Paul McIntyre: Tougher than ever to get into top 200

The drooling started seriously on Thursday when the annual BRW Rich 200 hit newsagents, revealing Australia's financial elite lifted their combined wealth by A$18.2 billion ($22.3 billion), or 21.7 per cent, to A$101.5 billion this year.

Last year saw the biggest yearly lift in personal wealth on record for the top 200, which created five new Australian billionaires - there are now 22 - and another 22 new entrants as the official fattest cats in the land.

So good in fact was 2005 for the big earners that the cut-off for an individual to crack a listing in BRW's tables - sales of the business magazine doubled for this issue - rose from A$110 million last year to A$130 million in 2006.

The average fortune now stands at A$417 million for Australia's top 200, although it belies some mighty gains for a few.

Australia's richest individual is James Packer, worth A$7.1 billion, after the death of his father Kerry in December, and Australia's richest woman and first female billionaire emerged this year - Gina Rinehart, daughter of the late mining entrepreneur Lang Hancock.

Rinehart doubled her personal fortune in the past 12 months to A$1.8 billion, thanks to the booming resources sector. Her rapid rise in the wealth stakes, however, still leaves the 52-year-old in equal eighth place overall as Australia's richest person, along with Network Seven's owner and Caterpillar franchiser Kerry Stokes. Ahead of them are Packer, Westfield's Frank Lowy (A$5.4 billion), packaging king Dick Pratt (A$5.2 billion), solar panel developer Zhengrong Shi ($3 billion), property developer Harry Triguboff (A$2.5 billion), investor, hedge fund owner and racehorse owner David Haines (A$2.3 billion) and poker machine owner Les Ainsworth (A$1.9 billion).

Another new arrival in the billionaire league this year is Queenslander Terry Peabody, whose liquid waste disposal outfit Transpacific Industries catapulted his personal fortune by A$680 million to A$1.2 billion, thanks to a quadrupling of the company's share price.

By far the snappiest new arrival in the billionaires club this year is Zhengrong Shi, a business immigrant from China whose solar panel technology company listed in North America last year and rocketed his personal wealth to A$3 billion.

Forbes magazine maintains Shi is the wealthiest person living in China - he now resides there after spending more than a decade studying and building a business in Australia where he took citizenship.

Shi arrived in Australia in 1989 to study laser technology but switched to solar energy research and went on to create Suntech Power Holdings, which listed on the New York Stock Exchange last December.

The fastest moving fortunes this year belong to another miner, Andrew "Ziggy" Forrest and John Grill whose engineering services firm WorleyParsons is booming, thanks once again to its involvement in the resources and energy sectors.

Forrest's net worth rocketed from A$340 million last year to A$810 million in the latest report off the back of his 45 per cent stake in fledgling mining company Fortescue Metals Group, which is attempting a A$2.5 billion iron ore mine in Western Australia to take on the global giants, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. Some speculate the volatility of Forrest's ambitious plan may well see his ranking return to its old spot next year.

John Grill's fortune, however, is seen as a little more stable - WorleyParsons listed for A$2 in December 2002 and a year later started rising to reach a high of A$19.99 in February. The company is trading above A$20 at present on a price/earnings multiple of 43 times.

Amid the frenzied rise of fortunes at the top end this year, there were some losers who still remain in the elite 200, led by ragtrader Daniel Chen - his personal wealth dropped 53 per cent to A$145 million. And a billionaire last year, John Roberts, whose construction group Multiplex is still facing all sorts of troubles in building Wembley Stadium, is down 32 per cent to a mere A$740 million.

South Australian businessman and former Reserve Bank board member Robert Gerard also went against the boom trend to post an 11 per cent fall in his net worth to A$341 million - and the Tax Office wants $150 million from him. Still, Gerard remains 81st richest person. It is tough at the top.