Viv Oldfield and Cyan and Collis Ta’eed top Richest 250 list for NT

Alice Springs identity Viv Oldfield is the richest Northern Territory resident this year with an estimated $740m fortune. SEE WHO ELSE MADE THE LIST

Alice Springs identity Viv Oldfield is the richest Northern Territory resident this year with an estimated $740m fortune.

He appears on The List - Australia’s Richest 250, published by The Australian of Friday, in 193rd position.

Oldfield last year shelled out a reported $70m to buy Middle Creek Station in the Northern Territory, adding to his already extensive holdings with business partner Donny Costello in the Crown Point Pastoral Company.

The List is published by The Australian. 

See the full list of Australia’s Richest 250 online

Oldfield also owns Silver City Drilling, which has a fleet of more than 25 drilling rigs operating around Australia.

The Territory’s other residents on The List are technology couple Cyan and Collis Ta’eed.

They moved to Darwin in 2021 but remain significant shareholders of Envato, the online creative marketplace they started in a garage in Sydney’s Bondi 17 years ago.

The Ta’eed’s have an estimated fortune of $591m, up from $519m last year as Evato’s net profit has almost doubled in that time.

Envato recorded a $US18.5m net profit from $US190m revenue in the 2023 financial year, up from $US10.4m and $183m respectively in the previous 12 months.

They own two million-dollar homes they bought when they moved to Darwin, one in Muirhead and the other in Rapid Creek.

Envato CEO Collis Ta'eed. Source: David Swan.

Collis, now Envato chair, said the Northern Territory capital reminded him of growing up in Papua New Guinea, both places beautiful and culturally diverse. They want to bankroll First Nations-led charitable programs.

Other members of The List with Territory connections include Nick Paspaley and family. The family history of sending pearling ships out of Darwin stretched back to 1919, when Nicholas Paspalis immigrated to Australia from the Greek island of Kastellorizo.

The Paspaley family empire has since expanded to farming, wine, aviation, more than $200m of property assets and even a hotel in New York.

Tony Geitz, Shaun Drabsch, Sue Brosnan David Connolly, Adam Kay and Allan Myers KC, AC at the Northern Australia Cotton Gin, Katherine. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Melbourne King’s Counsel Allan Myers is the majority owner of the Tipperary Group of Stations in the NT, comprising about 386,000 hectares, and WANT Cotton, which has built a $70m cotton gin north of Katherine.

Sydney real estate magnate Sam Arnaout has a collection of hotels and tourism assets, including Lasseters in Alice Springs.

Billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart tops this year’s edition of The List – Australia’s Richest 250 with an estimated $50bn fortune, ahead of other resource industry giants like Andrew Forrest and his wife Nicola Forrest.

Cardboard box manufacturer Anthony Pratt and property legend Harry Triguboff round on the top five on The List.

The 2024 edition of The List – Australia’s Richest 250 is published on Friday in The Australian and online at www.richest250.com.au