Five richest Australians revealed

The Financial Review Rich List has been upended by surging iron ore prices and a tech sector winning from the work-at-home revolution, dropping former No. 1 Anthony Pratt out of a top five that is now as wealthy as the next 15 people combined.

Gina Rinehart has jumped to first place from second in 2019, with a fortune up 53 per cent to $21.2 billion, while fellow Pilbara magnate Andrew Forrest has catapulted to fifth spot from eighth with $17.6 billion, a 120 per cent rise and his highest showing since the tail end of the mining boom in 2012.

Strong demand from Chinese steel makers, coupled with production woes from major competitor Brazil, have made Australian iron ore a rare bright spot amid the COVID-19 economic crisis.

Work from home bonanza

Another has been the retooling required for many of us to work from home.

Software developers Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, the co-founders of Atlassian, fulfil that need with products that help remote teams collaborate, such as Jira and Trello.

That has resulted in such a strong performance for Atlassian's Nasdaq-listed shares, that the Sydney duo have debuted in the Rich List top three with fortunes of more than $18 billion apiece.

A resurgent China has also helped Hui Wing Mau, a Hong Kong-based property developer who took out Australian citizenship while studying here in the early 1990s, become one of the few bricks-and-mortar billionaires to have increased wealth in the pandemic. The rising share price of his Shimao Property Group has him retain fourth place on the Rich List with $17.8 billion.

It’s the first time since 2015 that Ms Rinehart has topped the Rich List, which AFR Weekend is publishing on Saturday in a truncated "Top 20" format.

The full list of the 200 wealthiest Australians has for the first time in its 38-year history been postponed, until the fourth quarter of 2020, because of tumultuous markets in response to the pandemic.

The June issue of The Australian Financial Review Magazine, in which the Rich List has appeared since 2014, meant valuations would have had to be signed off in the extremely volatile last week of March.

Afterpay shares, for instance, were at the time languishing below $9 and its two founders were off the list. The stock has since quintupled, making billionaires of both Nick Molnar and Anthony Eisen.

The nimbler production schedule of the Financial Review meant the valuations for this Top 20 were based on a three-month average up to May 21’s market close, and sent to the Rich Listers for feedback.

The Top 20 of the Financial Review Rich List will be published in AFR Weekend. The full list of the 200 wealthiest Australians will appear in AFR Magazine in the fourth quarter of 2020.