While Australia's richest person is typically mining magnate Gina Rinehart, the richest person in Sydney often involves figures like Atlassian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes or Scott Farquhar (Tech) or property mogul Harry Triguboff (Meriton), depending on the list's focus (state vs. national, specific year, wealth source), with Rinehart usually topping NSW lists for overall wealth but residing outside Sydney, making the answer depend on definition, though tech & property billionaires are key Sydney players.
Over the past decade, the Emerald City's millionaire population has grown a massive 28 per cent, now being home to 152,900 millionaires, 224 centi-millionaires and 22 billionaires – and that's all in USD, suggesting an even higher figure in Aussie dollars.
Australia's richest people in 2025, led by Gina Rinehart (Mining), include tech billionaires Mike Cannon-Brookes & Scott Farquhar (Atlassian), property mogul Harry Triguboff, and manufacturing magnate Anthony Pratt, with Melanie Perkins & Cliff Obrecht (Canva), Andrew Forrest, Clive Palmer, Nicola Forrest, Kerry Stokes, and Frank Lowy also featuring prominently, reflecting dominance in resources, tech, and real estate.
The 34-year-old Australian billionaire frequently mentioned is Adrian Portelli, known for his extravagant lifestyle, property investments, and his business LMCT+, a controversial online rewards club that generates significant revenue through raffle-style promotions, making him a prominent figure on Australia's rich lists.
From the Editor
Edward Craven (born 1995) is an Australian billionaire entrepreneur. Known as the co-founder of the online casino Stake and the live-streaming platform Kick, where Craven also streams.
The 2020 edition carried the coverline "Millennial Billionaire" and featured Melanie Perkins one of the co-founders of the graphic services company Canva. Perkins was 32 years old at the time, making her Australia's youngest ever billionaire with a valuation of $1.32 billion.
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The Bottom Line
A billionaire has a net worth of at least one billion units in their native currency, such as dollars or euros. Net worth is calculated as assets minus liabilities or debts. A billionaire's assets may include cash and cash equivalents, real estate, and business and personal property.
The richest person in Australia is Gina Rinehart, a mining magnate and executive chairperson of Hancock Prospecting, who has topped the annual Financial Review Rich List for several consecutive years, with her wealth estimated around A$38.11 billion as of the 2025 list, despite recent iron ore price fluctuations affecting her fortune.
The American business magazine Forbes produces a global list of known U.S. dollar billionaires every year and updates an internet version of this list in real time. The American oil magnate John D. Rockefeller became the world's first confirmed billionaire in 1916.
New York City - #1
New York City, often referred to as the "financial capital of the world," leads the list as the richest city in 2024. With over 340,000 HNWIs and total private wealth exceeding $3 trillion, NYC is home to Wall Street, luxury real estate markets, and global corporate headquarters.
1. Sydney, Australia. Sydney, often known as Australia's financial hub, consistently tops the list of the wealthiest cities in the region.
The #1 richest actor is often cited as Arnold Schwarzenegger, with an estimated net worth around $1.49 billion, followed closely by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, while some lists place Tyler Perry at the top due to his studio ownership, but Schwarzenegger consistently leads actor-focused lists with vast wealth from acting, business, and politics.
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Gina Rinehart. Georgina Hope Rinehart (née Hancock, born 9 February 1954) is an Australian heiress, billionaire mining magnate and businesswoman.
A university dropout, Portelli started working at his father's truck repair business before striking riches in Los Angeles working in tech startups. He teamed up with a tech-savvy flatmate in the US to develop several successful apps, which they sold at enormous profits.
Forbes' latest list of America's Richest Women Celebrities features Oprah Winfrey at the top with a net worth of $3.1 billion, followed by Kim Kardashian at $1.7 billion and Taylor Swift at $1.6 billion.
By 2035, some predict there will be at least five trillionaires in the world, but no one has reached that yet. A trillionaire is someone who has accumulated a net worth of at least one trillion of their local currency.