Nathan Tinkler: Complete history of self-made billionaire

Nathan Tinkler was dubbed the “boganaire”, Australia’s self-described “average” bloke whose life has been anything but that. SPECIAL REPORT

He was dubbed the “boganaire”, Australia’s self-described “average” bloke whose life has been anything but that.

These days Nathan Tinkler’s reputation has been battered and bruised.

From owning national sporting teams to making mining millions, from bankruptcy to legal battles, the one-time country wunderkind has rode the ultimate highs and lows across the past two decades.

His one-time horse racing buddy Gerry Harvey once admitted Tinkler was loved and loathed by those who met him - the latter because he behaved like an “a***hole”.

However he remains a family man; four kids with ex-wife Rebecca Blackney and one to former secretary Jodie Van Gilst.

Nathan Tinkler described himself as an “average bloke”.

Tinkler in 2021 told The Australian he was an “average guy” who loves “watching the footy and having a beer”.

Long after the collapse of his mining empire and sporting franchises, plus his Independent Commission Against Corruption appearance, Tinkler reflected on what he’d do differently.

“I wish I’d told myself: ‘stop, retire, pick a beach’. That period of my life after that, I met some of the worst people that anybody could ever have to deal with. I just wish I packed up and went home,” Tinkler said in 2021.

This is the story of his rise … and how it all came crashing down.

EARLY YEARS

Nathan Tinkler was born February 1, 1976 to parents Leslie and Zelda.

He grew up in Maitland but it soon became clear that the Hunter Valley was not big enough to match Tinkler’s ambitions.

His father dissuaded Nathan from taking a job as a local mechanic.

“Dad said, ‘You are not doing that. If you don’t get out of this town you will never leave’,” he told the Financial Review in 2011.

Nathan Tinkler in his early years.

Tinkler’s early life was also shaped by the collapse of his father’s earthmoving business in the 1980s, forcing the family to move to the coastal town of Port Macquarie.

“These things happen, and when you’re a kid something as momentous as that probably lights a fire,” he told Forbes in 2012.

“I was fortunate to have a very loving family.”

Tinkler also admitted he “grew up in a rented house all my life”.

“We certainly were not a wealthy family,” dad Leslie said in 2012.

“Not poor, but Nathan did not have anything handed to him.”

FIRST JOBS

In 1993, 17-year-old Tinkler landed his first job as an apprentice at BHP’s Bayswater Coal open-cut mine, part of NSW’s biggest thermal coal mine at the Mount Arthur complex.

“Like any apprentice, if you aren’t a self-starter you quickly learn to be,” Tinkler later told Master Electrician magazine.

Nathan Tinkler. Picture: Britta Campion

Tinkler called his role a “dirty, mongrelly job” but he “f***ing loved it”.

By 26 – now qualifying as an electrician apprentice at Muswellbrook TAFE – he started his own business called Custom Mining, thanks largely to wealth acquired from investments in the mining industry.

BUILDING AN EMPIRE

The wealth was now accumulating quickly.

In 2006 Tinkler paid a $1 million deposit to buy the Middlemount coal mine in Central Queensland.

Within a year he sold his stake to Macarthur Coal for $275 million.

A year later Tinkler sold his Macarthur shares – now doubled in value thanks to takeover speculation – for A$422 million.

By now those in and out of the industry were taking notice – Tinkler was named by BRW magazine in 2008 as Australia’s richest person aged 40 or less, with an estimated net worth of $441 million.

Nathan Tinkler in 2016.

A purchase in the Maules Creek Mine coal deposit in NSW for $480 million delivered further bumper windfalls in the coming years.

In 2012 Tinkler was named by BRW magazine as Australia’s youngest billionaire with a net worth of more than $1.18 billion.

After merging Aston Resources Limited and Boardwalk Resources, Whitehaven Coal was created and had a market capitalisation in excess of $5 billion.

In June 2013 Tinkler sold his shareholding in Whitehaven Coal, and two years later was appointed managing director of Australian Pacific Coal Limited.

Tinkler would later reveal that his role model was Macarthur founder Ken Talbot, who was killed in a 2010 plane crash in Africa.

“I studied Ken from afar and admired his business model, and that really served me well when I bought Middlemount,” he said.

“I think half the attraction for Ken in acquiring Middlemount was that it had been built up on a very similar model to what he was used to.”

Quickly it became clear the “Boganaire” had expensive taste.

After selling his Macarthur Coal shares he soon bought a private jet, two national sporting teams and a thoroughbred stud farm.

Cars also featured in Tinkler’s splurge.

He collected rare ones, including a Porsche 997 GT3 and a Ferrari.

HORSE RACING AND SPORTS OWNERSHIP

In 2008 Tinkler established Patinack Farm, which became one of Australia’s biggest racing organisations.

A $17.5 million, 59-yearling buying blitz at the 2008 Magic Millions sale on the Gold Coast would ultimately help deliver the stable eight individual Group 1 winners.

Nathan Tinkler at the 82nd National Yearling Sales at Karaka, Auckland in 2008. Picture: AAP Image/NZPA

Patinack Farm ran over three major properties, including a 13sq/km Sandy Hollow breeding facility, a training facility and stud on the Gold Coast and undeveloped horse country at Monegeeta, Victoria.

At its peak Patinack Farm owned about 600 broodmares, with Tinkler selling it in 2014.

Tinkler’s magic touch soon spread to the A-League and NRL.

In 2010 he assumed ownership of the Newcastle Jets, bringing on board new sponsors as well as initially increasing membership.

A year later he bought the Newcastle Knights, again bringing a spirit of goodwill as well as signing mastercoach Wayne Bennett in a move that promised a new era for the rugby league club.

