Blackburne leads WA in Young Rich List

Perth property developer Paul Blackburne is the wealthiest of five Western Australians featured in the BRW Young Rich List 2016.

Mr Blackburne, the founder and managing director of property and financial services business Blackburne, featured at number five on the list with a wealth of $483 million, while Linkforce Engineering managing director Luke Herbert was ranked as WA’s second-wealthiest person under 40 years old with $128 million.

Nicheliving director Ronnie Elhaj was named the state’s third wealthiest citizen with $81 million, despite Business News’ recent coverage on problems with the co-founders of the property developer.

It is not yet known where Mr Herbert and Mr Elhaj sit on the top 100 list or who the other two WA representatives on the list are, as they will be revealed tomorrow.

The co-founders of Sydney-based business software development company Atlassian, Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, topped the list for a record fifth straight year, with a combined wealth of $4.68 billion.

Founded on a $10,000 credit card loan, Atlassian was created by the University of NSW classmates in 2002 and floated on the US Stock Exchange in 2015. It currently has a market value of $US6.2 billion.

Technology was the dominant industry on the rich list with 27 entries, followed by financial services and retail with 11 each.

There are just eight women in the top 100, the same number as in 2015, with Cyan Ta'eed, a co-founder of Envato, a digital marketplace for web designers, the highest placed at 13.

The total wealth of those on the list hit a record $12.3 billion.