Melbourne's Ron Walker, just $22 million short of 2015 BRW Rich 200 List billionaire status

Melbourne's Ron Walker, just $22 million short of 2015 BRW Rich 200 List billionaire status
Jonathan ChancellorDecember 7, 2020

Melbourne powerbroker Ron Walker fell just $22 million short of billionaire status in the 2015 BRW Rich List.

He sat in 50th place, with an estimated $978 million worth. There are 19 billionaires above him who have also made their fortunes from property.

Walker's wealth was put at $795 million in 2014. 

It was $125 million in 1998.

Much of it has come from property development, initially from Hudson Conway and more recently from Evolve Development.

His Hudson Conway co-founder Lloyd Williams ranks 62nd at $793 million on this year's Rich 200 List.

In 2001 Williams was ranked 20th on the BRW Rich List with $650 million.

Ron Walker, a former Lord Mayor of Melbourne, was born in Melbourne on September 20, 1939, the second son of Joe Walker, a senior supervisor with the Hoyts cinema chain. In 1966 he married a former Brisbane journalist, Barbara Lawson.

He was a former chairman of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Corporation.

The Age once suggested the jackpot for Hudson Conway came after he persuaded the State Labor Government to allow redevelopment of the old Toorak drive-in site in the 1980s.

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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