Money

The top five richest women in Australia

Female Australian billionaires are younger and richer than men.

The richest women in Australia are an interesting mix of old-school and new – from mining magnates to tech billionaires.

And interestingly, new research in 2023 from City Index reveals that female Australian billionaires are on average, younger and richer than their male counterparts.

“The average age of female billionaires in Australia is 53, compared to 70 for males,” the findings suggest. “Female billionaires have an average net worth of A$7.73bn to A$1.58bn, more than the average net worth of males, despite there being over four times as many male billionaires in the country (38 male compared to 9 female).”

Here are the top five ladies holding their own in the business world dominated by men.

Gina Rinehart – $37.5 billion

As the Executive Chairwoman of Hancock Prospecting group multi-billionaire Gina Rinehart is once again Australia’s richest person.

The mining boom may be over but, as the Executive Chairwoman of Hancock Prospecting group, the multi-billionaire Gina Rinehart remains far richer than any Australian to come before her and well placed to grow her wealth well into the future.

Like many individuals on the Rich List, male and female, Gina has significant inherited wealth, but the 69-year-old used her keen business savvy to multiply that initial pile of cash numerous times over. It wasn’t until 2006 that Gina became a billionaire, and her wealth has multiplied manifold since then.

Melanie Perkins – $13.18 billion

Tech entrepreneur Melanie Perkins is Australia’s second wealthiest woman, and though she shares her wealth with her Canva co-founder and husband Cliff Obrecht, she, unlike the women who occupy spot one and three and four on this list, had no inherited wealth.

In fact, the CEO started her business out of her mother’s lounge room in Perth before building her idea of making graphic design easier and more accessible into a global tech company to rival some of the biggest tech titans.

Angela Bennett – $4.63 billion

Mining heiress Angela Bennett’s fortune steams from her late father, Peter Wright who was a former schoolmate of Gina Rinehart’s father Lang Hancock. The pair hit pay dirt together in the 1960s when they uncovered the Pilbara’s enormous iron ore reserves and Angela, 78, and her late brother Michael Wright’s family still share a 2.5 per cent royalty with Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting on the sales revenue from the mines.

Alexandra Burt and Leonie Baldock – $3.85 billion

The third generation of a WA mining dynasty, sisters Alexandra and Leonie built their wealth on a bedrock of Pilbara iron ore royalties. Their grandfather, Peter Wright, was the business partner of Lang Hancock. Angela Bennett is their aunt.

Gina Rinehart’s daughters – $3.1 billion each

Having inherited an estimated $3.1 billion each from their mining mogul mum, Gina Rinehart, Bianca Rineheart, 46, Hope Welker, 37, and Ginia Rinehart, 36, take out joint fifth place on this list.

Each sibling, along with their brother, John Hancock, 47, is a beneficiary of a trust that owns a quarter stake in the family’s mining company, Hancock Prospecting.

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