand of 20th-
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Hugh Victor McKay
century Australian history because of the famous ‘Sunshine Harvester judgement’ of 1907, so called after the brand name of the combine harvesters he manufactured in large numbers. McKay had sought exemption from liability to pay excise duties on the machinery he made, which was possible under the recently enacted legislation, on the grounds that he paid his employees ‘fair and reasonable’ wages. In a famous legal decision with far-reaching consequences, the president of the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Court, Henry Bournes Higgins, ruled that McKay was not in fact paying ‘fair and reasonable’ wages, which he calculated at 7 shillings per day (42 shillings per week, or about £109 per year) for an unskilled worker with five dependants. (McKay had been paying unskilled workers 6 shillings per week.)
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1900–80 Although later declared largely invalid by the High Court, the ‘Harvester Judgement’ was symbolic of the distinctive Australian economic system of the time, which entailed high wages for the Australian workman, made possible by high tariff barriers, the exclusion of non-European, especially Chinese labour, and strong trade unions. This system remained a characteristic component of Australian economic life until the 1960s or later. Hugh McKay’s parents, staunch Presbyterians from Ireland, had arrived in Victoria in 1852; his father was a farmer. McKay began as a manufacturer in 1883 in response to the offer of a government prize to produce a multi-functional harvester which could thrash and bag a crop at the same time. Reading of early models of a ‘combination’ harvester in California, McKay and other members of his family built a highly original working model of their own in 1885. By 1888 McKay was in the harvester business full-time, seeing out many vicissitudes. Originally located in Ballarat, from about 1911, chiefly because of labour trouble, he relocated his plant to Braybrook, just west of Melbourne, which he renamed ‘Sunshine’ after the trade name of his product and by which the suburb is still known. There he built a model community, but one where union power was curbed. For many
years the Sunshine Harvester Works was the largest factory in Australia, with McKay responding in an innovative way to American competition. McKay lived at Sunshine until 1922, when he bought the former Clarke family mansion, Rupertswood, at Sunbury. Sunshine Harvesters is now a part of MasseyFerguson Ltd.
145. Sidney Baevski Myer (1878–1934) Retail merchant in Melbourne
Wealth: £1 532 171 0.248% of GDP Current Value: $1.78 billion One of the most famous of 20th-century Australian entrepreneurs, with his Myer Emporium a household name, Simcha Baevski (as he was at birth) was the eleventh child of a Hebrew scholar in Moghilev, Byelorussia, in the so-called Jewish ‘Pale of Settlement’, where most of Russia’s seven million Jews were compelled to live. Baevski emigrated to Melbourne in 1894 to join his elder brother and another relative, Lazer Slutzkin, who had opened a clothing
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Sidney Baevski Myer
business in Flinders Lane. Baevski changed his name to ‘Myer’ (the middle name of another elder brother) and moved with his family to Bendigo, where he prospered as a draper, who made his mark with bargains, novelties and heavy advertising of his wares. By the 1900s he ran Bendigo’s leading retail business. In 1911 Myer moved back to Melbourne, buying a drapery shop in Bourke Street, and in 1912–14 purchased the sites which today’s Coles Myer still owns in central Melbourne adjacent to the main post office. In 1914 he opened the famous eight-storey Myer Emporium building which became his firm’s flagship. From 1919 Myer’s life became extremely controversial. In that year he divorced the Jewish woman, Hannah nee Flegeltaub, whom he had married in
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1905 (and by whom he had no children), converted to Christianity and married Marjorie (later Dame Merlyn), the nineteen-year-old daughter of George Baillieu of the prominent Melbourne business family. Myer’s divorce, religious conversion and remarriage to a teenager caused scandal in many sections of the Melbourne community, and Myer was advised by his deputy in the firm to remain abroad until the scandal blew over. Myer and his wife lived chiefly in America for the next nine years, leaving his deputy, Lee Neil, and his brother Elcon and nephew Norman to manage the firm. Back in Melbourne in time for the start of the Depression, Myer redeemed much of his reputation by lavish and imaginative philanthropy to many cultural and civic causes, and by considerable generosity towards the poor during the Depression. He died of heart failure at the age of only 56, one of the richest men in Depressionera Australia. His widow survived him by nearly 50 years. Myer’s sons Kenneth Baillieu and Sidney Baillieu Myer became two of the best-known businessmen of the post-war era. Coles Myer, which was created from a controversial merger, is today Australia’s largest retailer and the family is, of course, still rich and famous.
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1900–80
154. Sir John Langdon
Bonython became ever-wealthier, gaining sole proprietorship of the Advertiser in 1893 and becoming one of the richest men in Australia, although reports that he was worth £4 million at his death cannot be substantiated. A liberal, protectionist supporter of Alfred Deakin, Bonython served in the Federal House of Representatives from 1901 until 1906. Sometimes accused of stinginess, after 1902 Bonython put paid to these charges by giving away nearly £200 000 to a range of beneficiaries, including the University of Adelaide, the Methodist church (although he was buried as an Anglican), and—some would say most strangely—£100 000 towards the costs of completing Adelaide’s Parliament House. A forbidding, learned and highly competent figure, Bonython died at the age of 91 and was given a state funeral. His eldest son, Sir John Lavington Bonython (1875–1960), then took over the Advertiser, which became a public company in 1929.
Bonython (1848–1939) Newspaper proprietor in Adelaide
Wealth: £1 992 041 0.237% of GDP Current Value: $1.70 billion
Sir John Langdon Bonython
Born in London and of Cornish descent, the son of a carpenter, John Langdon Bonython migrated to Adelaide in 1854 with his parents and family, and became a reporter on the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper. As a result of speculating skilfully in mining shares, Bonython was able to buy a share in the newspaper. In 1879 he became its editor, holding the post for no less than 45 years, until 1924 when he was 76. Blessed with the ‘Midas touch’,
160. Hannah Maria Neale (c. 1825–1911) Widow of John Thomas Neale (no. 51), investor and carcass butcher in Sydney
Wealth: £760 181 0.230% of GDP Current Value: $1.65 billion
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Hannah Maria Neale was born around 1825 in Liverpool, New South Wales, the daughter of a man who rejoiced in the name of John Bull. About 1844 she married John Thomas Neale, who began as a carcass butcher in Sydney and, through shrewd investments in banks and real estate, left nearly £805 000 when he died in 1897. Childless, John Neale’s fortune went mostly to his widow, who herself left nearly as much when she died fourteen years later. Little is known of her life, just as very little is known of her husband, considering his great wealth. She does not appear to have taken part in any public or charitable work, and was buried as a Methodist.
161. Eliza Rawdon Hall (1847–1916) Widow of Walter Russell Hall (no. 20), goldmining magnate; lived chiefly in Sydney
Wealth: £941 960 0.227% of GDP Current Value: $1.63 billion Eliza Rawdon Hall was the daughter of George Kirk, a Yorkshire butcher who had emigrated to Melbourne in
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Eliza Rawdon Hall
1839 and became a pastoralist, then the partner of the wool merchant Richard Goldsbrough, and later a Victorian Member of the Legislative Assembly. She was born in Melbourne and there, in 1874, she married Walter Russell Hall, one of the wealthiest Australians of his time. Originally a carrier between the Victorian goldfields and Melbourne, Hall later became one of the few men to make a fortune in goldmining, but chiefly in Queensland rather than Victoria. The Halls lived principally in Sydney, at Wildfell, a two-storey mansion in Potts Point. The house was filled with carefully chosen works of art, including many Old Masters. The Halls were childless, and Eliza Hall devoted herself to raising two orphaned cousins and to extensive charitable works, especially the Walter and Eliza Hall Trust, established
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1900–80 from her husband’s multimillion-pound fortune at his death in 1911. When Eliza Hall died five years later, much of her large fortune went to founding the renowned Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, one of the world’s leading medical research centres, as well as to Anglican charities.
owner, and by the 1890s was chairman of Mount Kembla Coal and Oil. He also became a bank and insurance company director. To all this Vickery added ownership of one of the largest pastoral empires in New South Wales, including the Munyet run near Moree which covered 170 000 acres. A laissez-faire liberal free trader, Vickery was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council, serving from
165. Ebenezer Vickery
1887 to 1906. A devout Methodist, he also bought the Lyceum Theatre on Pitt
(1827–1906)
Street and re-opened it as ‘The Vickery Mission Settlement’. When visiting San
Businessman in Sydney and pastoralist in New South Wales
Francisco in 1906, Vickery managed to survive the earthquake which levelled the city, but failed to survive an operation in
Wealth: £536 971 0.224% of GDP Current Value: $1.61 billion
Leeds, England, later in the same year, dying on the operating table.
London-born Ebenezer Vickery emigrated to Sydney, aged six, in 1833. His father, a shoe manufacturer, became a pastoralist. By the early 1850s Ebenezer Vickery was in control as manager of his father’s shoe manufacturing firm on George Street, Sydney. Vickery then branched out into a remarkable range of fields, becoming chairman of an ironworks in 1864, a tannery in 1865 and a shipping company in 1866. From this base he became a major colliery
170. Sir Frederick Thomas Sargood (1834–1903) Wholesale merchant and banker in Melbourne; pastoralist in New South Wales
Wealth: £421 846 0.215% of GDP Current Value: $1.54 billion
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One of the best-known Australian businessmen and politicians of his day, Frederick Sargood was born in London. His family was reasonably well-off: his father was a merchant and his mother Emma, nee Rippon, was the daughter of the chief cashier of the Bank of England. Nevertheless, for whatever reason, the entire family emigrated to Melbourne in 1850 (a year before the Gold Rush lured so many), where his father opened a wholesale softgoods shop. As a teenager, Sargood expanded the family business to the goldfields area and then married well, to the daughter of a merchant and member of the Legislative Council. Sargood’s father also served in the Victorian parliament in the 1880s. Sargood’s wholesale business, which became well-known in Victoria, continued to expand throughout Australia and New Zealand, while he also became director of the Commercial Bank and owner of extensive pastoral runs in the Tumut and Urana districts of New South Wales. In the late 1880s Sargood served as president of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce. Sargood’s fame stems in part from a long and distinguished career as a politician. He served in the Victorian Legislative Council from 1882 until 1901 and frequently held ministerial office, especially as minister for defence (then a separate responsibility of each colony),
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where he originated the school cadet corps. He was knighted for his political services in 1890. Sargood was then elected as one of the original members of the Federal Senate, serving from 1901 until his death aged 68 in January 1903. Sir Frederick Sargood also continues to be well-known because he built Rippon Lea, the enormous Romanesque mansion in the Elsternwick area of Melbourne which is today a famous landmark, one of the few grand stately Victorian homes which survives and is open to the public. Because of his connection with the cadet corps, Sargood was such a wellknown figure that his funeral was a public event. His funeral procession included a ‘march past’ of more than 1500 boy soldiers, and crowds lined the route from Rippon Lea to St Kilda cemetery, where he is buried. Most estimates of Sargood’s wealth were considerably higher than the £421 846 he actually left.
177. William Edward Sparke (1830–1905) Wine merchant and property owner in Sydney
Wealth: £468 045 0.209% of GDP Current Value: $1.50 billion
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE THIRD ERA
1900–80 Born in Sydney, William Sparke was employed by his uncle William ‘Bill’ Long (1797–1876), a convict who became a major wine merchant, publican and property owner in Sydney. Sparke then began his own firm of wine merchants in partnership with a relative, W.E. Walford. From this he became a large-scale Sydney property owner and speculator, purchasing the Chisholm estate on George Street. He also had the good fortune to inherit a further £60 000 from another relative, the racehorse-owner Jack Smith.
