Nathan Tinkler: From rags to riches to rags in a decade

There would be few in Australian business, if any, who would have had the tumultuous decade Nathan Tinkler has had.

There would be few in Australian business, if any, who would have had the tumultuous decade Nathan Tinkler has had.

A little over 10 years ago, the then 32-year-old burst on to the wealth scene with an estimated $441 million fortune. The former mining electrician had made his money in only two years investing and then selling coal mines, and was suddenly the richest person aged 40 and under in the country.

By 2011, Tinkler’s wealth was estimated as high as $1.13 billion by the now defunct BRW magazine, the fourth consecutive year he topped the list of Australia’s richest young entrepreneurs.

But the good times would not last. Within three years, Tinkler had lost his billion-dollar fortune, a $300m horse racing empire that he had quickly built up after an unprecedented spending spree, the Newcastle Knights rugby league team and later the Newcastle Jets A-League soccer club and a slew of other assets ranging from properties to planes and helicopters.

He would fall from the ranks of the country’s wealth elite by the end of 2013, as rising debts and ill-timed deals had his mining and horse racing empires headed towards oblivion. Tinkler would be declared bankrupt with debts of $540m in 2016, soon after turning 40.