How 18 of SA’s wealthiest families made their fortunes
They’re the names adorning street signs after generations of wealth made them local celebrities. So how did South Australia’s most affluent families build their fortunes?
Lifestyle
Don't miss out on the headlines from Lifestyle. Followed categories will be added to My News.
They’re the mega-rich families filling the Burnside Village carpark with their luxury rides and calling their peers “Saints boys” at 60.
They boast sprawling properties in the lush leafy streets from the Adelaide Hills to the posh inner north and east.
Some even bear the names behind our most impressive heritage properties and street signs, after generations of wealth made them local celebrities.
As some stuck-up South Aussies will tell you, when the land first inhabited by the Kaurna people was colonised in 1836, it was known as the “convict-free” state. Cue a symphony of eyerolls.
Since then, Adelaide has long been associated with “old money”.
Now, it is home to a smattering of cashed-up property moguls and some of the country’s most successful family-operated business owners.
Here’s how 18 affluent broods made their eye-watering fortunes.
Shahin
According to the Australian’s 2024 Rich List, Peregrine founding family members Khalil, Samer and Yasser Shahin are worth $1.48bn.
The $1.2bn sale of the Shahin family’s OTR convenience store and petrol empire to Viva Energy has been given the green light by the competition regulator and is poised to be finalised in the first half of this year.
The OTR network comprises more than 170 sites, predominantly in South Australia. It was founded by the late family patriarch Fred Shahin, who bought a service station in Woodville Park in 1984.
His sons later joined the business, and today their Peregrine Corporation holds significant property and development interests, including the Bend Motorsport Park.
Thomas
Thomas Foods International is Australia’s largest family-owned meat processing company, turning over more than $2.7bn annually.
It has meat processing plants in South Australia, NSW and Victoria, and offices and operations across Asia, Europe and the US, trading premium lamb, beef, mutton and goat products.
It also exports seafood. Chris Thomas started the business, now run by son Darren, in 1988.
DiMauro
The DiMauro family wealth is derived from its commercial property holdings, comprising more than $1bn worth of shopping centres and office blocks in South Australia, NSW, Western Australia, Queensland and New Zealand.
Drake
This year is the 50th anniversary of Roger Drake buying his first supermarket, a small three-lane shop in Mitcham that had four employees and was named Jack & Jill’s.
That was after Drake had been told by Woolworths he wasn’t suitable for retail then working for Coles collecting trolleys.
Drake has been opening stores ever since and the business now has more than 60 supermarkets in South Australia and Queensland.
Drakes’ latest set of financial accounts showed a healthy 3.3 per cent lift in annual sales to $1.18bn as profit lifted more than 50 per cent to $36.85m.
His fortune on The List is estimated at $827m.
Angelopoulos
The Angelopoulos family, who run the Duke Group of Companies, are one the most prolific landlord families in Adelaide.
The Angelopoulos family own a number of properties on King William road, several commercial properties on Unley Road and several city sites including Rundle Mall.
Mr Chris Angelopoulos established the Duke Group in the 1970s and the business is now run by the next generation of family members.
Haigh
Everyone’s favourite SA treat, Haigh’s, is the oldest family-owned chocolate maker in Australia.
Set in one of the city’s most beautiful buildings, Alfred E Haigh opened the doors of the very first Haigh’s Chocolates store in prominent place in the Beehive Building at 34 King William Street in 1915.
Today the company is run by fourth generation Haigh’s, Alister and Simon, who joined the business in the 1970s.
Hardy
One of Australia’s most illustrious wine families, Thomas Hardy & Sons Group was established in 1850.
Sir James “Gentleman Jim” Hardy, who died in 2023 aged 90, was formerly chairman of the Thomas Hardy & Sons Group started in 1850.
The family now boasts six generations of passionate winemakers, including his nephews Bill, Phillip and Geoff, as well as Geoff’s daughter Bec who became the family’s first female vineyard owner and producer in 2015 via her McLaren Vale business, Bec Hardy Wines, and Pertaringa, which she acquired from her father in 2020.
Matthews
The Matthews family has operated hotels for more than 70 years, since patriarch Seymour Matthews and wife Doris started investing during World War II.
The dynasty began when the pair acquired their first pub, the Hotel Bay View in Whyalla, in 1942 before going on to operate up to 27 hotels by the 1960s.
Their grandson and former company director Ward Matthews died suddenly in 2022.
His siblings Scott and Ward Matthews now oversee Matthews Hospitality’s nine pubs including the Feathers, Maylands and Salisbury Hotel.
The group has expanded into the Clare Valley with the acquisition of The Bentleys Hotel, has completed a $1m-plus refurbishment of the Mount Gambier Hotel, and have elevated the Eyre Hotel in Whyalla.
Their uncle, Guy, and cousins Shaun, Brett and William, also recently acquired the Flagstaff and Mansfield Park hotels, while Brett has partnered with prominent hoteliers Ed Peter and Martin Palmer on several other projects.
Toop
Anthony and wife Sylvia have been a staple of Adelaide’s social scene for decades.
The high flyers launched the Toop & Toop real estate company from their Toorak Gardens home in 1985 and it’s gone from strength-to-strength in the almost 40 years since, winning several industry awards around the country.
Now their daughters, Suzannah (chief executive officer) and Genevieve (owner/director of marketing) have taken over the day-to-day running of the family business, alongside Genevieve’s hubby, Bronte Manuel, Toop’s owner/director of sales.