Sir Daniel Cooper, 2nd Baronet
which turned him into one of Australia’s richest men. The father lived chiefly in England from about 1861 and was probably the first Australian to receive a
178. Sir Daniel Cooper,
baronetcy. Like his father, the second Sir Daniel
2nd Baronet (1848–1909)
Cooper lived for most of his adult life in England. He had a country estate at
Son of Sir Daniel Cooper, 1st Baronet (1821– 1902; no. 89), merchant and property owner in Sydney
the racing centre at Newmarket, where he was well-known as a racehorse owner, and a townhouse in London’s
Wealth: £574 433 0.205% of GDP Current Value: $1.47 billion
Grosvenor Square. Cooper was also a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron, became an English justice of the peace, and married into an old family
Sir Daniel Cooper, 2nd Baronet, was born in Sydney in 1848 when his father was at the beginning of a highly successful career as an import–export merchant, property owner and parliamentarian,
of landed baronets. He did maintain significant economic interests in New South Wales, leaving more than threequarters of his fortune in the colony rather than in Britain.
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179. Alfred Felton
(1831–1904)
Wholesale druggist, pharmaceutical manufacturer and businessman in Melbourne
Wealth: £452 572 0.204% of GDP Current Value: $1.46 billion Born in Essex, the son of a tanner, Alfred Felton emigrated to Victoria in 1853. After holding a variety of jobs, by the early 1860s he had established himself as a wholesale druggist on Swanston Street, Melbourne. In 1867 he became a partner of Frederick Grimwade (1840– 1910), himself a well-known Melbourne businessman and member of the Legislative Council. Felton, Grimwade & Co. became probably the largest and most successful manufacturing chemist and wholesale drug firm in Australia. The partners then branched out into successful companies engaged in glass, chemicals and salt manufacturing, and pioneered the sale of eucalyptus oils. Felton also owned two large runs in rural Victoria. Felton never entered politics, and would probably have been completely forgotten today except for his strong interest in art, which has kept his name very much alive. A bachelor, he lived for many years in the St Kilda Hotel,
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where his rooms were crowded with books and works of art. In his will, he left nearly £400 000 for charities, half of which was to be used to establish a fund to buy works of art for the National Gallery of Victoria. The famous ‘Felton Bequest’, probably the best-known scheme of art purchase in Australian history, has (despite the accusations of conservatism and short-sightedness levelled at the Bequest Committee) over the past century acquired many important masterpieces for what is one of Australia’s most important public art collections.
181. George Washington Charters (1827–1900) Occupation unknown; lived in Belfast
Wealth: £382 000 0.202% of GDP Current Value: $1.45 billion Very little is known about George Washington Charters, whose direct connection with Australia remains unclear. At his death he was the proprietor of the Ulster Spinning Company of Belfast, Ireland, which employed more
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE THIRD ERA
1900–80 than 2000 persons, and he also lived in country houses in Sussex and Kent. Nevertheless, he left a considerable fortune, £157 000, in Victoria and New South Wales, in addition to his large British estate. He might have been related to William Skelton Eubank Charters (1830–85), also from Belfast, who was Queensland’s gold commissioner and for whom Charters Towers is named.
to Cuming, Smith & Co., an important chemical manufacturer. He was also the owner of several pastoral holdings in the Murray Downs and at Langikal, and was honorary treasurer of the Pastoralists’ Association of Victoria and the Riverina. Apart from his Victorian runs, he also held important pastoral interests in Queensland. A staunch Presbyterian, Campbell left a widow and eight children when he died at the age of 65 at Albert Street, East Melbourne.
206. Charles Campbell (1840–1905)
207. Thomas Dalton
Businessman in Melbourne and pastoralist in Victoria and Queensland
(1829–1901) Wholesale and retail merchant in New South Wales, especially in Orange
Wealth: £413 276 0.184% of GDP Current Value: $1.32 billion Born in Aberdeen, Charles Campbell emigrated to Victoria around 1858 when he was eighteen. Little is known of his early life in Australia, although he apparently prospered with the Dunedin-based flour milling firm of Anderson, Campbell and Mowat. By the 1870s Campbell had become a significant businessman in Melbourne, holding interests in a variety of businesses ranging from the Royal Bank
Wealth: £346 580 0.183% of GDP Current Value: $1.31 billion Born in County Limerick, Ireland, Thomas Dalton was the son of John Dalton, a farmer who, as a result of the Irish famine, migrated to the Orange district of New South Wales where he became an innkeeper and storekeeper. Thomas Dalton went into business in partnership with his brother James
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(1834–1919), who himself became a prominent merchant, pastoralist and champion of Irish nationalism, first as storekeepers in Orange and then as flour millers and wholesale merchants. The business became one of the largest mercantile firms west of the Blue Mountains, branching out to own coffee grinders, wool stores, retail shops and pastoral properties. Thomas Dalton served as mayor of Orange in 1877 and was a member of the Legislative Assembly in 1882–91 and a member of the Legislative Council in 1892–1901. The Daltons were regarded as one of the most prominent and influential Catholic families in the colony, with Thomas created a Papal knight. Dalton was related by marriage to John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Nationalist party in the British parliament, and to other Irish Nationalist leaders.
209. Mars Buckley (c. 1825–1905) Retail merchant and banker in Melbourne
Wealth: £406 051 0.181% of GDP Current Value: $1.30 billion
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Mars Buckley
The origin of Mars Buckley’s strange forename is unknown; it certainly was not a common name in County Cork, Ireland, where he was born. Buckley left Ireland for the Victorian goldfields in 1851, and the following year opened a retail drapery on Bourke Street, Melbourne, taking as his partner Crumpton John Nunn. Buckley & Nunn’s drapery quickly became one of the leading retailers in the Victorian metropolis, occupying roughly the area where the Myer Emporium now stands. Nunn emigrated to London to handle the English end of the importing business, while Buckley continued as the Melbourne director of the firm until 1891, making profits of more than £40 000 per year. In that year Nunn committed suicide in London and Buckley sold the London end of the business. While
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THE RICHEST AUSTRALIANS OF THE THIRD ERA
1900–80 continuing as a retailer in Melbourne, he carved out a second career as a banker, having helped, as early as 1866, to found the Commercial Bank of Australia. A strict but respected disciplinarian towards his staff, Buckley eschewed publicity and refused to enter the public arena, living until his death at 80 in his mansion Beaulieu, in Heyington Place, Toorak. His firm survived for many decades after his death. One theory about the Australian catch phrase ‘Buckley’s chance’ is that it derives from his actions in the Victorian depression around 1893, when he placed two large trunks with £10 000 in gold sovereigns in his safe deposit vault to avoid having to make payments to depositors when there were financial runs on the bank.
214. Robert Chirnside (1830–1900) Pastoralist in Victoria
Wealth: £336 109 0.178% of GDP Current Value: $1.28 billion Born in Berwickshire, Scotland, and educated at Musselburgh Academy,
Robert Chirnside arrived in Victoria in 1857 to manage the Werribee estate of his well-known uncle, Thomas Chirnside (1815–87). He was also the nephew of another well-known pastoralist, Andrew Chirnside (no. 169), who left nearly £444 000. Robert became a large-scale pastoralist in his own right, owning estates in Gippsland, near Werribee, and at Colac.
219. John Darling
(1852–1914)
Grain exporter and mining magnate in Adelaide
Wealth: £723 229 0.175% of GDP Current Value: $1.26 billion John Darling was the eldest son of the founder of the family fortune, also named John Darling, who was born in Edinburgh in 1831, moved to Adelaide in 1855 and died in 1905. Although he left only about £67 000, the elder John Darling became known as Australia’s ‘Grain King’, and also served as a South Australian parliamentarian and minister between 1870 and 1897. His eldest son was also born in Edinburgh, just before the family emigrated, and took over
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his father’s firm in 1897. Known as the ‘Wheat King’ of Australia, the younger John Darling branched out into other businesses, especially mining, becoming chairman of Broken Hill Proprietary Ltd (BHP) from 1907 until his death. A strong anti-socialist, Darling feared the rise of militant trade unionism and, like his father, served in the South Australian parliament, in the years 1896– 1905. Darling was a notable benefactor of the Baptist church and was certainly extremely wealthy, but reports that he left £1.7 million at his death cannot be substantiated.
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mid-nineteenth century. Centred in Melbourne and Geelong, it specialised in the coastal shipping trade all around the Australian coast and also expanded into ocean shipping around the world. Howard-Smith was the chairman of the firm and was also a director of colliery, sugar, cement and insurance firms. His £1 million fortune was left in one of the nadir years of the Great Depression, and it is likely that a few years earlier he was even wealthier. At his death HowardSmith was a widower and lived at Anderson Street, South Yarra.
225. Harry Bellingham Howard-Smith (1859–1933) Ship owner in Melbourne and Geelong
Wealth: £1 006 828 0.174% of GDP Current Value: $1.25 billion Born in London and educated in England, Howard-Smith (generally known as Howard) was the youngest son of Captain Walter S. Howard-Smith, who had established the shipping firm of W. Howard Smith & Sons in the
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WEALTH-HOLDERS WORTH
New South Wales
1.
James Swinton Vickery (1835– 1907), £402 049—Grazier in NSW, lived Bective, NSW; born in Ireland, the son of a farmer (J.S. Vickery was not related to Ebenezer Vickery, no. 165)
2.
Sir John Hay (1840–1909), £410 573—Pastoralist, inherited much of the fortune of David Berry (no. 37), millionaire pastoralist at Shoalhaven; educated at St Andrews University in Scotland; knighted in 1908; he should not be confused with his contemporary, also named Sir John Hay, who was president of the Legislative Council of NSW 1873–92
3. 4.
Robert Marsden FitzGerald (1835–1910), £494 977—Grazier, lived near Ayleston; born in Sydney Louis Phillips (1839–1913), £438 830—Merchant in Sydney, head of Moses, Moss & Co., Wynyard Lane; born in London, and arrived in NSW in 1855; treasurer of Sydney’s Great Synagogue Edward Ross Fairfax (1842– 1915), £569 138—Newspaper proprietor in Sydney; son of John Fairfax (d. 1877); director of John Fairfax & Co., 1865–89, then retired
Sir James Reading Fairfax (1834–1919), £587 997—Another son of John Fairfax (d. 1877) who was born in Leamington, England; chairman of the Sydney Morning Herald; patron of the arts, music and charities; knighted 1898
7.
Peter Cumming Watt (1845–1919), £551 490—Grazier near Moree who was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and arrived in NSW about 1859; relative of the wealthy merchant John Gilchrist (no. 82)
8.
Sir Thomas Anderson Stuart (1856–1920), £440 080—Professor of Physiology and Dean of Medicine, University of Sydney, who was born in Scotland, the son of a businessman in Dumfries; controversial and unpopular medical leader who did much to develop Sydney’s hospitals; almost certainly the richest Australian physician of his time
9.
