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2022: Financial Review's 70 years of Australian business
The highs and lows of Australian business over the past 70 years, narrated by former Financial Review columnist Trevor Sykes.
The leaders who answered the Harvard ‘cold call’
Nick Greiner, Tony Berg and Bill Ferris from Harvard Business School’s class of 1970 describe the terror and exhilaration of pitting themselves against the world’s best.
The corporate collapse of the 2010s: from billionaire to bankrupt
Nathan Tinkler rode the coal boom during the 2010s to become Australia’s richest person under the age of 40 and then went broke in a blaze of publicity.
Why Australia became the VC lucky country in the 2010s
After many setbacks, Australia’s venture capital start-up industry started achieving critical mass – “the most important change” in our capital markets.
How Australia became the ‘coup capital’ of the world in the 2010s
A political ‘Game of Thrones’ prevented Australia from having a credible energy policy and complicated its management of a souring relationship with China as tech companies led a corporate makeover.
The booms, the busts, the empire-builders, the fraudsters and the disruptors tell the story of the rise of modern Australia.
March 2022
A new destiny built on the mining boom
AFR Classic | On July 20, 1973, AFR political correspondent Maximilian Walsh, who died last week, praised the Whitlam government for striking a blow against Australia’s protectionist history.
The ‘China effect’: how the resources boom galvanised Australia
Galloping Chinese demand for our resources transformed the Australian economy in the first 10 years of the new millennium, but the GFC and end-of-decade political turmoil put the country on edge.
Financial Review in the 2000s: a brilliant journalist’s life cut short
Laconic, a beach lover, surfer, rock climber and adventurer, Morgan Mellish also had a rare gift for pursuing a story.
Why this was Australia’s most significant corporate collapse
The $5.3 billion HIH implosion wiped out more than many high-profile reputations. It cut a swath through the insurance industry, and overhauled the regulatory regime.
Fear and loathing at BHP and Rio Tinto
Spying, intrigue, fears over the safety of BHP’s CEO: welcome to the rough-house world of noughties iron ore price negotiations.
Who reads the AFR? Leading Australians share their memories
What influential business people and politicians at the AFR 70th birthday dinner in Sydney said about their history with the newspaper.
Does a black tie dress code freak you out? You’re not alone
We’ve spent two years in activewear and fleece. As we head back out, have the rules for dressing up changed?
Champion of an open, competitive economy
The principles that The Australian Financial Review has argued for over the decades are once again under threat.
February 2022
The death threats and secret meetings behind battle to control Fairfax
The media landscape was transformed in the 1990s as moguls reigned supreme and a nasty takeover battle for Fairfax played out.
Aspiration nation: how competition, the GST and the internet changed Australia
After the ‘recession we had to have’, Australia went on to notch up the first of three decades of uninterrupted economic growth, writes Andrew Clark.
Why Australian miners ‘got big or got out’ in the 1990s
Iron ore miners became more profitable as China loomed larger, but the end of Japan’s post-war boom dented demand for Australian minerals.
The inside story of the big banking collapses of the 1990s
The spectacular unravelling of the state banks of Victoria and South Australia also destroyed two state Labor governments.
Investors’ interest left out of the public issue equation
AFR Classic | The stock exchange announcement of November 1965, reported in the Financial Review, resonates with us when we read about the cartel case now.
Newton was an extraordinary media force
AFR Classic | A great and idiosyncratic editor at two newspapers, Maxwell Newton brought informed scepticism to his role, the editorial of July 25, 1990 noted.
Press must leave Parliament to do better
AFR Classic | Donald Horne’s verdict on the Canberra press as the worst in 40 years is noteworthy, wrote Gregory Hywood in the Financial Review on June 15, 1990.
Larry Adler’s fatalist approach to life
AFR Classic | The HIH founder wasn’t worried about having “another” heart attack when Ruth Ostrow profiled him on July 29, 1985. He died of one three years later.
Having fun with a new Mercedes
AFR Classic | Columnist Peter Ruehl, a proud American, related the joys and high telecoms costs of fathering a daughter in August 1989. Now, his daughter has become a mother herself.
‘I’m a very greedy person’: Russell Goward before the fall
AFR Classic | Russell Goward was corporate raider Ron Brierley’s chief executive before he went out on his own. Joseph Dowling interviewed him in London in August 1987 before the fall.
January 2022
John Spalvins: ‘Everything was possible in the ’80s’
In the 1980s, John Spalvins was riding high. But by the end of the decade he was not celebrating.
The ’80s: the pivotal decade for Australia’s prosperity
The resounding lesson of the 1980s is that, with enough ambition and resolve, Australia can remain one of the world’s most prosperous and successful nations.