Atlassian founders Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes are the youngest Australians on Forbes’ 2017 World Billionaire’s list, but there are plenty of younger billionaires from other countries that have also made the cut after securing wealth from technology startups.
The duo just missed out on the making the top 10 richest Australians, coming in at 11th place, each with estimated net worths of $US2.1 billion ($2.7 billion). Strong growth and acquisitions at Atlassian have seen the two come in at number 973 on Forbes‘ overall list.
The pair are the youngest Australians on the list by over 10 years, but the the two 37-year-olds were beaten by many younger tech startup founders or chief executives, including Stripe, Snapchat, AirBnb, and Dropbox. The youngest billionaires in the 2017 cohort are the 20-year-old Norwegian Andresen sisters, each with a net worth of $US1.2 billion ($1.5 billion).
Mining magnate Gina Rinehart is the only Australian to land a spot in the top hundred billionaires. With an estimated net worth of $US15 billion ($19 billion) she landed at number 69 on Forbes‘ overall list and is the wealthiest Australian to feature by a margin of more than $US6 billion.
The second wealthiest Australian to feature is Meriton founder and property developer Harry Triguboff, with an estimated net worth of $US8.5 billion ($10.9 billion), followed by Fortescue founder Andrew Forrest at $US5.7 billion ($7.3 billion).
Forrest has beaten out both Frank Lowy and Anthony Pratt on the list this year, while casino giant James Packer has moved to ninth place with an estimated net worth of $US 3 billion ($3.8 billion).
Automotive giant Vivek Chaand Sehgal is 7th on the list with an estimated net worth of $US3.7 billion ($4.7 billion), and Anthony Pratt’s sister Fiona Germinder rounds out the top 10 Australians with an estimated net worth of $US2.6 billion ($3.3 billion).
Other notable wealthy Australians include Harvey Norman founder Gerry Harvey with a net worth of $US1.8 billion ($2.3 billion) and 2016 Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur and Moose toys chief executive Manny Stul, with an estimated net worth of $US1.4 billion ($1.8 billion).
Forbes’ overall list is still topped by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, with a whopping net worth of $US86 billion ($111 billion). Following Gates is close friend and investing genius Warren Buffett with a net worth of $US75.6 billion ($97.8 billion) and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who had a better year than any other billionaire, according to Forbes, with a jump in net worth of $US26.7 billion since this time last year.
Despite pledging to give away 99% of his shares in Facebook over his lifetime, the social network’s founder Mark Zuckerberg has landed 5th on the overall list with a net worth of $US56 billion ($72.4 billion). Zuckerberg was beaten by 4th place rich-lister and clothing brand Zara co-founder Amancio Ortega, who is worth an estimated $US71.3 billion.
Here is Forbes‘ list of top 10 richest Australians.
| Rank | Individual | Net Worth ($US) |
| 1 | Gina Rinehart | $15 billion |
| 2 | Harry Triguboff | $8.5 billion |
| 3 | Andrew Forrest | $5.7 billion |
| 4 | Frank Lowy | $5.6 billion |
| 5 | Anthony Pratt | $4.4 billion |
| 6 | John Gandel | $4 billion |
| 7 | Vivek Chaand Sehgal | $3.7 billion |
| 8 | Lindsay Fox | $3.2 billion |
| 9 | James Packer | $3 billion |
| 10 | Fiona Geminder | $2.6 billion |
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Dominic Powell is a journalist at SmartCompany and a tech and music geek. When he’s not writing, you can find him reading or browsing record shops.