Sydney Arthur Josephson (1859–1922), £462 752—Governing Director of Waugh & Josephson, consulting engineers, of Sydney; lived in Ashfield; the son of Joshua Frey Josephson (d. 1845), an ex-convict who became a successful jeweller in Sydney
10.
William Oswald Gilchrist (1842–1920), £603 687—Partner of Gilchrist, Watt & Co., merchants in Sydney, and director of Dalgety’s; also owned pastoral stations in NSW and Queensland; son of John Gilchrist (no. 82), who left £260 000
171
Wealth-holders Worth £400 000 or More
6.
1900–39
5.
£400 000 OR MORE
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11.
Thomas Cornish (1852–1928), £740 332—Grazier in the Brewarrina district, New South Wales, who was born in England; originally a wool merchant in Sydney in a firm (Caird, Patterson & Co.) owned by his uncle; his father, E.B. Cornish, was a prominent NSW pastoralist; lived at Woollahra at his death
12.
Alexander Saunders (1860– 1927), £524 231—Jeweller, optician and silversmith at 813 George Street; born in Sydney, the son of a quarry owner, and educated at the Sydney Grammar School; his successful business premises were opposite Central Station; lived in Darling Point
13.
Sir James Oswald Fairfax (1863–1928), £758 940—Son of Sir James Reading Fairfax (1834–1919) and partner in family newspaper business; a graduate of Oxford who became a barrister and company director; knighted in 1926
14.
Franc (sic) Breton Sadleir Falkiner (1867–1929), £504 290—Pastoralist in NSW and managing director of F.S. Falkiner & Sons, well-known pastoralists, and owner of a merino stud; company director; Federal MHR, 1913– 14 and 1917–19; lived in Bellevue Hill
15.
Richard Tilden-Smith (1865– 1929), £880 495—Financier who was born in Muswellbrook, where his father owned the Family Hotel; involved in
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developing the Maitland coalmines, and was a partner in mining ventures in Western Australia with Herbert Hoover, who later became president of the United States; lived in England after 1893, where he introduced the diesel engine to England and developed a zincsmelting plant during the First World War, importing zinc from Broken Hill; died in Westminster, London
16.
Geoffrey Evan Fairfax (1861– 1930), £750 888—Yet another wealthy member of the Fairfax newspaper dynasty, the son of Sir James Reading Fairfax (1834–1919); educated at Oxford and became a barrister; received an honorary degree from Toronto University
17.
John Brown (1851–1930), £640 380—Well-known colliery owner in Newcastle, NSW, who was the son of the founder of the firm, another John Brown (d. 1894); known as the ‘Coal King’, and reputedly the richest man in Australia at one time
18.
William Brown (1862–1927), £482 444—Brother of the previous John Brown (1851–1930); also a prominent racehorse owner; lived at Macquarie Street, Sydney
19.
William George Matchett (1862–1932), £588 538—Pastoralist at Borambil and other stations; son of a wealthy grazier; lived in Strathfield
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WEALTH-HOLDERS WORTH
20.
James Lyle Mackay, first Earl of Inchcape (1852–1932), £412 847— Famous British ship owner and banker; chairman of P&O Lines; given a peerage in 1911; left £2 125 000 around the world (in one of the worst years of the Depression), of which £412 847 was left in Australia even though he apparently never lived in this country
21.
Ernest Samuel Halford (1872–1932), £619 441—Born and lived in London, the son of Ernest Michael Hyam, a shipbuilder; described in the few sources which mention him as an Australian who made a fortune in the wholesale clothing trade; served as a lieutenant-colonel in the RAF during the First World War; his large English fortune was ‘resealed’ in Sydney, meaning that he continued to own property in Australia
22.
Henry Forbes Creswick (1886–1935), £502 392—Pastoralist with extensive holdings in the Riverina and in Victoria; killed by a passing car in Melbourne, aged 49
23.
George Judah Cohen (1842– 1937), £511 822—Banker and financier in Maitland and then Sydney; chairman of David Cohen & Co., and later of the Commercial Banking Company, as well as of Tooth & Co., the brewers; known (inaccurately) as ‘the Rothschild of Australia’ and as ‘the Grand Old Man’ of the Sydney Jewish community
£400 000 OR MORE
24.
Wallace John Carson (1862– 1937), £624 735—Born in Sydney, the son of a grazier also named Wallace John Carson; a bachelor of Darlinghurst at his death, when he was described on his death certificate as simply ‘of independent means’
25.
George Begg Vickery (1865– 1938), £435 826—The son of Ebenezer Vickery (no. 165), a merchant who left £537 000; continued as managing director of his father’s firm; lived in Homebush
26. 27.
Louis Morris Phillips (1872– 1938), £403 810—Merchant in Sydney and president of the Great Synagogue Clarence Chesney Wilson (1861–1936), £650 849—Son of the great pastoralist Sir Samuel Wilson (no. 44); married the aunt of Sir Winston Churchill, Lady Sarah Churchill, and lived much of his life in London
Victoria
1.
William Thomson Manifold (1861–1922), £421 440—Grazier at Purrumbete; the son of John Manifold (no. 105), who left £379 000; also owned extensive properties in Queensland; gave £280 000 to the University of Melbourne at his death
2.
Sir William Murray MacPherson (1865–1932), £487 042—Founder of MacPhersons, engineering manufacturers
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and importers, of Melbourne; known as the ‘best private employer in Australia’, and experimented with company canteens and other innovations; president of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce; entered Victorian politics, and served as premier of Victoria in 1928–29
3.
Edward Manifold (1868–1931), £455 033—Pastoralist near Camperdown; another son of John Manifold (no. 105); a prominent Anglican lay leader; also a successful racehorse owner
4.
Thomas Henry Payne (1862– 1932), £422 931—Son of Thomas Budds Payne (no. 22), millionaire Melbourne investor and property owner; Thomas Henry was chiefly a pastoralist but represented Melbourne seats in the Victorian Legislative Council from 1901– 28 and lived in Toorak
5.
Benjamin Nathan (1865–1935), £914 722—Furniture retailer (Maples) and financier in Melbourne who was wellknown for being the business partner of John Wren (1871–1953), and is depicted in Frank Hardy’s Power Without Glory as ‘Ben Levy’; co-owner with Wren of Ascot Racecourse; from 1910 he was owner of Rippon Lea, Sir Frederick Sargood’s famous mansion, where he had a worldfamous orchid collection; Rippon Lea was turned into a museum on the death of his daughter in 1961
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6.
Alfred Michael Nicholas (1881– 1937), £894 825—The son of a miner from Cornwall and a grocer before becoming rich as the maker of ‘Aspro’ which he devised with his brother, a chemist, and others in the First World War, when German aspirin (at that time they held the patent) was no longer available, and produced from premises in South Melbourne; also famous for building the house and gardens at Burnham Beeches, Victoria and for giving £200 000 to Wesley College, Melbourne
7.
Frederick John Cato (1858– 1935), £755 484—Owner of a chain of grocery shops (Moran & Cato) which had 120 branches throughout Australia by the time of his death; also the founder of the Rosella Preserving Company; the son of a builder in Stawell, he left school at thirteen and then became a partner in a grocery chain formed with his cousin, Thomas Moran, in the 1880s
8.
Edward Lloyd Baillieu (1867– 1939), £484 210—Stockbroker and property owner; known as ‘Prince’ Baillieu, and the son of a hotel owner in Queenscliff; he helped to found the famous business dynasty with his two brothers; also closely connected with the London Stock Exchange
9.
Robert Bond Wesley McComas (1862–1938), £500 846—Wool and skin broker (William Haughton & Co.) in
174
WEALTH-HOLDERS WORTH
Melbourne and extensive station owner; chairman of the Commonwealth Central Wool Committee; the son of a hydraulics engineer in Melbourne; left £110 000 in England
10.
Mary Louisa Wilson (d. 1936), £553 330—Unmarried daughter of the wealthy pastoralist Sir Samuel Wilson (no. 44); lived chiefly in Eastbourne, Sussex, England, where she left more than half of her large fortune
Other states
1.
Andrew Tennant (1835–1913), £550 000—Pastoralist in Glenelg, SA, and owned extensive stations there, in the Northern Territory and elsewhere; SA parliamentarian from 1881–1902; Tennant Creek is named for him
2.
William Tennant Mortlock (1858–1913), £550 000—Pastoralist of Martindale, SA, whose father was also a pastoralist; educated in England and practised as a barrister there before returning to SA in 1881
3. 4.
Thomas Roger Scarfe (d. 1915), £495 000—Merchant of Adelaide; little is known of him Alexander George Downer (1839–1916), £400 000—Solicitor and businessman in Adelaide, and chairman of the Bank of Adelaide; the brother of Sir John Downer (1843–1915) and
£400 000 OR MORE
relative of Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer
5.
Richard Smith (1836–1919), £600 000—Merchant of Adelaide who was born in Kent, England, and moved to SA in 1863; successful in a variety of fields, especially as an iron contractor to the SA government, and as a pastoralist and company director
6. 7.
Frederick Lord (1841–1914), £404 883—Grazier and MLA in Queensland William Hart (1825–1904), £429 240—Arrived in Launceston, Van Diemen’s Land, with his family in 1833, and became an ironmonger then branched out into tin mining and property ownership; at one time owned so much of Launceston that it was known colloquially as ‘Hartsville’; mayor of Launceston in 1863 and 1869 and Tasmanian MLA in 1877–1902
8.
Sir John Winthrop Hackett (c. 1848–1916), £700 000—The only Western Australian on this list; born in Ireland; editor and proprietor of the West Australian newspaper and one of the State’s main power brokers; chaired the Royal Commission which established the University of Western Australia; his estate was originally probated at about £181 000, but was resworn at a much higher figure in the mid-1920s
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1940–49
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pastoralist; arrived at the races in a goldplated Rolls Royce
1.
Thomas Charles Beirne (1860– 1949), £1 220 799—Irish-born retailer, chiefly in Brisbane; arrived in Melbourne in 1884, then became a draper in Brisbane and company director; became a Papal knight
2.
Sir Thomas Buckland (1848– 1947), £589 958—Nephew of Thomas Buckland (no. 218) who left £281 000; born in Kent, England, and went to Queensland as a goldmine manager and also served as mayor of Charters Towers; then prominent company director in a variety of businesses in Sydney; known as ‘The Sydney Ltd’ for his rapid progress on foot from one directors’ meeting to another; died at the age of 98 years and 9 months
3.
Harold Percival Christmas (1884–1947), £405 091—Retailer in Sydney, born in Kiama, New South Wales, who ran a chain of cheap shops and then became the first head of Woolworths in Australia from 1924–45; regarded as an eccentric; had applicants for jobs examined by a phrenologist
5.
Sir Macpherson Robertson (1859–1945), £584 266—Born in Ballarat, moved to Melbourne and made novelty sweets; then founded the American Candy Company in Melbourne, introducing chewing gum and candy floss to the unsuspecting continent, and was the largest confectioner in Australia, with works in Fitzroy; known for good relations with employees; also funded Sir Douglas Mawson’s Antarctic expeditions
6.
Tom Elder Barr Smith (1863– 1941), £682 684—Pastoralist, born in Adelaide, the son of Robert Barr Smith (no. 34); director of numerous South Australian companies, especially shipping and insurance; built the Barr Smith Library at the University of South Australia
7.