However things turned sour quickly.

By April 2012 Tinkler’s Hunter Sports Group attempted to hand back the Jets’ licence, a move Football Federation of Australia deemed in breach of a binding contract.

After previous threats of a damages claim filed against Hunter Sports Group, in May 2015 – amid claims Jets players and staff had not been paid for a month – Tinkler placed the club into voluntary administration.

The FFA then terminated Tinkler’s A-League licence, as the Jets slumped to the wooden spoon on the field.

Nathan Tinkler during his days as Knights owner.

Tinkler’s exit from the Knights at the same time capped a rollercoaster period for a sporting marriage that had promised so much.

“I still haven’t taken a dollar out of it, my money only went one way, and that was in,” Tinkler told The Australian in 2021.

“For that to be portrayed negatively, it really made me stand back and go: Wow. But it wasn’t the people of Newcastle. That was the media.”

BANKRUPTCY

By now cracks had started to appear in the Tinkler empire.

On Melbourne Cup day in 2012, Tinkler’s private horse racing trainer John Thompson claimed many horses in the stable had gone without feed due to financial problems.

Thompson also insisted Patinack Farm had been asked to leave its Hawkesbury training facility due to late rental payments. Tinkler denied the claims.

Just months after Hunter Sports Group was wound up by the Australian Taxation Office, Tinkler put his entire racing and breeding business up for sale.

Nathan Tinkler in 2016. Picture: James Croucher

By May 2013 it was reported that Tinkler and his wife could be made bankrupt, while the BRW Rich 200 estimated Tinkler’s net wealth had plummeted from $915 million to $235 million.

In June Tinkler sold his biggest remaining asset – a 19 per cent share in coal miner Whitehaven – in what was viewed as a bid to stave off debts.

Aston Metals was placed in the hands of receivers in September 2013.

Patinack Farm was sold in May 2014 and by March 2016 Tinkler was officially declared bankrupt with debts of more than $540 million, but his bankruptcy was annulled in 2018.

In December 2018, entities associated with Tinkler commenced proceedings in NSW Supreme Court against Whitehaven Coal seeking compensation in relation to the 2012 acquisition of Boardwalk Resources Limited.

In 2021 Tinkler denied he left a trail of destruction behind, despite apologising to creditors five years earlier.

“I lost my own money. And yet the media were trying to portray it like I just left this whole trail of creditors, and all these people unpaid. It’s all bulls***t,” he told The Australian.

In November 2021 it was revealed he had made a bid to rebuild his empire.

CONTROVERSIES

ICAC hearing

In April 2014 at a hearing of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption it was disclosed that Patinack Farm horse stud paid $66,000 to “Eightbyfive”, a slush fund set up by an advisor to the allegedly corrupt NSW politician Chris Hartcher.

Days later phone messages presented revealed that Tinkler’s property development company, Buildev, had secretly paid $50,000 to produce anonymous flyers attacking local state politician Jodi McKay.

Prior to the 2011 state election McKay had opposed the billion-dollar plan by Buildev to establish a coal export terminal in Newcastle.

He denied any wrongdoing and no corruption finding was made against Tinkler.

“We donated to both sides of politics, but that property development company that I had a minority share in, they had extensive political connections, I (found) out later,” he told the ABC in 2019.

The ICAC report in 2016 found that Hartcher had “acted with the intention of evading laws banning political donations from property developers, cap donations and requiring the disclosure of donation”.

Late night scuffle

Tinkler in July 2015 had a run-in with a newspaper photographer during a car park scuffle outside a Brisbane pub.

Video captured Tinkler in a dark car park arguing with two men and warning that there would “be an assault in a minute”.

“Don’t invade my privacy mate,” Tinkler to one of the pair.

“Show some respect. If you want to do a f***ing interview then I’m happy to do one.”

Tinkler then turned around to confront the photographer.

“What are you doing, grub? Go away,” he said before chasing the photographer through the car park before stopping to giggle at the spectacle.

Days later Tinkler made light of the incident.

“Mate, I’d be flat out chasing him for two steps,” he said.

“He did hit the road, though. I’ll tell you what, I thought it was an Olympic audition there for bit. He bolted.”

No charges were laid over the incident.

FULL REPORT

Window smashing charge

In 2018 Tinkler pleaded guilty to smashing a window at his sister’s house in Kendall.

Port Macquarie Court heard Mr Tinkler went to his sister Donna Dennis’ house in an attempt to repair their relationship because their mother was dying.

When his sister refused to come outside, he punched a window in frustration.

Magistrate Price imposed a 12-month good behaviour bond for the property damage charge and ordered Mr Tinkler to pay close to $600 in compensation.

Mr Tinkler also agreed to a 12-month apprehended violence order requested by his brother-in law. No conviction was recorded.

Claims of money owed

In April 2023 clairvoyant Jean Clare was the latest to claim she was owed money by Tinkler, who insisted the issue had been resolved.

Other recent examples being a since-dismissed claim for $107,790.24 from the WestVets Animal Hospital and a disputed claim for $175,000 in legal fees from his former lawyer Ben Cohen.

Tinkler had previously had legal battles with others including former business partner Matthew Higgins, which was ultimately settled.

“People say that I did take a lot of risks and that’s certainly right, but I was good at what I did in the mining sector,” Tinkler said in 2019.

“I was less good at navigating the corporate waters, so to speak.

“I paid a lot of money in legal fees, I’ve driven a lot of transactions and paid a lot of tax, and those sorts of things don’t get you anywhere in life.

“You know, you end up with big bills and no friends out of it.”

Originally published as Nathan Tinkler: Complete history of self-made billionaire