A-list parties, private jets: Inside the lavish lives of Qld’s rich kids
Meet the children who were born into extraordinary lives: The offspring of Queensland’s most powerful millionaires, who enjoy splurges on lavish holidays, yachts, helicopters, courtside seats, A-list parties and wardrobes full of designer clothes.
Lifestyle
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Meet the children who were born into extraordinary lives.
They’re the offspring of Queensland’s most powerful millionaires and raised by mining magnates, property moguls, fashion designers, philanthropists and construction giants.
Their parents and grandparents have built global empires with their earned fortunes enabling their family to live enviable lifestyles of globetrotting, luxury cars, A-list events or access to jaw-dropping opportunities.
As they step into their own entrepreneurial ambitions and hard work, carve out careers overseas or build the family company, we take a look into the lives of the next generation of Queensland’s most successful families.
Sam and Sascha Giles
When Sam Giles finished Grade 12 last year, he had no desire to follow the crowd to party in Surfers Paradise for Schoolies. Sam celebrated the way he knows best, going to South Carolina to play golf.
Sam, 18, and his sister Sascha, 20, are the children of Brisbane couple Cathie Reid and Stuart Giles.
The couple founded Icon Group which has become Australia’s largest dedicated cancer care provider.
They sold the business, which has now become a billion dollar empire, but are still believed to own a small portion of the company.
They’ve become one of the wealthiest couples in Queensland and in The Australian’s recent richlist were ranked at 241 with an estimated wealth of $535 million.
Their focus has turned to investments in the tech and health sectors and their resume of achievements and accolades is impressive.
It has undoubtedly required years of hard work, sacrifice and dedication but of course there are the perks; $2k pair of sneakers as a birthday gift, invitations to fashion weeks, rubbing shoulders with Kardashians, access to celebrities and reams of luxury travel.
Sam says his favourite gift so far has been a pair of Dior Air Jordan sneakers for his 16th birthday. At the time of release in 2020, these retailed for $2000.
But it’s believed Dior only made 8500 pairs making them a particularly talked about collaboration in the sneaker world.
And now on luxury retailer website Farfetch, a pair of Jordan x Dior Air Jordan high top sneakers are going for upwards of $29,000.
Sam’s already visited more than 20 countries including family holidays to New York, Hawaii, Paris, Japan, Chile, Israel, South Africa, Kenya, Germany, Hong Kong and more.
Christmases have largely been spent in Hawaii but Sam’s favourite was in the Finnish Lapland known as “the home of Santa Claus.”
Then, there’s the string of once-in-a-lifetime experiences like attending the Super Bowl 50 in 2016 and running out with the Hawthorn Hawks, Sam’s team, for the AFL grand final in 2015.
“That was absolutely outstanding,” says Sam, who currently lives with his parents at their Indooroopilly home.
“It’s everything I could’ve ever imagined and more.”
Sascha’s accompanied her mum to Chile and Idaho for solar eclipse events.
It was part of Cathie’s involvement in the Future Astronaut Program after she booked a $250,000 seat to space on Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.
Down here on Earth, however, Sascha’s highlights have included going to fashion weeks in Paris, Milan and New York and watching shows by Dior, Fendi and Chanel.
“I was introduced to Maria Grazia Chiuri, the creative director at Dior, who I really admire,” says Sascha, who lives in London.
“She was very kind and I think that her influence on the fashion industry has been phenomenal.
“I also saw Kim Kardashian when I was at the Fendi show in New York recently which was very exciting because I am a huge fan of her.”
Sascha shares her mother’s passion for healthcare and while she was still at school was invited to Washington DC to lobby for young women’s rights as part of the United Nations organisation, Girl Up where Michelle Obama was a guest speaker.
As a mad AFL fan (Cathie is a director of the Brisbane Lions Australian Rules Football Club), Sam too has had his ‘pinch-me’ moments.
“I’ve been able to meet my heroes and now be good friends with them,” says Sam, who tells the story of being at Luke Hodge’s house for dinner, the former AFL player for Hawthorn Hawks and Brisbane Lions.
“He’s a bloke I was watching and trying to emulate what he did and now he’s a friend.”
They’re driven and influenced by the success of their parents and are keen to make their own mark.
Sascha lives in London and is in her final year of a Business Management degree at Kings College.
She has plans to study her masters and hopes to work in the luxury fashion industry.
She’s seen early success with a university project of hers sent on to Burberry.