Mary Elizabeth Fairfax (1858– 1945), £428 278—Daughter of Sir James Reading Fairfax (1834–1919); philanthropist and associated with numerous community bodies; president of the Victoria League
4.
Solomon Green (1868–1948), £481 721—Bookmaker and betting king, born in Mile End, London, who came to Australia in 1883; operated Melbourne’s Tattersall Clubs; prominent racehorse owner, Melbourne property owner and
1950–59
1.
Fred William Hughes (1869– 1950), £7 600 000—Wholesale meat king, born in Brisbane, the son of a butcher; began as a woolscourer in
176
WEALTH-HOLDERS WORTH
Brisbane, eventually owning Colonial Combing, Spinning and Weaving Co.; then branched out into meat processing, developing the Colonial Wholesale Meat Co. in Botany, Sydney; also a racehorse owner; Hughes left only £83 853 but also a trust, F.W. Hughes Industry Ltd, worth just over £7 million, which was deemed to be part of his personal estate; he may have been the richest man in Australia at the time
2.
Sir William Charles Angliss (1865–1957), £4 200 000—Known as the ‘Meat King’, born in Dudley, England, arrived in Queensland in 1884, then went to Melbourne where he built up a meat contracting business and pioneered frozen meat exports; regarded as the ‘largest meat enterprise in the British Empire’, it was sold intact by Angliss to Vestey’s in 1934; reputedly the richest man in Australia; also served as a Victorian MLC from 1912–52
3.
John Andrew Tennant Mortlock (1894–1950), £1 248 124—Pastoralist in South Australia, the son of William Tennant Mortlock (d. 1913); owned Martindale, which his widow left to the University of South Australia in 1965
4.
Ernest William Richards Connibeare (1862–1957), £1 046 872— Softgoods manufacturer with brothers in Melbourne (Connibeare Bros Ltd) who invested in urban property and also
£400 000 OR MORE
inherited from his bachelor brother Sir Charles W. Connibeare (d. 1941)
5.
Kenneth Mansfield Niall (1883–1953), £443 000—Son of James Mansfield Niall (1860–1944), chairman of Goldsbrough Mort, the Melbournebased wool exporters; Kenneth Miall succeeded as chairman of the company from 1935 until his death and was also chairman of Mt Lyell Mining
6.
John Wren (1871–1953), £1 074 612—The son of illiterate Irish immigrants to Collingwood, Wren became a celebrated gambling king, immortalised in Frank Hardy’s Power Without Glory (1950) and made a fortune in often illegal gambling activities and sports promotions; was a power in the Australian Labor Party; at one time owner of the Brisbane Courier-Mail; his wife sued Frank Hardy for criminal defamation and lost; former minister and future leader of the Federal ALP Arthur Calwell was a pallbearer at his funeral
7.
Isadore Samuel Emanuel (1860– 1954), £1 100 000—Pastoralist in Western Australia, possibly the State’s richest man in current terms before the 1980s, who was also a partner of Western Australian premier Sir John Forrest’s brother Alexander, and of the great Northern Territory pastoralist Sir Sidney Kidman; Emanuel Bros, his company, owned 20 000 square miles in WA and the Northern Territory
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8.
Sir (Wilfred) Russell Grimwade (1879–1955), £1 100 000—Son of Frederick Grimwade, a wholesale druggist, who was born in Caulfield, Victoria; a naturalist and chemist, and also a partner with his brothers in Felton Grimwade Pharmaceuticals, later chairman of CIG, the industrial gases company; chairman of the National Gallery of Victoria, he gave £50 000 to the University of Melbourne
9.
Philip Howard Bushell (1879– 1954), £666 695—Tea merchant and manufacturer, born Liverpool, England, and arrived in Brisbane in 1883; formed Bushell & Co. with his brother in 1899 in Sydney; once gave a free packet of his tea to every family in Sydney (1924); a political radical who supported the USSR in the 1930s after a visit there
10.
Myrtle Dulce Bushell (nee Stewart) (d. 1959), £2 558 991—Widow of Philip Howard Bushell whom she married in 1916; she was seldom in the public eye
11.
Sir Francis (Frank) Joseph Beaurepaire (1891–1956), £938 610— The son of a Melbourne tram conductor, he became a champion swimmer and swimming instructor before founding Olympic Tyre and Rubber in 1933, which was built on his earlier tyre repair and distribution company; also a member of the Melbourne City Council and an
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MLC; famous as one of the organisers of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics
1960–70 Persons worth £1 million ($2 million) or more
1.
William Lionel Buckland (1899– 1964), £4 829 644—Born in Mansfield, Victoria, and the nephew of Sir Thomas Buckland, a president of the Bank of NSW; founded a chain of wholesale dealers of motor accessories in the 1920s, then founded a chain of petrol stations (Geelong Southern Cross), which he sold to Ampol for £500 000 in 1952; also a large-scale pastoralist in the Northern Territory, where at one time he owned 11 000 square miles; lived in Toorak and was certainly one of the richest men in Australia at the time
2.
Andrew Thynne Reid (1901– 64), £3 000 000—Engineer and company director who founded Hardie Rubber and Hardie Asbestos with his brother Sir James; developer of Thredbo; donated money for the Parkes radio-telescope, and also gave away about £1.5 million
3.
George Richard Rich Nicholas (1884–1960), £2 200 000—Pharmacist who was the brother of Alfred Michael Nicholas, the developer of ‘Aspro’; became managing director in 1937,
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and also built the Aspro headquarters at Chadstone, Melbourne; a noted horticulturalist
4.
Achalen Wooliscroft Palfreyman (1875–1967), $6 622 975—Jam manufacturer who was born in Tasmania then moved to Melbourne in 1901 where he developed H. Jones & Co. and IXL; branched out into prospecting and construction; regarded as the largest individual shareholder in BHP and was one of the richest men in the country
5.
Ezra Norton (1897–1967), $3 844 672—Sydney-born newspaper proprietor of the Truth, the Daily Mirror in Sydney and the Sunday Sportsman; sold to Fairfax & Co. in 1958; intensely disliked by his staff—he used to sack up to 20 journalists at a time
6.
Staniforth Ricketson (1891– 1967), $1 971 383 plus charitable donations for an estimated $2 500 000—Stockbroker in Melbourne who built up J.B. Were & Son into a major investment house
7. 8.
Hans A. Hecht (d. 1965), $1 585 710—Merchant in Melbourne Harold DeVahl Rubin (1899– 1964), $2 199 342—Pearl merchant in Western Australia then pastoralist there and in Queensland; bought valuable paintings for the Queensland Art Gallery; founded the Australian chapter of the International Goldfish Club, whose members had to swallow live goldfish
£400 000 OR MORE
9. 10. 11.
Gustav Huppert (d. 1968), $2 413 310—Manufacturer in Melbourne Norman F. Pernier (d. 1967), $2 172 009—Lived in Victoria Cecil Newton McKay (1899–1968), $3 945 439—Son of Hugh Victor McKay (no. 124) who headed the Sunshine Harvester company after his father’s death, but sold to MasseyFerguson in 1954
12. 13. 14.
Nancy G.B. Heath (d. 1968), $3 021 162—Unmarried; lived in Melbourne Maurice Shmith (sic) (d. 1969), $2 930 527—Chairman of York Motors and other auto firms in Melbourne Kenneth A. Hall (d. 1969), $2 167 019—Grazier in Victoria and elsewhere
1970–80
1.
Roy Everard Ross (1899–1970), $8 958 158—Surveyor (Ross, Worth & Gibson) in Warrigul, then property developer and quarry owner in Victoria
2.
Sir Edward John Lees Hallstrom (1886–1970), $5 100 000—Born in Coonamble, New South Wales; manufacturer of refrigerator and refrigeration equipment (Hallstroms); well-known naturalist and president of the Taronga Zoo; collected the hats
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of famous people, including Winston Churchill and Sir Robert Menzies; gave away $4 million
3.
Michael Paspalis (1911–72), $3 000 000—Immigrant from the Greek Islands to Western Australia; later moved to the Northern Territory, where he was a major developer and property owner in Darwin
4.
Sir Jack Ellerton Becker (1904– 79), $5 000 000—Born in Adelaide, salesman of music and organiser of popular music, later a major property developer and landowner in South Australia; widely detested, he disinherited his daughter when she married a naval stoker of whom he disapproved; gave £200 000 to the Australian Academy of Sciences
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5.
Sir Herbert Trout (1906–78), $2 293 274—Solicitor, and company director of engineering and petroleum firms chiefly in Brisbane; president of the Brisbane Chamber of Commerce, and of the Queensland Liberal Party in 1953–57
6. 7.
Lady Mabel Grimwade (nee Kelly) (d. 1973), $2 000 000—Widow of Sir Russell Grimwade (d. 1955) Lance Eric Harold Reichstein (1900–80), $5 126 208—Industrialist in Melbourne, manufacturer of automobiles tools and earthmoving equipment; member of the Melbourne City Council
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I
n many respects the period since 1980 represents a reversal of many trends which have dominated the Australian wealth index for nearly a century. Since the late nineteenth century, and clearly since the Edwardian period, the number of very wealthy persons on the All-time Rich List has grown smaller and smaller. In large measure this was because the total size of the Australian economy has outstripped the size of Australia’s largest fortunes but also because, since the Edwardian era, the size of great fortunes rose little, if at all, even in current terms (before taking inflation and the growth of the economy into account). Thus, the 1900–80 component of the All-time List contains only a handful of fortunes from the 1930s and none since the outbreak of the Second World War. This state of affairs certainly existed into the 1960s or even later. Since about 1980 there has occurred a growth in the size of Australia’s top fortunes, even compared with a continuously expanding economy, with little or no parallel in the nation’s history. In the earliest annual Business Review Weekly Rich List, published in November 1983, Rupert Murdoch was claimed to be the wealthiest Australian, with an estimated $250 million. Six other men or family groups were estimated to be worth $100 million or more: Kerry Packer, Robert Holmes à Court and John Dieter Kahlbetzer (a German-born steel and meat king), each with about $100 million; four Fairfaxes, with $175 million between them; eight Smorgons, with a total wealth of $150 million; and the Ingham brothers (poultry farmers), with $150 million. The 144 individuals and 21 families on the original BRW list were worth, collectively, an estimated $4.7 billion. Just 21 years later, however, by the time of the 2004 list, Australia’s richest man, Kerry Packer, was worth more than all the 165 individuals and families on the original list combined! Apart from Packer’s $6.5-billion fortune, eight men and two families were claimed to be Australian-dollar billionaires. Murdoch’s
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$250-million fortune in 1983 would have been good enough only for 82nd place on the 2004 list, or 99th place if seventeen rich families are brought into the picture. In all, the 200 persons or families on the 2004 Rich List were worth a total of $87.660 billion. Even if inflation is taken into account, the increase in the size of Australian fortunes is still phenomenal, with Packer’s fortune being worth about $2.2 billion in 1983 dollars, around nine times the value of Murdoch’s fortune on the original list. This increase is also vastly in excess of the overall growth of Australia’s economy in the two decades since the first Rich List appeared, with the country’s gross domestic product having precisely doubled during this period. Arguably, there has been nothing in the entire history of Australia to parallel this recent rise in the size of huge fortunes in so short a time, even during the period of the Gold Rush and the great boom of the latter nineteenth century. At that time Australia’s population was growing very rapidly as hundreds of thousands of British (and other) immigrants made their way here, and as Australia’s urban and pastoral infrastructures were developed enormously. Since 1983 Australia’s population has increased by about 25 per cent, from 16 million to 20 million, and most central business districts have been transformed by skyscrapers and other developments, but the majority of Australian suburbs and neighbourhoods have hardly changed at all. While a comprehensive explanation for the recent growth in large fortunes is somewhat elusive, a number of factors have certainly been important. Taxes have been cut (with inheritance tax disappearing entirely), and international capital flows of a kind unknown since the pre-1914 period created. Thanks to the Internet, comprehensive business information is available almost instantaneously while, owing to the growth of business schools and other sophisticated forms of management training, highly capable executives and financial advisers, probably much more competent than in the past, are produced in record numbers.
