High Steaks: How Andrew Forrest developed a ‘deep appreciation for life’

Mining magnate Andrew Forrest has opened up about a tragic incident he witnessed as a boy that has give him a “deep appreciation for life”.

At just eight years old, mining magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest sat in the back of his father’s ute holding the hand of a badly burnt and dying man.

“I don’t share that story but I wanted to share it with you because it is why I have such a deep appreciation for life,” Dr Forrest said.

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He invited The Sunday Telegraph to his most sacred of places, Minderoo Station, in Western Australia’s iron ore-rich Pilbara, to reveal the real man behind the green energy headlines.

It was here 54 years ago that he saw a column of smoke in the sky as a child and started nagging his father Don to go and check it out.

“Because out here smoke signals mean danger or help,” he said.

Despite his nagging, they only went to investigate hours later when a second column of smoke rose into the sky “and found a really tragic scene,” Dr Forrest said.

“I can still see it as if it was yesterday.”

Mining magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest where he is happiest — beside a campfire at his property Minderoo in northwest West Australia. Picture: Rohan Kelly

Mining magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest where he is happiest, beside a campfire at his property Minderoo in north west WA.

A cocky clearing the bush had been jammed against a gum tree by his bulldozer. With no one due to pass that way for weeks he had lit a fire – the first column of smoke – to summon help.

“Then the wind changed in the afternoon and it blew back on him,” Dr Forrest said. The second column of smoke.

“When we got there he was this burnt figure next to this blackened bulldozer but still alive,” he said.

They put sacks in the tray of their light-green Land Rover and Dr Forrest’s father told him to get in the back with the man. “I asked what I should do,” he said.

“My Dad said ‘I don’t know, whatever he wants’.”

The eight-year-old boy got in the back with the burnt man, whose white bones were visible through the blackened flesh, and held his hand. The man asked him to sing nursery rhymes.

Dr Forrest stands in front of a new green energy haul truck and the Christmas Creek mine in WA’s Pilbara region. Picture: Rohan Kelly

“Every time I stopped he would squeeze my hand so that I would start again. And then he stopped squeezing,” Dr Forrest said, still visibly moved.

“Which is why I have such a deep appreciation for life because things can change on a sixpence and you should make the best of every single day.”

It is a measure of Dr Forrest’s deep feelings that the burnt bulldozer is now restored – just like Minderoo, which he bought back a decade after drought and tough times forced his father to sell it.

Lunch is a Minderoo-raised Harvest Road Ultrablack wagyu steak with homegrown roasted broccolini and Tattarang tomato salad cooked on a campfire by the river bed. It is reached on horseback and requires an Akubra hat — one of Dr Forrest’s proud Australian companies — to do it justice.

“Why have a campfire? Because it’s really who I am. I mean, if you say ‘where are you happy’, it’ll be down on the river bed here,” he said.

“This is a bridle trail going all the way up and I’ve been doing this trail since I was three years old. So it’s very much part of us, part of our family.”

Further along is a pool called David’s Pool, where he rode horses as a child.

“David is a guy, my uncle, who was a fighter pilot lost in the Second World War fighting Japan,” Dr Forrest said.

“We’re still conducting the search for Uncle David’s aeroplane and we’re getting close. We have found several ­others.”

Dr Forrest sits down for a High Steaks lunch with journalist Matthew Benns. Picture: Rohan Kelly

There is that deep emotion again. They are values Dr Forrest said he learnt from his mentors at Minderoo, old station hands Keith Grant and Indigenous dynamo Scotty Black, who embraced Dr Forrest as family.

From them he said he learnt “deep respect for humanity, deep respect for companionship, for people.”

The night before our lunch his Fortescue Metals group celebrated spending $5bn on First Nations business ­contracts.

“I mean, because you were isolated, people were valuable. You didn’t take people for granted,” he said.

“When you had a visit, it was a big deal, and you treated visitors with great respect, and you had a naturally friendly disposition, because that’s how you are in the bush.

Today that has informed much of his charity work ­because he believes “every human life is both noble and must have­ dignity”.

Dr Forrest bought back Minderoo a decade after drought and tough times forced his father to sell it.

Which is why, straight after lunch by the river, he is hosting some of the biggest brains in artificial intelligence in the world for a two-day conference at Minderoo because AI scares the life out of him.

“People just don’t understand how big that threat is,” he said.

“People have said to me, straight in my face, ‘Don’t you think humanity’s era on Earth is over now? Don’t you think a greater intelligence, like artificial intelligence, should take over?”

To those people who say AI should not have an off switch, and the 87th richest man in the whole world is not talking about just any old people, he replies “who gave you the vote to determine an outcome which could impact everyone?”

Ukraine President Zelenskyy (left) meets Dr Forrest, who has pledged $500m towards a $25bn fund to rebuild the country when Russia is defeated. Picture: Supplied

On the day of this lunch he had flown in overnight from trade talks in China to unveil the world’s first prototype giant hydrogen-powered truck at his Christmas Creek iron ore mine and turn the first sod on a plant that will use solar and hydrogen to make green steel.

He is a busy man, mentioning in passing the names of those he has dropped in on, such as US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as he explains his $500m investment to kickstart a $25bn fund to rebuild the country when Vladimir Putin’s troops have been ousted.

He has met both leaders and was deeply impressed that after their meeting President Zelenskyy took the train to the frontline to encourage his troops.

“I don’t think Putin could even spell frontline,” he said.

Which only goes to emphasise the world Andrew Forrest moves in and just why he needs Minderoo to keep him grounded.

His business interests take him around the globe, but Minderoo is where Dr Forrest’s heart lies. Picture: Rohan Kelly

Even there it has been a tough year. His father died and he and wife Nicola split after 31 years of marriage.

“I feel we’ve been through a great year and a challenging year. Dad died, what, nine months ago, and was buried here, which is his dying wish,” he said.

“Just with Nicola and I, working everything out, managing to stay, you know, close, warm, trusting friends through it all. It’s been challenging but it’s been a great year.”

Of course, he was photographed kissing a woman, widely reported to be Moroccan Energy Minister Leila Benali, in Paris after the split.

“Last time I checked that wasn’t a crime,” he said.

“But if you think I’m going to discuss my love life with you then you are smoking high-grade drugs.”

Sitting under the gum trees by the campfire and eating steak, wearing a shirt with the sleeves cut off, Dr Forrest is grounded to his roots. He has pledged to give away his fortune before he dies.

“Accumulating wealth for wealth sake is futile,” he said.

“Accumulating wealth to do great things with it is fine, but make sure you do.”

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