Gina Rinehart has topped off a dramatic 12 months by sweeping to top place on the BRW Rich 200 list with a fortune of $10.3 billion.
It is the first time any member of the Rich 200 has broken through the magical $10 billion mark and underlines the dramatic impact the mining boom has had on the ranks of Australia's wealthy.
Rinehart was well ahead of the surprise second place on the list Ivan Glasenberg, the South African-born, Swiss-based chief executive of Glencore. His wealth was estimated at $8.8 billion courtesy of last week's float of the world's biggest commodity trader.
Andrew Forrest, the head of Fortescue Metals Group, was in third place with a fortune of $6.18 billion, while Anthony Pratt, who succeeded his late father as head of packaging giant Visy Industries, was in fourth with $5.18 billion.
Clive Palmer – who is set to list his coal company Resourcehouse on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in the next few weeks – was ranked fifth with a fortune of $5.05 billion.
While Gina Rinehart has never been far from the headlines in the last 12 months thanks to her strident opposition to the Government's mining tax and her surprise investments in media companies Ten Network and Fairfax Media, the sheer size of the increase in her fortune is staggering.
Not only is she the first woman in the list's 28-year history to lead it, but she also made the biggest fortune ever to be recorded by the BRW Rich 200, with her wealth more than doubling from $4.75 billion last year.
Overall, the rich list gained a 23 per cent rise in wealth to $167.25 billion, and five new billionaires took the total to 35.
Most appearances on this year's list were self-made, with only 17 per cent inheriting their wealth. The number of women in the list remained at 15 in line with last year, BRW said.
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