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The growth in the capital value of some commodities has been truly phenomenal, above all in land, housing and office buildings, which have increased astronomically in most urban centres. The increase in the wealth of the very rich in Australia has been paralleled elsewhere in the English-speaking world. The richest family in the United States, the DuPonts, was estimated to be worth US$10 billion in 1982, with the richest single individual, shipping magnate Dan Ludwig, worth US$2 billion. In contrast, in 1999, at the height of the technology boom, the richest man in the United States, Bill Gates, was worth an estimated US$85 billion, while there were also believed to be eighteen other men or families (five in computers) worth $10 billion or more. Interestingly, however, only a few of Australia’s richest individuals were primarily involved in information technology, and for the most part (and with some notable exceptions), they have avoided complete ruin in the two economic downturns of the post-1983 period, those of the early 1990s (which did bring about some high-profile bankruptcies) and that following the collapse of the technology boom in 2000. Most great fortunes actually continued to grow. The result of these factors is that the All-time Australian Rich List contains nine living and active billionaire Australian men and families, reversing a trend which began in the late nineteenth century. Should the size of great fortunes exceed the volume of growth in the gross domestic product in the future, it seems inevitable that more super-rich individuals and families will appear on the revised versions of this list. In the past, a phenomenal rise in the number and wealth of the superrich would certainly have been accompanied by a sharply hostile reaction from the political left and from many journalists and commentators, but perhaps the most significant aspect of the perception of the rich in today’s Australia is that, in general, they have aroused no hostility whatever, even from ALP sources. The demise of socialism, and the fact that today’s super-rich are not viewed as ‘exploiters’ of the poor
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and downtrodden in the manner of yesterday’s ‘boss class’ (but, on the contrary, as empowering ordinary individuals through the growth of a consumer society and of the worldwide people-to-people Internet), set the present sharply apart from the past. Indeed, from Bob Hawke on, the ALP’s leaders have been just as keen to associate themselves with the super-rich as any Coalition leader, perhaps more so. The composition of Australia’s super-wealthy class has also greatly altered. Only a small minority of those on the annual BRW Rich List derive from the old-monied Melbourne Club-type category of reactionary ‘economic royalists’ as they were so often depicted in the past, or from old pastoral dynasties. Consistently, it is likely that more than half of those on BRW ’s Rich List are ‘self-made men’ in some sense, with perhaps 40 per cent being recent immigrants or members of ethnic minorities. Although the BRW Rich List has its full share of multimillionaires of Italian, Greek, Chinese and German origins, probably the largest single group represented among the super-rich are the Jews, nearly all of whom, especially in Melbourne, are Eastern European refugees or Holocaust survivors and their families. The overrepresentation of Jewish Australians, who comprise only 0.5 per cent of the population and only about 2 per cent of Melbourne’s population, but perhaps 15 to 20 per cent of BRW ’s Rich List, is genuinely remarkable—rather like the overrepresentation of Scottish immigrants on the nineteenth-century All-time Rich List. Jews, it should be noted, were certainly not overrepresented in the historical All-time List, although the Jewish percentage in the overall population has always been very similar; nor are recent Jewish migrants here, from the Soviet Union and South Africa, very notable. It would seem, however, that the total destruction of their world by the Nazis gave Australia’s Holocaust survivors a will to succeed by endless hard work and unrelenting effort which stands out in contemporary Australia, and which is apparently unique among recent immigrants in their resulting degree of economic success. With all recent
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1980–today
successful immigrants, Australia was continuing its historical role of giving a second chance to those who settled in the new continent. In some respects, the fields of endeavour of today’s super-rich are surprising. Although Australia’s two current richest men, Rupert Murdoch (no. 6) and Kerry Packer (no. 17), have both transformed their areas of business life—Murdoch, among other things, literally ending London’s Fleet Street and Packer transforming the media as well as cricket—many of today’s wealthiest men have been remarkably mundane in their business fields, cornering a niche market in down-to-earth areas and building from there. Richard Pratt (no. 35), Australia’s current thirdrichest man, is the ‘Cardboard Box King’, earning a vast fortune in paper packaging. The Libermans (no. 184) made a fortune from hosiery, the Smorgons (no. 92) from meat exporting and Harry Triguboff (no. 119) from building home units. Suburban shopping centres are one of the most common ways of making a vast fortune. Australia currently has two billionaires just below the All-time Rich List cut-off point, Kerry Stokes and Bob Oatley and his family. Stokes (worth $1.150 billion), Western Australia’s richest man, owned shopping centres and made tractors before moving into television. Oatley (worth $1 billion), of Denman, New South Wales, is Australia’s biggest wine producer. Apart from Murdoch and Packer, virtually all of today’s richest men and families simply pursued a sound investment career, finding a useful area of growth and employing good management techniques and sound finance to expand. Although nearly all have diversified, few have blindly taken a ‘leap in the dark’, and it is notable that information technology is, at least at the present time, generally notable by its absence from the areas of super-rich endeavour. There are some other differences between today’s rich and those of the past. Unlike the situation in the nineteenth century, virtually none of today’s super-rich has ever served in an elected office of any kind, let alone in a senior government position. Only a handful, indeed, have any political profile whatever, with Malcolm Turnbull (worth $125 million),
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the former crusading republican implausibly turned Liberal Federal treasurer, being perhaps the most notable. Today’s super-rich are limited to having direct access to senior politicians rather than a direct role in politics. Fifteen women were to be found on the BRW 2004 Rich List, the wealthiest being Angela Bennett, who shares a $600-million fortune with her brother Michael Wright. Perhaps surprisingly given Sydney’s international renown, nearly as many people on the BRW 2004 Rich List lived in Victoria (71) as in New South Wales (91). Philanthropy and charitable foundations and institutions are as visible as ever, although seemingly with fewer being religious in orientation than in the past.
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THE CURRENT RICHEST AUSTRALIANS
1980–today
6. Rupert Murdoch
(b. 1931)
Wealth: $9.12 billion in 2003 1.271% of GDP
Rupert Murdock
Unquestionably the most famous and powerful entrepreneur, in international terms, ever produced by Australia, Rupert Murdoch is a household name around the world, probably the first Australian in history apart from sporting heroes to be well-known to the person in the street in London, New York and Los Angeles. The scale of Murdoch’s worldwide media and financial dealings means that he is, in comparative terms, the sixth richest Australian in history, nearly
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The Current Richest Australians: 1980–today
International media magnate; originally from Melbourne
$4 billion wealthier than his nearest living rival, Kerry Packer (no. 17). (While today’s BRW Rich Lists no longer count Rupert Murdoch as an Australian, we continue to do so, given his Australian roots and previous residence.) The international media is in Rupert Murdoch’s blood. His father, Sir Keith Murdoch, was a self-made journalist whose fearless (and probably exaggerated) reports of the horrors experienced by Australian troops at Gallipoli had a major impact on the conduct of the First World War and led to Lord Northcliffe, Britain’s greatest press baron, regarding him as his protégé. Keith Murdoch became editor of the Melbourne Herald, which he transformed into Australia’s best-selling newspaper, thus beginning the national Murdoch press and media empire. Rupert Murdoch’s mother, Elisabeth Greene (now Dame Elisabeth Murdoch), came from a New Zealand society family. Rupert Murdoch grew up in Toorak and attended Geelong Grammar School, where he was a loner who was sometimes known as ‘Commo Murdoch’. (Amazing as it may now seem, Rupert Murdoch was secretary of the Labour Club at Oxford University and kept a bust of Lenin in his room!) Since his father’s death in 1951, Murdoch has gradually built up a worldwide media empire of incredible dimensions, founding The
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Australian, the first national newspaper, in 1964. From the late 1960s he bought a string of newspapers in Britain and the United States, ranging from the London Times to the sleazeball British tabloid The Sun. By then a confirmed rightwinger, Murdoch mixed with Thatcher and Reagan and in the mid-1980s broke forever the egregious power of the Fleet Street print unions. After that came television stations, cable networks, professional sports clubs like the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, publishers and film companies in an incredible international empire, News Corporation, resembling a modern version of Charles Norton Kane’s media cartel depicted in Citizen Kane. Now in his early 70s, Murdoch has had his share of troubles—marital, familial and financial—in recent years, but continues to be probably the world’s most powerful media mogul.
17. Kerry Francis Bullimore Packer (b. 1938) Media magnate and investor, lives in Sydney
Wealth: $6.5 billion 0.918% of GDP
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Kerry Packer
Just as Rupert Murdoch is today’s richest Australian resident overseas, so Kerry Packer is today’s richest Australian living in his own country. There are many parallels between the two great media moguls. Packer was also born into a well-established media family, the son of Sir Frank Packer (1906–74) who, with the wealthy Queensland Labor politician E.G. ‘Red Ted’ Theodore, bought the World, a Sydney evening paper. Frank Packer then went into the magazine field, establishing the Australian Woman’s Weekly with Theodore in 1933. By 1960 this magazine had, on a per capita basis, the highest circulation of any general magazine in the world. In 1936 the senior Packer’s media empire was renamed Australian Consolidated Press, while in 1955 he became a pioneer of Australian television by founding Channel Nine.
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1980–today Educated at private schools and suffering from polio as a child, Kerry Packer grew up with this media legacy. He took control of his father’s television stations in the 1960s. Although television has been a growing part of his media empire, it has remained centred, until recently, in his magazines. Packer owns such mass-circulation titles as Woman’s Day, Cosmopolitan, Cleo and The Bulletin. To these, over the years, he has added numerous other profitable ventures from sizeable rural properties and ski resorts to the Monsanto Chemical Company. In the 1990s, while continuing as Australia’s richest resident, Packer suffered some reverses, among them the collapse of One.Tel and competitive pressures brought against Packer’s flagship Nine Network. One of Australia’s best-known gamblers, Packer bought control of Crown Casino in 1998. Packer’s fortune has actually declined in recent years, down from an estimated $8.2 billion in 2000 at the height of the ‘dot.com bubble’ to $6.5 billion in 2004. Nevertheless, no-one can argue that during the last 20 years fortune has not smiled upon Kerry Francis Bullimore Packer: in the first Business Review Weekly Rich List, in 1983, Packer was estimated to be worth only $100 million, less than two per cent of his wealth today! Like his father (who financed two unsuccessful America’s Cup bids), Kerry
Packer is a great sportsman, well-known for his involvement in horseracing and polo, and who will always be remembered for transforming international cricket in the late 1970s with the introduction of one-day matches. Packer is a huge man (193 cm) and his health has recently been poor. Unlike Rupert Murdoch he has never sought political influence, and has never possessed the international political clout (or notoriety) of Australia’s other great media magnate.