Sam has been accepted to study sports management at Bond University on the Gold Coast. His dream is to one day work in the player agency industry and follow a career in the sporting industry starting with a six-week work experience stint in the US with NBA basketball team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, earlier this year.
They know they’re lucky.
But to Sam and Sascha, this is their version of normal.
“I try and stay grounded and keep in touch with all my friends no matter what,” he says.
“I make sure I don’t get ahead of myself and too big for my boots.
“What our parents have managed to achieve and provide is incredible and I’m thankful we have had a great education, amazing life experiences and got to travel the world, I’m extremely lucky.”
Cartier Lee
As her name would suggest, Cartier Lee is a woman of luxury.
The Brisbane DJ, singer and actress, 26, is the daughter of billionaire couple Keri Craig-Lee, an award-winning fashion designer and icon, and Trevor Lee.
The couple established Queensland-based beef and food processing company Australian Country Choice.
The Courier Mail reported in March Trevor’s wealth is estimated at $1 billion
As for Cartier, she boasts a life as extravagant as they come; designer fashion, private jets, A-list parties, lavish holidays, yachts, helicopters and courtside seats.
“I like my money where I can see it. Hanging in my closet,” she joked on Instagram alongside picture of her with shopping bags in New Zealand.
Lee, who has recently been based in New Zealand with regular travels back home to Australia, has been snapped with Paris Hilton and posted a ‘pyjama party’ with American rapper Sean Combes aka P. Diddy.
Outside of her parents, Cartier has seen her own success after moving to New York to study acting at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts whose alumni includes Alec Baldwin, Kristen Bell, Lady Gaga and Adam Sandler.
She crossed into the music industry in the US, under her musician name DJ Pebbles, scoring two top 10 singles on the Billboard charts in 2017.
Her manager and producer was former American Idol judge Randy Jackson who The Courier Mail reported back then said she was “one of the most amazing new triple threat talents” he had seen.
Lee also said at that time her life had come with some unexpected perks.
“Just after I first got to New York I was sitting next to Paris Hilton at Fashion Week,” she told The Courier Mail in 2017.
Lee hasn’t released new music to her Soundcloud account in five years.
She does, however, continue to live the good life with recent holidays to Saint-Tropez, Ibiza, Las Vegas and Fiji.
Emily and Michael Palmer
They’re two of billionaire mining magnate Clive Palmer’s children.
Emily, Palmer’s daughter to his late first wife Susan, was announced as a director on the Mineralogy board in 2021 and The Australian reported in 2021, she is believed to have inherited a property portfolio from her late mother which landed her almost $1 million in profits before she was 24.
Palmer was recently named once again in Australia’s top 10 wealthiest list and is still Queensland’s richest with his worth rising to $20.4 billion.
In 2009, The Courier Mail reported Palmer gifted Emily with a 30m-luxury yacht for her 15th birthday.
Currently, Michael has nine properties registered in his name, including a $5.1m home in Fig Tree Pocket, with at least two believed to be inherited from his mother.
Emily’s current portfolio includes six properties including a $2.6m home in Toowong.
Matt and Joanna Turner
They are the children of Graham ‘Skroo’ Turner, boss and co-founder of international travel company Flight Centre and Jude Turner, who built Spicers Retreats, luxury accommodation in NSW and Queensland.
Turner’s wealth is estimated at $614 million.
Matt, in his early 40s, runs successful business 99 Bikes.
In 2021, The Courier Mail reported the business’ profits soared from $18m to $54m in a year throughout the pandemic.
Jo, 39, moved to London in 2012 and three years later, set up popular active wear brand LNDR which has seen huge success.
The label has been worn by the likes of Gigi Hadid, Kourtney Kardashian, Jessica Alba and Margot Robbie.
The idea for the brand, says Jo, started from a simple idea of wanting to create a business around the lifestyle she wanted to live.
She’s grateful to have grown up with the influence and success of her parents which undoubtedly has had an impact.
“It makes you want to prove you can build something that will add value to so many people as well,” she says.
“They (her parents) have always been supportive of any idea or ambitions, I guess the success they have had has allowed them to support us financially in these as well.”
Their childhood, Jo says, was calm and “there wasn’t much discipline in our household.”
“My parents always let us make our own decisions and decide what was important to us,” she says.
“Dad used to say that school was just for babysitting so don’t worry too much.”
They did, however, always encourage them to think outside the box.
“It probably made running a business look like fun, or a good idea at least,” she says of watching her parents at work.