Spencer
One of South Australian most high profile businessmen, Raymond Spencer AM is a South Australian businessman, chairman of South Australia’s Economic Development Board and chairman of the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute.
The Adelaide-born father-of-four is the former CEO of the financial services strategic business unit of Cap Gemini and a current director of NASDAQ-listed sapphire products maker, Rubicon Technology.
He also holds board positions on a number of private and public companies in Australia and the US.
In 2010 Mr Spencer built a $10 million home in the Adelaide Hills on a property known as Springwood Park, for which he paid $5.3 million in 2006.
Polites
The iconic blue-and-white signs seen across Adelaide’s CBD — baffling interstate and international tourists over the years — are a trademark of property tycoon Constantine George Polites.
The signs exist as a lasting legacy of the rags to riches tale of Mr Polites and his family following his death in 2001, aged 82.
Born in 1919, Mr Polites grew up in Port Pirie where his family sold vegetables to make a living.
By the age of 16, Mr Polites made enough money to afford his first deli freehold, before making a number of other career moves.
This included working behind the counter at Woolworths in Rundle Street and managing staff at a factory, before moving into the taxi, car hire and catering scene.
After spending some time in Sydney, he returned to Adelaide in 1959, where his career in real estate took off.
Mr Polites’ business plan involved purchasing pre-existing properties and renovating them, going on to maintain a large property portfolio in Adelaide’s CBD.
And who could forget Adelaide’s young guns hurtling up the ranks?
Kayla Itsines
As of June 2023, 32-year-old fitness queen Kayla Itsines has a reported net worth of $165 million.
The co-owner of Sweat fitness app with ex Tobi Pearce, with whom she shares four-year-old daughter Arna, first started making rich lists in 2016, but their worth has catapulted since then.
Itsines’ meteoric rise began in 2009 when she was working as a personal trainer in Adelaide and began posting pictures of her clients’ progress on Instagram.
The influencer and mum-of-two — having welcomed a son Jax with husband Jae Woodroffe last year — has 15.9 million Instagram followers, and has recently relocated to the Gold Coast to continue working with Pearce on Sweat.
Davie Fogarty
Davie Fogarty, 29, made his millions as the founder of the hugely popular wearable blanket the “Oodie”, with a net worth of $500 million.
Fogarty’s public profile exploded in 2023, joining the judging panel on Shark Tank Australia.
He recently made headlines for gifting his parents a $1.6m property in Mylor.
In 2023, he bought himself a farm in the same Hills locale for $4.35 million, taking followers on a tour in a YouTube video posted in June.
Among the rich-list regulars who call Adelaide home are the families who seldom attract much media — or have few relatives left — but have deep roots in the state, having established themselves well before anyone knew what an “Oodie” was.
Barr Smith
Robert Barr Smith made a name for himself as a financial authority in Adelaide in the 1860s after arriving to SA from Scotland.
He was a director of several companies while sitting on the boards of the State Library and Adelaide Botanic Garden, and went on to marry Joanna Elder, sister of Sir Thomas Elder.
The Elder and Barr Smith families helped build the pastoral empire that became Elder Smith & Company.
Hayward
Sir Edward Waterfield Hayward was an Australian businessman, best known for owning and managing former Adelaide department store John Martin’s and for instigating the Adelaide Christmas Pageant.
He started in the retail sector for the first time in 1929, working for Sydney Snow and Co. Ltd., and moved back to Adelaide in 1931 to join the family business, John Martin’s, which closed in 1998 after 132 years of trading.
Historic Adelaide Hills property Carrick Hill was his home with wife Ursula (nee Barr Smith).
Bonython
The Bonython family was one of South Australia’s wealthiest and most influential.
John Langdon Bonython was the sole proprietor and editor of this very publication from 1894, holding his coveted Advertiser positions for 35 years.
His grandson, entrepreneur, art gallery owner and concert promoter, Kym Bonython — the man responsible for bringing The Beatles to Adelaide in 1964 — was farewelled with a state funeral when he died in 2011.
Mr Bonython served on Adelaide city council and held a position on several boards including for the Adelaide Festive of Arts, Music Vive Australia and Australia Council.
His wife, noted socialite and local fashion icon Julie Bonython, who was crowned Miss South Australia in 1956, passed away in 2016.
Ayers
Sir Henry Ayers — of whom the North Terrace mansion is named after — was a trustee of the Savings Bank of South Australia for twenty-five years, a director of the Bank of Australasia, as well as the eighth premier of SA, serving a record five times.
Darling
John Darling became known as the biggest shipper of grain in Australia after arriving to Adelaide from Edinburgh in 1855.
In addition to serving in the South Australian parliament, he was an early investor in The Broken Hill Proprietary Company.
The last family member to sit on the board was Gordon Darling, and the family’s wealth was handled by Caledonia Investments which also runs $2 billion of global, small cap and mining-focused funds.
More Coverage
Originally published as How 18 of SA’s wealthiest families made their fortunes
I found the Cook Islands’ best-kept secret
Rarotonga’s untouristed interior reveals a paradise that is lost on most travellers.
I flew 1600km for love and got ghosted at the airport
Model River Blake flew to meet a man she had been chatting to online for three years, only to be left stranded at the airport.