35. Richard Pratt
(b. 1934)
Paper and packaging manufacturing, and investments; lives in Melbourne
Wealth: $4.2 billion 0.593% of GDP Richard Pratt, Australia’s ‘Cardboard Box King’, has led a rather unusual life. He was born in Poland in 1935, the son of a Jewish retailer with some international links who was in London in 1938 when, sensing what the imminent outbreak of war would mean for Europe’s Jews, he brought his wife and three-year-old Richard to Australia. Pratt’s father, Leon, soon moved to Shepparton (where a small Jewish agricultural community existed) to establish an orchard and then, in 1948,
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to Melbourne. There Leon Pratt established a factory making corrugated cardboard boxes. Richard was educated at the University of Melbourne but then became an actor in London and New York, starring in The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, and was screen-tested for Hollywood. A big man, Pratt also had a career in Australian Rules Football. In 1969 he took over the family business, VisyBoard, developing it into the largest manufacturer of containers in Australia. Pratt’s business methods are based on the ‘Straight Wicket’ approach: sound finance, sensible growth, capable managers and good relations with employees. As a result, Pratt’s wealth has escalated enormously. In 1983, Business Review Weekly reported him as worth ‘a minimum of $70 million’. By 1992 this had grown to an estimated $550 million and in 2004 to no less than $4.2 billion. By then Pratt was the third-richest person in Australia—in 1983 he had been listed in eleventh place. Pratt has become well-known for a range of reasons: his ownership of the great mansion Raheen in Melbourne, his patronage of the arts and charities and that of his wife Jeanne, and the highprofile scandal which surfaced in the late 1990s involving an illegitimate daughter in Sydney. Pratt with Visy Industries (as it is now known) has expanded into finance and has become an international force in the paper and packaging world, now
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being the seventh-largest operator in the United States, with sales there exceeding $1 billion. Visy Industries is an excellent example of how a participant in a humble-sounding niche market can provide the basis for a super-rich fortune.
36. Frank Lowy
(b. 1930)
Retailing (especially shopping centres), investment and property development; lives in Sydney
Wealth: $4.2 billion 0.593% of GDP
Frank Lowy
Frank Lowy is regarded as the ‘Shopping Centre King’ of Australia, the head of giant Westfield Holdings. Along with a significant number of today’s wealthiest Australians, Lowy is a Jewish Holocaust survivor.
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1980–today Born in Czechoslovakia where the family ran a grocery store, Lowy survived the war in Hungary, then moved to Palestine after the war and served in the newly founded Israeli army. Unable to make a success of it in Israel, in 1952 Lowy migrated to Sydney, the proverbial penniless post-war immigrant. He worked as a truck driver until he met another recent Hungarian immigrant, John Saunders (1923–99), who ran a small delicatessen in Blacktown. Almost by chance, they went into partnership and developed a small shopping centre at Blacktown in 1959, using the company name of Westfield. By the mid-1980s the partners had become a major force in Australian retailing, taking a stake in Coles Myer and in Grace Brothers, and then diversified into television, finance and property development. As well, they have built large shopping centres in the United States and Britain. A clever growth strategy, competently handled, has provided the basis for one of the greatest spurts of growth of any wealthholder in contemporary Australia. Lowy was listed as worth only $25 million on Business Review Weekly’s 1983 Rich List. By 1988 he was estimated to be worth $330 million. Lowy joined the tiny ranks of Australian billionaires in the mid-1990s, and by 2002 was the second richest man in the country, worth an estimated $4.2 billion. The decline in the stock market
in the early 2000s was responsible for a slight (in comparative terms!) decline in his wealth, in 2003, to $3.7 billion.
92. The Smorgon Family Meat wholesalers and exporters; later glass and steel manufacturers; live in Melbourne
Family Wealth: $2.37 billion 0.334% of GDP One of the best-known of today’s richest Australian families, the current Smorgons are descendants of a Jewish butcher from the Ukraine, Gershon Smorgon, who arrived in Australia in 1926 with his wife and three sons in a cattle boat. Settling in Carlton, they brought over a number of other relatives and began modestly enough, with a kosher butcher shop on Lygon Street serving Carlton’s then-thriving Jewish community. By the Second World War they had developed an expanding abattoir and meat-export business and a food canning works. Although linked together as a private company, Smorgon Consolidated Industries, the various members of the family have pursued different lines of business. After the war, the family entered the ranks of success in a big way, their breakthrough probably coming in 1948 when they persuaded American meat importers to buy Australian rabbit meat, a
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market they soon cornered. In order to cover themselves during downturns in the meat trade the family also diversified, entering paper manufacturing, a field chosen because it had only a small number of existing firms and sales which were largely recession-proof. Some in the family also entered glass and steel manufacturing— one Smorgon described the family as ‘natural manufacturers’—and by the end of the 20th century, steel manufacturing had become the most important item in the Smorgon family portfolio. By concentrating on these downto-earth fields, the family’s collective wealth has grown from an estimated $150 million in 1983 to $650 million in 1992 to more than $2.4 billion in 2003, when they were listed in the Business Review Weekly’s annual list as the wealthiest family (as opposed to individual entrepreneur) in the country.
119. Harry Triguboff
(b. 1933)
Property development and house building; lives in Sydney
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was educated at Scots College, Sydney, and then at Leeds University in England (in textile sciences), before living in Israel and South Africa. Originally a production manager for a textile company, Triguboff began investing in property development in the mid-1960s. Unlike most property developers in today’s Australia, Triguboff chiefly concerned himself with building home units, especially in inner Sydney, rather than shopping centres or office blocks. By 1989 Triguboff’s company, Meriton, had extended itself into suburban house building—it put up nearly 2600 homes in 2002, the largest number of any Australian developer— and has expanded into Queensland. Triguboff was involved in a high profile tax dispute settlement with the Taxation Department in 2002 which was alleged to have cost him $200 million, the largest such settlement in Australian history. Unlike many other wealthy men, Triguboff has not diversified into other areas, sticking to what he does best.
142. David H. Hains
Wealth: $2.0 billion 0.282% of GDP
and family
Less famous than many other of today’s Australian super-rich, Harry Triguboff was born in China to Russian Jewish parents, arriving in Australia in 1947. He
Investment banking; lives in Melbourne
Family Wealth: $1.8 billion 0.254% of GDP
192
(b. 1930)
THE CURRENT RICHEST AUSTRALIANS
1980–today David Hains belongs to one of the most private and least well-publicised of today’s enormously wealthy families. In the early 1950s he founded Portland House, a private, family-run investment company. Although his breakthrough came in the mining boom of the 1960s, in which Portland House played a leading role, Hains himself entered the public eye only at odd moments, most notably when he emerged as a key participant in the movement to make John Gorton the prime minister in the late 1960s. By 1983 Hains was estimated to be worth about $70 million, one of the ten richest men in the country. Since then Portland House has continued to prosper, with Hains (and his family) estimated to be worth $450 million in 1989 and more than $1.6 billion in 2003. In the past, Portland House has operated an aggressive and successful investment strategy, for example, when it bought US$300 million worth of a bankrupt American steel manufacturer in 1987 and then turned it into a highly profitable concern. More recently its strategy has become more defensive, relying for its investment decisions on a vast array of financial reports from around the world to find shrewd or overlooked investment possibilities in a depressed market. Hains has also entered property development and has long been well-known for his successful sideline in horse-breeding and racing.
184. The Liberman Family Textile manufacturing and then diversified investments; live in Melbourne
Family Wealth: $1.41 billion 0.199% of GDP Another of the phenomenally successful eastern European Jewish families who arrived penniless after the Second World War, the Liberman brothers and their families came to Australia in 1949. The sons of a baker, both had been arrested in 1939 when the Soviet Union occupied eastern Poland as its share of the booty of the Nazi–Soviet Pact: One brother, Chaim (b. 1920), was sent to a prison camp in Siberia ‘for no reason’ while the other, Jack (1922–97), was also arrested but allowed to join the Soviet army. After 1945, technically still being Polish citizens, they were allowed to emigrate, and arrived in Melbourne from German Displaced Persons’ camps with the wives they had married in Europe. They began humbly, carting clothing rejects and cut-offs from factories for resale. Moving into hosiery manufacturing, by 1959, remarkably, their company (Kolotex) had become the largest hosiery manufacturers in Australia. From this they diversified into Melbourne CBD properties and car parks, grocery retailing (Payless) and
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other textile businesses (Checkheaton, Glomesh), as well as an extremely wideranging array of other firms in their family business, JGL Investments. Over the years the Libermans have made some bad investments, but then have always come out on top. The family is now headed by the sons of the founders, who have recently moved into the information technology area.
188. John Gandel
(b. 1935)
Originally involved in women’s clothing retail, then shopping centres and property; lives in Melbourne
Wealth: $1.4 billion 0. 197% of GDP John Gandel’s parents, Sam and Fanny, were Polish Jews who migrated to Australia just before the start of the Second World War. In Melbourne they founded Sussan, now a ubiquitous household name among women’s clothing retail chains. Sussan consisted of just two shops in the early 1950s when it was taken over by Sam Gandel’s son-in-law Mark Besen (b. 1924; today himself a famous entrepreneur worth an estimated $923 million in 2003 and a well-known art collector) together with Sam’s young
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son John. Over the next few decades the two men built up Sussan into one of Australia’s largest retailing chains, which by the late 1980s had more than 200 shops around the country. While Besen continued chiefly as the head of Sussan, buying out the Gandel family in 1985, John Gandel used the proceeds from the sale to become the originator and head of some of Australia’s largest shopping centres, chiefly in Melbourne. In particular, Gandel is the owner of Chadstone, the vast, everexpanding complex in Melbourne’s southeast which is said to be the largest shopping centre in the southern hemisphere. Visited by 13 million people each year, the several hundred shops on its premises chalked up retail sales of $807 million in 2002. Although Chadstone has twice expanded its space significantly in recent years, Gandel also has advanced plans to increase its floor space by another 40 per cent. Gandel is also heavily involved in financial ventures and in aged care provision, and is well-known for his philanthropy.
