Top 10 Richest Women In Australia 2023

The richest women in Australia prove beyond doubt that Australia is one of the best places on earth to be born female. Few other places in the world afford women the opportunity to excel in life and business like Australia; and few other countries have produced women of exceptional wealth and enterprise.

Australia’s richest women represent interests in various sectors of the economy including: mining, technology, fashion, real estate, energy, and so on. Some of these fine women have invested quite heavily in Art.

A good chunk of the collective female wealth in Australia is inherited; however, these women have done remarkably well in maintaining and growing this wealth. As Gina Rinehart said in an interview recently; “There is simply no substitute for hard work, focus and dedication.”

Top 10 Richest Women In Australia 2023

1. Gina Rinehart

Industry: Mining

Net-Worth: $28.1 Billion

Gina Rinehart has been the poster-girl for wealth in Australia for many years now. She is the biggest and most powerful person in the Australian mining industry. She is an astute administrator and a visionary leader.

Gina Rinehart inherited control of Hancock Prospecting, which was established by her father Lang Hancock. When he died in 1992, the company fell to her. However, the company was in a state of severe bankruptcy; she had to fight really hard to turn things around, and to make the company the great establishment that it is today.

Georgina Hope Rinehart is today the Executive Chairwoman of Hancock Prospecting, a privately-owned mineral exploration and extraction company which stands as one of the biggest in the world.

She has been appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in recognition of her work in the mining sector, and in appreciation of her generous donations to charity.

2. Melanie Perkins

Industry: Technology

Net-Worth: $6.5 Billion

Melanie Perkins was born May 13, 1992. She is a self made billionaire; she cofounded the technology startup Canva, and she is the CEO of the company. Canva is a graphic design platform, which is used to create social media graphics and other media content.

The platform is also used to create posters, documents and other things. Canva has hundreds of templates to make the work of designing visual content very easy. There are free and paid versions of the service. Canva is a very big enterprise; it has 2000 employees.

Melanie Perkins was born in Perth, Australia, and she started her first business as a teenager selling fashionable items to schoolmates. She studied psychology, commerce, and communication. She dropped out of University, and founded Fusion Books to help students create their own yearbooks without needing any technical experience.

From that success she went on to found Canva which has made her a billionaire today, and which gives her the platform to achieve even greater things in the future.

3. Fiona Geminder

Industry: Packaging

Net-Worth: $3.3 Billion

Fiona Geminder is a billionaire heiress; she is a daughter of the late Richard Pratt. She is the sister of Anthony Pratt who now controls the family business Visy Industries- a mega packaging company with 11,000 employees, and over A$3 Billion in revenue.

Aside from her inherited stakes at Visy, she also has another similar business PACT Group which she established with her husband. She is one of the richest and most respected citizens of Australia. Fiona Geminder also serves as a director at Kin Group of Companies.

She is very much into philanthropy; she is an active member of the Pratt Foundation which donates generously to several worthy causes; particularly in the area of environmental protection, and also in providing for the needs of those who depend on the wilderness for survival.

4. Heloise Pratt

Industry: Packaging

Net-Worth: $3.1 Billion

Heloise Pratt, also known as Heloise Waislitz, is a billionaire heiress and businesswoman. She is a daughter of the late Richard Pratt, and a sister to both Anthony Pratt and Fiona Geminder listed above.

Together with her siblings she owns Visy Industries one of the largest packaging companies in the world, with operations in Australia and the USA.

Heloise Pratt also owns and operates a football club in Australia. She has large investments in real estate, and she also part owner of a wealth management company.

5. Bianca Rinehart

Industry: mining

Net-Worth: $2.1 Billion Dollars

Legally, it should be Biana Rinehart and Siblings, because the money awarded to them in that manner when they won the suit against their mother Gina Rinehart (the richest woman in Australia) for a share of the Family Trust. Bianca Rinehart is therefore a billionaire heiress who owes her wealth to her grandfather Lang Hancock’s enterprises.

She is a minority shareholder of Hancock Prospecting, and a beneficiary of the family trust fund. Bianca Rinehart is also expected to succeed her mother as Chairwoman of Hancock Prospecting whenever she decides to retire.

6. Gretel Lees Packer

Industry: Casinos

Net-Worth: $1.6 Billion Dollars

Gretel Lees Packer is an Australian billionaire heiress. Her father Kerry Packer was the biggest name in hotels and casinos in Australia. At the time of his death she inherited his interests in a vast business enterprise called Crown Resorts. She is an investor, but mostly known for her philanthropy.

She has donated generously to the Art Community in Australia; she has also given money to charities that promote the arts, education, and environmental science. She occupies the position of Vice President at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

7. Judith Neilson

Industry: Investments

Net-Worth: $1.5 Billion dollars

Judith Neilson is an Australian billionaire business woman. She holds the honor of Member of the Order of Australia, which she received in 2016 for significant service to the arts through donations to the museums and galleries sector. She was listed as a billionaire after being divorced from her husband Kerr Neilson.

She is part owner of Platinum Asset Management, a company co-founded by her former husband, Kerr Neilson. She has several investments in real estate, and she is an art investor.

She started a new art gallery in Sydney called Phoenix; it holds one of the world’s biggest collections of contemporary Chinese art. Phoenix also has a performance center for other kinds of art.

8. Angela Bennett

Industry: Mining

Net-Worth: $1.2 Billion

Angela Bennett is an Australian billionaire mining heiress. She inherited Wright Prospecting from her father Peter Wright who cofounded the company. Angela Bennett therefore controls an extensive mining empire, and her fortune is well diversified.

Some of her interests include Rhodes Ridges Iron Ore Mine, and Hammersly Iron, which is operated by the Rio Tinto Group. Some of her mining interests are done with Gina Rinehart, but the law-suits show that their working relationship is not always cordial.

Her brother controlled a winemaking and investment business until his death. Angela Bennett has 7 children; she is set to hand over control of her vast estate, and to continue the Wright-Bennett dynasty.

9. Naomi Milgrom

Industry: Fashion

Net-Worth: $765 Million

Naomi Milgrom is an heiress, but she has taken the hand that she was dealt, and she has charted her own course in the business world. She is the founder of Sportsgirl; a company that makes sports-wears for women. She also controls the fashion brand Susan which her father Marc Bessen co founded along with John Gandel.

Naomi Milgrom is heir apparent to her father Marc Besen’s estate which includes real estate, various investments in startups and stocks, and also art.

10. Robyn Denholm

Industry: Auto Manufacture

Net-Worth: $688 Million

Robyn Denholm is an Australian business woman. She is the Chairwoman of Tesla Incorporated; she succeeded Elon Musk to this position in 2018. She is of Maltese and Scottish ancestry, and her parents met in Tripoli, Libya.

Robyn Denholm studied accounting, and worked for Toyota Australia for about 7 years. That was her introduction to the corporate side of the auto industry, and she has become very well established in the industry.

She also worked at Sun Microsystems, and then Juniper Networks for nine years. Robyn Denholm then became a non-executive director of Tesla, Inc. in 2014.

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Closing

The richest women in Australia prove beyond doubt that the country has many women of substance; women who can hold their own in any situation, at any time or place. Some of Australia’s biggest business people are women, and they have built empires that employ several thousands of people, and generate huge returns, therefore contributing immensely to Australia’s economy.