Jo appreciates the life she’s been blessed into, especially being able to learn from the best in the business.
“They have always been very calm, logical and fair (or generous) in how they would see or react to things in business,” she says, which has taught her how to run her own.
“No empty promises or threats, just tell it how it is.”
Jo now lives in East London with her partner, four-year-old daughter and their dog.
LNDR launched an office in Australia so she travels between destinations.
Ben, Trent and Kate Seymour
There aren’t many people in their 20s who are given responsibility for a $100m property development as their first major career project.
This was the case for the grandchildren of Queensland richlister and property developer Kevin Seymour, who is behind some of Brisbane’s iconic developments like Queens Plaza and MacArthur Chambers.
Ben, Trent and Kate were brought in on The Oxlade development at New Farm in 2019 with Seymour saying it was an ‘apprenticeship’ of sorts in the family business.
It was the first move for Seymour, now in his 80s, in bringing the youngest grandchildren into the major side of the Seymour Group, with the kids joining the eldest grandchild, Daniel Farquhar, who has been working with the business for over a decade.
Seymour’s wealth is estimated at $879 million.
Ben, 27, joined in 2016 and became a director at Seymour Group over a year later and the opportunities he’s been handed are not lost on him.
“ It wasn’t a small project to start with,” he says.
“The responsibility is immense, the amount of capital to risk on your grandkids, there’s a lot of pressure there as well but an overwhelming sense of gratitude for how fortunate we’ve been to have the opportunity to do that and for it to come off successfully.”
Their grandfather, who is Pop to them, has built an incredible empire and with it, an immense wealth to the Seymour family and of course, there are the perks.
Ben has swum with sharks in the Maldives, been to the Monaco Yacht Show and one of his biggest guilty pleasures, owning a Ferrari and Mercedes.
“The Ferrari doesn’t get out much, it sits in the garage under a cover but whenever I take it up around the mountains, it’s good fun,” Ben says.
“Pop and I a few years ago did a big trip around Italy and France in a Ferrari around the mountains, which was really fun and a really good bonding experience which ignited the passion for cars as well as travel.”
He says he’s not one to flaunt the wealth, instead focuses on reinvesting in further projects and staying grounded with family time.
“Pop has taken us on incredible trips and we’ve had some great experiences away on the boat, they are the perks I guess,” he says.
“But the main thing that comes out of that is the quality time with the family where it’s not about the business and we just enjoy the company and enjoy being together.”
“Sometimes you have to pinch yourself and say this isn’t the norm,” he says.
“I’ve definitely been very lucky in the experiences I’ve had that’s for sure.”
Raynuha Sinnathamby
Despite Raynuha Sinnathamby’s wealthy pedigree, she’s forged an impressive portfolio to become one of the state’s most influential people.
Raynuha is the daughter of Brisbane billionaire and property mogul Maha Sinnathamby, the chairman of the Springfield City Group and the man credited to transforming 2860ha of bushland into a master planned community predicted to reach 150,000 residents by 2025.
Maha, 82, has consistently made Australian rich lists with an estimated wealth of $2.1 billion.
Raynuha stepped in as the managing director of Springfield City Group in 2013 and has contributed to the construction of what The Property Congress say has become one of the fastest growing local areas in the country.
With a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Law and a Masters of Business Administration, Raynuha comes from a background as a solicitor.
She’s fast becoming just as impressive as her father after serving as president of the Queensland Division of the Property Council of Australia and on the Board of the National Board of the Property Council of Australia.
Jack Hutchinson
As the son of millionaire property developer Scott Hutchinson, Jack is following in his father’s footsteps.
Last year, he was named director of Hutchinson Builders, taking the multi-billion dollar company into the fifth-generation of the family.
According to The Australian’s recent rich list, Scott Hutchinson’s wealth is estimated at $598 million.
Jack recently married his Indonesian-born partner, Fatya, in a stunning wedding in June last year.
The couple were the first to tie the knot on the GOMA Roof Terrace before 150 guests.
The party continued with 240 guests at their reception at Fortitude Music Hall in Fortitude Valley.
Bianca Rinehart
Bianca is the eldest daughter of mining giant Gina Rinehart with her own wealth estimated at $2.88 billion.
On The Australian’s recent richlist, Bianca was ranked 44.
She’s owns almost 24 per cent of mining and investment business Hancock Prospecting and is a trustee of the Hope Margaret Hancock Trust.
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