194
Index Alexander, Maurice (1820–74) 127 Alexander, Samuel (1824–59) 125 Allen, Sir George Wigram (1824–85) 116 Allen, William (c. 1790–1856) 133 Amos, Thomas Sterrop (1776–1819) 45 Anderson, Joseph (1790–1877) 131 Andrews, Richard Bullock (1823–84) 133 Angas, George Fife (1789–1879) 106 Angas, John Howard (1823–1904) 151 Angliss, Sir William Charles (1865–1957) 177 Anstey, Thomas (1777–1851) 135 Archer, Thomas (1790–1850) 114 Archer, Thomas (1790–1850) 135 Armytage, George (1795–1862) 130 Aspinall, Edward (1800–40) 41 Atkin, John (c. 1792–1858) 130 Austin, Josiah (d. 1859) 130 Austin, Thomas (1815–71) 107 Ayres, Nathaniel (d. 1818) 42 Ayres, Sir Henry (1821–97) 134 Backhaus, Rev. George Henry (1811–82) 131 Baillieu, Edward Lloyd (1867–1939) 174 Baldwin, Otto (d. 1874) 127 Barrow, John Henry (1817–74) 133 Bayly, Nicholas (1770–1823) 65 Beaurepaire, Sir Francis (Frank) Joseph (1891–1956) 178 Becker, Sir Jack Ellerton (1904–79) 180 Bede, Most Rev. Roger William (1834–83) 128 Beirne, Thomas Charles (1860–1949) 176
Bell, Archibald (1773–1837) 50 Bell, John (1821–76) 99 Bell, Sir Joshua Peter (1827–81) 134 Benjamin, Solomon (d. 1888) 132 Benn, John (d. 1815) 19 Bennett, Samuel (1815–78) 128 Berry, Alexander (1791–1873) 127 Berry, David (1795–1889) 82 Birch, Thomas William (1774–1821) 16 Black, Niel (1804–80) 114 Blair, James (c. 1813–89) 132 Blanch, James (1784–1841) 60 Blaxcell, Garnham (1778–1817) 20 Blaxland, George (1803–49) 37 Blyth, William (1783–1823) 49 Bonython, Sir John Langdon (1848–1939) 161 Bowden, Matthew (c. 1779–1814) 15 Bradley, William (1800–68) 126 Bray, Sir John Cox (1842–94) 134 Breillat, Thomas Chaplin (1804–73) 127 Brock, Arthur James (d. 1898) 135 Brooks, Richard (c.1765–1833) 53 Broughton, John Brown (1831–82) 110 Broughton, Richard John Moffatt (1863–91) 93 Broughton, William (1768–1821) 21 Brown, Alexander (1816–77) 127 Brown, John (1851–1930) 172 Brown, John (d. 1842) 60 Brown, Thomas (d. 1890) 98 Brown, William (1862–1927) 172 Browne, William James (1815–94) 134 Buckland, Sir Thomas (1848–1947) 176
195
THE ALL-TIME AUSTRALIAN
Buckland, Thomas (1814–96) 119 Buckland, William Lionel (1899–1964) 178 Buckley, Mars (c. 1825–1905) 168 Bunn, George (1790–1834) 43 Burdekin, Mary Ann (1805–89) 122 Burdekin, Sidney (1839–99) 130 Burdekin, Thomas (1801–44) 25 Bushell (nee Stewart), Myrtle Dulce (d. 1959) 178 Bushell, Philip Howard (1879–1954) 178 Butler, Gamaliel (1783–1852) 135 Cable, Robert (d. 1820) 51 Cameron, Ewen Wallace (1816–76) 128 Campbell, Alexander (1812–91) 129 Campbell, Charles (1840–1905) 167 Campbell, Margaret (1795–1864) 126 Campbell, Robert ‘Tertius’ (1811–87) 94 Campbell, Robert, Junior (1789–1851) 91 Campbell, Robert, the Elder (1769–1846) 55 Campbell, William (1810–96) 88 Carson, Wallace John (1862–1937) 173 Cato, Frederick John (1858–1935) 174 Challis, John Henry (1806–80) 128 Chambers, James (1811–62) 133 Chambers, John (1815–89) 133 Charters, George Washington (1827–1900) 166 Chirnside, Andrew (1818–90) 110 Chirnside, Robert (1830–1900) 169 Chirnside, Thomas (1815–87) 132 Chisholm, James (1772–1837) 48 Christian, John (1806–63) 111 Christmas, Harold Percival (1884–1947) 176 Clarke, Sir William John, 1st Baronet (1831–97) 81
200 RICH LIST
Clarke, William John Turner (1805–74) 77 Cliffe, Edmund Harrison (c.1797–1837) 66 Cohen, George Judah (1842–1937) 173 Cohen, Samuel (1811–61) 125 Condell, Henry (d. 1871) 131 Connibeare, Ernest William Richards (1862–1957) 177 Cooper, Daniel (1785–1853) 125 Cooper, Mary (1788–1842) 42 Cooper, Sir Daniel, 1st Baronet (1821–1902) 152 Cooper, Sir Daniel, 2nd Baronet (1848–1909) 165 Cornish, Thomas (1852–1928) 172 Cornish, William Crocker (1815–59) 130 Cox, John (1819–77) 112 Cox, William (1764–1837) 28 Cran, Richard (d. 1894) 134 Creswick, Henry Forbes (1886–1935) 173 Crooke, Edward (1810–73) 130 Currie, John Lang (1818–98) 97 Dalton, Thomas (1829–1901) 167 Daly, Sir Dominick (1798–1868) 133 Dangar, Grace (1801–69) 126 Dangar, Henry (1796–1861) 89 Darling, John (1852–1914) 169 Dawson, Michael (d. 1875) 113 Dawson, William (1817–79) 135 DeSalis, William Andrew Fane (1812–96) 121 Dickson, James (1813–63) 125 Dickson, John (1774–1843) 33 Dobie, John (1794–1866) 126 Dobson, Sir William Lambert (1833–98) 135 Docker, Rev. Joseph (1793–1865) 130
196
INDEX
Donaldson, Sir Stuart Alexander (1812–67) 126 Donnelly, John (1813–79) 128 Downer, Alexander George (1839–1916) 175 Doyle, James (1765–1836) 27 Driscoll, Cornelius (1782–1847) 61 Druitt, George (c. 1775–1842) 62 Drury, Edward Robert (1832–96) 134 Dry, Richard (1771–1843) 42 Dumaresq, Henry (1792–1838) 67 Dumaresq, William John (1793–1868) 126 Dunn, John, Senior (1802–94) 134 Dunn, John, the Younger (1830–92) 134 Dutton, Frederick Hansbrow (1812–90) 134 Eales, John (1799–1871) 127 Ebden, Charles Hotson (1811–67) 94 Elder, Sir Thomas (1818–1897) 87 Emanuel, Isadore Samuel (1860–1954) 177 Emanuel, Samuel (1803–68) 127 Fairfax, Charles John (1829–77) 126 Fairfax, Edward Ross (1842–1915) 171 Fairfax, Geoffrey Evan (1861–1930) 172 Fairfax, John (1804–77) 128 Fairfax, Mary Elizabeth (1858–1945) 176 Fairfax, Sir James Oswald (1863–1928) 172 Fairfax, Sir James Reading (1834–1919) 171 Falkiner, Franc (sic) Breton Sadleir (1867–1929) 172 Fanning, William (1816–87) 129 Felton, Alfred (1831–1904) 166 Ferris, Thomas (d. 1829) 134 Field, William (1774–1837) 14
Fitzgerald, Richard (1772–1840) 38 Fletcher, Charles (d. 1822) 33 Flood, Edward (1805–88) 103 Foss, Ambrose (1804–62) 126 Fowler, George Swan (1839–96) 134 Francis, James Goodall (1819–84) 132 Frazer, John (1827–84) 102 Frazier (or Frazer), Andrew (d. 1827) 52 Fulton, Thomas (1813–59) 130 Futter, Robert (c.1793–1839) 33 Galbraith, George (1805–37) 40 Gandel, John (b. 1935) 194 Gatehouse, George (c. 1778–1838) 68 Gellibrand, Joseph Tice (1786–1837) 23 Gerald, Robert Marsden Fitz (1835–1910) 171 Gibson, William (c.1842–1918) 149 Gilchrist, John (1803–66) 93 Gilchrist, William Oswald (1842–1920) 171 Glen, William Henderson (c. 1827–92) 132 Goldsbrough, Richard (1821–86) 129 Gordon, Samuel Deane (1811–82) 128 Gosling, John William (1788–1852) 125 Graham, Dr. Robert (1786–1845) 60 Green, Edward Bernard (1809–61) 118 Green, Solomon (1868–1948) 176 Grice, Richard (1813–82) 100 Griffiths, George Richard (1802–58) 125 Grimwade (nee Kelly), Lady Mabel (d. 1973) 180 Grimwade, Sir (Wilfred) Russell (1879–1955) 178 Hackett, Sir John Winthrop (c. 1848–1916) 175 Hadley, Charles (1768–1828) 56
197
THE ALL-TIME AUSTRALIAN
Hains, David H. (b. 1930) and Family 192 Halfey, John (1825–89) 132 Halford, Ernest Samuel (1872–1932) 173 Hall, Eliza Rawdon (1847–1916) 162 Hall, Kenneth A. (d. 1969) 179 Hall, Walter Russell (1831–1911) 146 Hallstrom, Sir Edward John Lees (1886–1970) 179 Harding, George Rogers (1838–95) 134 Harding, Silas (1821–94) 100 Harris, John (1754–1838) 48 Harris, John (1810–91) 113 Hart, Sarah (1822–90) 129 Hart, William (1767–1843) 21 Hart, William (1825–1904) 175 Hassall, Rowland (1768–1820) 12 Hawker, George (1816–79) 131 Hawker, George Charles (1818–95) 109 Hay, Alexander (1820–98) 134 Hay, Sir John (1840–1909) 171 Hazard, Robert Brady (d. 1820) 51 Heath, Nancy G.B. (d. 1968) 179 Hecht, Hans A. (d. 1965) 179 Henty, Edward (1810–78) 131 Henty, James (1800–82) 131 Hepburn, John (1803–60) 105 Holt, Thomas (1811–88) 122 Holt, Thomas (1811–88) 129 Hope, Robert Culbertson (1812–78) 131 Hordern, Anthony (1842–86) 129 Hordern, Lebbeus (1826–81) 128 Hordern, Samuel (1849–1909) 145 Howard, Thomas (d. 1819) 45 Howard-Smith, Harry Bellingham (1859–1933) 170 Howe, George (1769–1821) 35 Howe, Robert (1795–1829) 29 Howitt, Godfrey (1800–73) 131 Hughes, Fred William (1869–1950) 176
200 RICH LIST
Hughes, Sir Walter Watson (1803–87) 133 Hume, Hamilton (1797–1873) 127 Hume, James (1798–1868) 126 Huppert, Gustav (d. 1968) 179 Hutchinson, William (1772–1846) 54 Icely, Thomas (1797–1874) 127 Innes, Archibald Clunes (1800–57) 125 Iredale, Lancelot (c. 1778–1848) 62 Jenkins, Robert (c.1777–1822) 13 Jenner, Caleb Joshua (1830–90) 132 Jennings, Sir Patrick Alfred (1831–97) 135 Johnston, George (1764–1823) 19 Johnston, Robert (c. 1790–1882) 128 Jones, Auber George (1832–87) 129 Jones, David (1793–1873) 127 Jones, John (d. 1837) 49 Jones, Richard, Senior (1816–92) 129 Jones, William Townsend (d. 1819) 46 Josephson, Joshua Frey (1815–92) 129 Josephson, Sydney Arthur (1859–1922) 171 Kemp, Charles (1813–64) 126 Kennedy, Sir Arthur Edward (1810–83) 134 Kermode, William (1780–1852) 135 Kerr, Robert (1808–1846) 65 Kerr, William (d. 1842) 30 King, George (1814–94) 135 King, Philip Parker (1791–1856) 125 Kite, Thomas (c. 1789–1876) 116 Lamb, John (1790–1862) 126 Landale, Robert (1833–1903) 155 Lang, Walter (d. 1816) Lansell, George (1823–1906) 157 Larnach, Donald (1817–96) 83
