From Solomon Lew’s office perched high above Melbourne’s Collins Street, the billionaire can look down and see the workshop in Flinders Lane where he officially started his retailing career 61 years ago, as the 18-year-old boss of a ragtrader called Voyager Solo.

One of Voyager’s biggest customers was Myer, the department store icon founded by one of Lew’s business heroes, Sidney Myer.