How Lang Walker changed the Australian property landscape

Gerry Harvey says every time he called his friend and business associate Lang Walker, the developer was on his private plane, on his private Fijian island, or overseas somewhere.

Retailer Gerry Harvey says of Lang Walker: ‘He was always one of those blokes who liked to do a deal. He started at a young age and became one of the most outstanding developers in the country.’

Multibillionaire retailer Gerry Harvey says every time he called his friend and business associate the late property developer Lang Walker he was always on his private plane, on his private island Fijian or overseas somewhere.

“He was always on the go,” said Harvey, lamenting the passing on Saturday night of his friend and business associate of more than half a century.

Harvey says Walker’s outstanding characteristic was his relentless drive.

“As a young bloke he was always trying to make a quid. He used to pick up golf balls when they fell into a pond on the golf course, he would sell them to golfers and make money,” Harvey told The Australian.

“He was always one of those blokes who liked to do a deal. He started at a young age and became one of the most outstanding developers in the country.

Woolloomooloo Finger Wharf. Picture: Monique Harmer

“I knew him for 50 years, over the years we did a bit of business together.

“He was a man of his word, he would build a shopping centre, we would be a tenant, we socialised a bit, we had a few games of golf at Concord in suburban Sydney.”

Asked who was the better golfer, Harvey says they were both “pretty bad”.

“He was hopeless and so was I even though I played more than him.

“Anytime I ever rang him … half the time he would be on his plane, on his island, or in some country, he was always on the go.”

Apartment billionaire Harry Triguboff, founder of Meriton Apartments, said Walker was a shrewd negotiator who knew how to cut a deal.

“I remember once that Lang sold me a block of land at Rhodes [in Sydney’s west] and my lawyer said I should sue him about the deal,” Triguboff recalled.

“I wasn’t sure what for, so I rang Lang and said ‘should I sue you?’ Lang said not to worry. So I bought the block of land and it was fine, I ended up making a lot of money from it. And Lang made a lot of money in Rhodes too. So it worked out well for both of us,” Triguboff said with a laugh.

Meriton founder Harry Triguboff.

From a sheer property perspective, veteran lawyer and consultant Tony Ryan said Walker, who in 2017 was inducted into the Australian Property Hall of Fame, would always change the horizon of the conversation.

“Lang Walker would always ask what if?

“(For example) without the local community and Lang Walker, Sydney’s Woolloomooloo Finger Wharf, the world’s largest wooden building, would have been lost to demolition.’’

Walker developed the Wooloomooloo Finger Wharf some 30 years ago into residential, retail and a hotel.

Originally published as How Lang Walker changed the Australian property landscape