198
INDEX
Lawrence, Nathaniel (d. 1825) 64 Lawrence, William Effingham (1781–1841) 35 Lawson, William (1774–1850) 125 Leake, Arthur (d. 1890) 135 Learmonth, Somerville Livingstone (1819–79) 128 Levi, Walter Jacob (d. 1828) 43 Levy, Lewis Wolfe (1815–85) 128 Liberman Family 193 Lithgow, William (1784–1864) 126 Livingstone-Learmonth, Andrew (1825–92) 132 Long, William (1797–1876) 127 Lonsdale, William (c. 1800–64) 130 Lord, David (1785–1847) 68 Lord, Frederick (1841–1914) 175 Lord, George William (1818–80) 128 Loughlin, Martin (1833–94) 117 Lowy, Frank (b. 1930) 190 Lucas-Tooth, Sir Robert Lucas, 1st Bt. (1844–1915) 155 Macarthur, John (1767–1834) 16 MacAush, John Donald (d.1896) 135 MacDougall, Dougall (d.1819) 26 Mackay, James Lyle, first Earl of Inchcape (1852–1932) 173 Mackenzie, Alexander (1768–1838) 69 Macleay, Sir William John (1820–91) 129 Macleay, William Sharp (1792–1865) 126 MacPherson, Sir William Murray (1865–1932) 173 Manifold, Edward (1868–1931) 174 Manifold, John (1811–77) 97 Manifold, Peter (1817–85) 95 Manifold, William Thomson (1861–1922) 173 Mansel, William Hobart (c 1777–1816) 18
Marion, Janet, Lady Clarke (1851–1909) 156 Marsden, (Rev.) Samuel (1764–1838) 30 Marsden, Thomas (d. 1837) 40 Martin, John (d. 1889) 133 Matchett, William George (1862–1932) 172 McBean, Lachlan (c. 1809–94) 116 McCarty (or McCarthy), Denis (d. 1820) 46 McCaughey, David (d. 1899) 118 McCaughey, Sir Samuel (1835–1919) 154 McComas, Robert Bond Wesley (1862–1938) 174 McCracken, Robert (1815–85) 132 McIntyre, Peter (1783–1842) 37 McKay, Cecil Newton (1899–1968) 179 McKay, Hugh Victor (1865–1926) 158 McKellar, Duncan (c. 1828–84) 123 McLean, John Donald (1820–66) 100 McPherson, John (1798–1875) 112 Meehan, James (1774–1826) 47 Mein, George Augustus (1822–92) 129 Melrose, George (1806–94) 134 Miller, Henry (1809–88) 79 Milne, Sir William (1822–95) 134 Mitchell, James Sutherland (1821–93) 104 Moffatt, John (1817–71) 86 Moffitt, William (1802–74) 111 Molle, George James (1773–1823) 57 Monahan, Thomas (1812–89) 89 Moore, Thomas (1762–1840) 57 Morgan, Sir William (1828–83) 133 Mort, Thomas Sutcliffe (1816–78) 128 Mortlock, John Andrew Tennant (1894–1950) 177 Mortlock, William Ransom (1821–84) 133 Mortlock, William Tennant (1858–1913) 175
199
THE ALL-TIME AUSTRALIAN
Mosman, Archibald (1799–1863) 126 Moubray, Thomas (1825–91) 132 Murdoch, Rupert (b. 1931) 187 Murray, Robert (d. 1819) 22 Myer, Sidney Baevski (1878–1934) 159 Myles, Lawrence (1794–1858) 125 Nash, Robert (1771–1819) 40 Nathan, Benjamin (1865–1935) 174 Neale, Hannah Maria (c. 1825–1911) 161 Neale, John Thomas (1821–97) 86 Niall, Kenneth Mansfield (1883–1953) 177 Nicholas, Alfred Michael (1881–1937) 174 Nicholas, Edward (d. 1837) 50 Nicholas, George Richard Rich (1884–1960) 178 Nichols, Isaac (1770–1819) 23 Nicholson, William (1818–65) 130 Norton, Ezra (1897–1967) 179 Norton, James (1795–1862) 126 Oakden, Philip (c. 1784–1851) 135 Officer, Suetonius Henry (1830–83) 128 Orkney, James (1821–96) 132 Orman, Benjamin (1784–1824) 36 Ormond, Francis (1829–89) 132 Osborne, Henry (1803–59) 99 Ovens, John (1788–1825) 58 Oxley, John Joseph William Molesworth (c. 1785–1828) 44 Packer, Kerry Francis Bullimore (b. 1938) 188 Palfreyman, Achalen Wooliscroft (1875–1967) 179 Palmer, Sir Arthur Hunter (1819–98) 135 Palmer, Sir James Frederick (1803–71) 131
200 RICH LIST
Parker, William (d. 1826) 46 Paspalis, Michael (1911–72) 180 Payne, Edward (d. 1822) 24 Payne, Thomas Budds (1819–97) 80 Payne, Thomas Henry (1862–1932) 174 Pernier, Norman F. (d. 1967) 179 Peter, John (1812–78) 92 Phillips, Louis (1839–1913) 171 Phillips, Louis Morris (1872–1938) 173 Pratt, Richard (b. 1934) 189 Pritchett, Richard Charles (1787–1834) 51 Purves, Rev. William (1811–70) 127 Ramsay, David (1794–1860) 125 Ramsay, Robert (1842–82) 131 Rand, Robert (1819–94) 98 Reddington, John (d. 1816) 18 Redfern, William (c. 1774–1833) 34 Reeve, John (d. 1875) 120 Reibey (nee Haydock), Mary (1777–1855) 125 Reibey, Thomas (1796–1842) 61 Reichstein, Lance Eric Harold (1900–80) 180 Reid, Andrew Thynne (1901–64) 178 Richards, Benjamin (1817–98) 130 Ricketson, Staniforth (1891–1967) 179 Riley, Alexander (c. 1778–1833) 26 Riley, Edward (1784–1825) 15 Roberts, William (1756–1819) 22 Robertson, Adam Swanston (c. 1818–73) 108 Robertson, Alexander William (1831–96) 104 Robertson, Daniel (c. 1809–1842) 37 Robertson, George (1825–98) 133 Robertson, Jemima Vans (c. 1800–84) 132 Robertson, John (1809–80) 131
200
INDEX
Robertson, Sir Macpherson (1859–1945) 176 Robertson, William (1798–1874) 102 Rose, Thomas (d. 1837) 58 Ross, James (1786–1838) 52 Ross, Roy Everard (1899–1970) 179 Ross, Sir Robert Dalrymple (1827–87) 133 Rouse, Richard (1774–1852) 125 Rubin, Harold DeVahl (1899–1964) 179 Russell, Andrew (c. 1808–67) 130 Russell, George (1812–88) 115 Rutherford, John (d. 1880) 120 Rutledge, William (1806–76) 131 Salting, George (1835–1909) 148 Salting, Severin Kanute (1805–65) 90 Salting, William Severin (1837–1905) 149 Sands, John (1818–73) 127 Sargood, Frederick James (c. 1805–73) 130 Sargood, Sir Frederick Thomas (1834–1903) 163 Saunders, Alexander (1860–1927) 172 Scarfe, George (c. 1827–1903) 150 Scarfe, Thomas Roger (d. 1915) 175 Schofield, Rev. Willam (1793–1878) 128 Scott-Mitchell, Dr James (1792–1869) 127 Seal, Charles (1801–52) 135 Service, James (1823–99) 133 Shmith, Maurice (sic) (d. 1969) 179 Simmons, Agnes (c. 1800–90) 129 Simms, William Knox (1829–1897) 108 Simson, John (1822–96) 106 Sinarey (or Sindrey), Edward (1783–1821) 29 Skarratt, Charles Carlton (1824–1900) 157 Smart, Thomas Ware (1810–81) 123
Smith, Charles (1816–97) 96 Smith, John Thomas (1816–79) 131 Smith, Richard (1836–1919) 175 Smith, Robert Barr (1824–1915) 147 Smith, Thomas (1795–1842) 63 Smith, Thomas (c.1775–1822) 63 Smith, Thomas Whistler (1824–59) 125 Smith, Tom Elder Barr (1863–1941) 176 Smith, William Howard (1814–90) 132 Smorgon Family 191 Sparke, William Edward (1830–1905) 164 Squire, James (1754–1822) 64 Stalker, Daniel Watson (1795–1823) 66 Steele, Thomas (d. 1840) 67 Stirling, Edward (1804–73) 101 Strachan, James Ford (1810–75) 131 Stuart, Sir Alexander (1824–86) 129 Stuart, Sir Thomas Anderson (1856–1920) 171 Sutton, George (1774–1859) 125 Swan, James (1811–91) 134 Syme, David (1827–1908) 151 Telford, James Campbell (1828–81) 112 Tennant, Andrew (1835–1913) 175 Terry, Edward (1811–38) 31 Terry, John (c. 1806–42) 32 Terry, Rosetta (1768–1858) 125 Terry, Samuel (c. 1776–1838) 11 Thorn, John (c. 1793–1838) 69 Tilden-Smith, Richard (1865–1929) 172 Toohey, James Matthew (1850–95) 129 Tooth, Edwin (1822–58) 92 Towns, Robert (1794–1873) 127 Townson, Robert (1763–1827) 25 Tracy, Richard Thomas (1826–74) 131 Triguboff, Harry (b. 1933) 192 Trout, Herbert (1906–78) 180 Turnbull, Robert (c. 1819–72) 130 Tyrrell, Rt Rev. William (1807–79) 128
201
THE ALL-TIME AUSTRALIAN
Tyson, James (1819–98) 78 Tyson, John (d. 1860) 126 Tyson, Peter (1825–79) 91 Verge, John (1782–1861) 126 Vickery, Ebenezer (1827–1906) 163 Vickery, George Begg (1865–1938) 173 Vickery, James Swinton (1835–1907) 171 Vosz, Wilhelm Hartwig Eduard (1840–83) 133 Walker, Thomas (1804–86) 84 Walker, William (1787–1854) 82 Wallace, Thomas Monahan (1871–93) 85 Wardell, Robert (1793–1834) 39 Ware, Jeremiah George (1818–59) 130 Watson, John Boyd (1828–89) 87 Watt, John Brown (1826–97) 129 Watt, Peter Cumming (1845–1919) 171 Waxman, Aaron (c. 1837–87) 132 Wearing, William Alfred (1816–75) 133 Wentworth, William Charles (1790–1872) 118 White, James (1785–1865) 126
200 RICH LIST
White, James (1799–1842) 56 White, James (1828–90) 124 Whitfield, William Gibson (1791–1828) 44 Whyte, James (1776–1823) 66 Williams, John (1821–91) 129 Williams, Thomas (1801–41) 41 Wills, George (c. 1825–1906) 150 Wilson, Caleb (c. 1760–1838) 32 Wilson, Clarence Chesney (1861–1936) 173 Wilson, John (c. 1813–88) 96 Wilson, Mary Louisa (d. 1936) 175 Wilson, Sir James Milne (1812–80) 135 Wilson, Sir Samuel (1832–95) 84 Wilson, William (d. 1846) 56 Windeyer, Archibald (1785–1870) 127 Wollstonecraft, Edward (1783–1832) 53 Woodmason, William (1830–92) 132 Wooley, Thomas (1809–58) 125 Wren, John (1871–1953) 177 Wylde, Thomas (1758–1821) 59 Youngman, Henry (c. 1818–68) 130
202
