Lang Walker hailed as a visionary who helped change the face of Adelaide by SA business, Premier

Billionaire property developer Lang Walker, who died on the weekend, has been hailed a visionary who helped change the face of Adelaide through projects such as One Festival Tower and Riverlea.

Right to the end, Lang Walker was planning and building new places for people to live and work.

“I love the challenge,” the Walker Corporation founder and chairman told The Advertiser three years ago as he unveiled plans for a $13bn project for 13,000 homes at Appin, in southwest Sydney.

The billionaire property tycoon, who died on the weekend aged 78, has left an expansive legacy.

Walker Corporation Founder and executive chairman Lang Walker officially opening the Riverlea Estate. Picture: Russell Millard

“I look at him as a nation builder,” businessman and Infrastructure SA chairman Tony Shepherd said.

“He was a great man, a good friend and a true visionary.

“He came from humble beginnings and, through sheer hard work and force of will, built an empire.”

Mr Walker, who was born in Sydney, worked as a deckhand before joining his father, Alec, in an earthmoving and quarrying business in 1964.

Despite his father’s concerns about debt, Mr Walker moved into residential, industrial and commercial property development.

By the time he died on Saturday evening, he was ranked the 15th-richest Australian, worth $6bn, with his company employing about 500 people.

Walker Corporation Founder and executive chairman Lang Walker chats during opening the Riverlea Estate. Picture: Russell Millard

Premier Peter Malinauskas paid tribute to Mr Walker, saying he was a ”significant Australian who made a substantial contribution within the development industry’’. “There is really not a city or a state across the country that hasn’t been touched by his innovation and his entrepreneurship and his leadership,” he said.

“South Australia, of course, is no exception.’’

In SA, Mr Walker was the force behind the $3bn Riverlea development at Buckland Park, which will house 40,000 people in 12,000 homes over the next 20 years. It will be SA’s biggest masterplanned community.

Mr Walker also drove the redevelopment of Festival Plaza and the construction of the 29-storey One Festival Tower, which will be officially opened next month.

Tenants are already moving into the building.

One Festival Tower behind Adelaide Festival Centre. Picture: Matt Loxton

His legacy can be seen across the skylines of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Queensland in 1200 projects that include 30,000 housing lots and 10,000 apartments as well as 45,000 homes in Malaysia.

“We are going to be there on the first block and right through to the last block. That’s what placemaking is all about,” Mr Walker said.

He took pride in developing “places” where others only saw challenges.

Property Council SA chief executive Bruce Djite said Mr Walker was a “visionary and a leader in the property industry who loved Adelaide’’.

“A captain of industry and an Australian icon, he has left a lasting legacy,’’ he said.

Business SA chief executive Andrew Kay said the “legacy of Mr Walker’s business and philanthropic deeds was visible in cities right across the country’’.

“As the Festival Tower rises over our CBD, the business community will have a timely reminder of his investment in our state, while the $3bn Riverlea project and its 12,000 homes will create a community that will live on as a testament to his vision and innovation,” Mr Kay said.

Riverlea renders and pics, supplied by Walker Corp

Mr Walker was also a generous philanthropist, putting $20m into Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum, funding a new medical research building named after him, and supporting the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse among many other charities and organisations.

In 2015, he was awarded an Order of Australia for his service to the community.

Walker Corp is a major sponsor of the Adelaide 36ers, with the club’s executive chairman Grant Kelley saying he was “an extraordinary man and leaves a tremendous legacy’’.

One of his toughest challenges was taking over the half-finished development of a 57ha private island in Fiji.

“It was a challenge. I thought, ‘I can fix this in about 18 months and it’ll take about $10m’,” he told Forbes media company. “After five years and more than $100m spent, I thought, ‘Hmm, I don’t know whether this was a good idea’.”

Lang Walker has passed away at the age of 78. Picture: Russell Millard

Lang Walker has been described as a visionary and had a large hand in shaping SA projects. Picture: Russell Millard

It was. To rent all the exclusive accommodation on Kokomo Private Island, which Mr Walker described as “the most beautiful place on Earth”, today costs more than $400,000 a week.

Mr Walker died at his home in the Woolloomooloo Wharf he developed 30 years ago that attracted neighbours including actor Russell Crowe and broadcaster John Laws.

In a statement, wife Sue, children Blake, Chad and Georgia and 10 grandchildren paid tribute to his “zest for life and pursuit of perfection”.

“Lang loved creating incredible places where people can live and work, but he loved his family more than anything else in the world, and his generosity and affection had no boundaries,” they said.