Nathan Tinkler rode the coal boom during the 2010s to become Australia’s richest person under the age of 40 and then went broke in a blaze of publicity.
The phrase “gold rush” generates attention in a country with a strong mining history such as Australia. “Coal rush” just doesn’t quite do it.
Two years later, Tinkler again made the BRW list as Australia’s youngest billionaire with a claimed net worth of more than $1.18 billion. Around the same time, he merged Aston Resources and Boardwalk Resources, with the addition of Whitehaven Coal.However, in February 2016, Tinkler was declared bankrupt by the Federal Court. Two years later, proceedings were launched in the NSW Supreme Court against Whitehaven Coal seeking compensation.
Vast global mining companies were battered by the slump in the China boom, and wrote off billions from the value of their assets. BHP shares slumped from $47 to $17 and South African mining giant Anglo- American crashed to one-sixth of its value., “when coal prices started falling, Tinkler’s net worth shrank precipitately”.
By the start of the teens, 10 new coal mines were being opened up in the Hunter region and another 11 were in the pipeline. In the latter stages of the China boom, coal accounted for about 15 per cent of Australia’s exports, and was worth more than Australia’s total farm goods exports. In 2008, as his fortune rose dramatically, Tinkler established Patinack Farm in the Hunter Valley. For a short time, it became one of Australia’s largest locally owned horseracing entities.Among his other interests were the Newcastle Jets soccer club and the Newcastle Knights rugby league team. The latter attracted a fanatical following in the Hunter area, and included rampaging forward Paul Harragon.
In 2015, after Jets players and staff had not been paid for a month, Tinkler placed the club in voluntary administration.A year earlier, it was alleged before the Independent Commission Against Corruption during a hearing surrounding corruption allegations that the Patinack Farm Horse stud paid $66,000 to a slush fund connected to lobbyists for plans for Tinkler to establish a coal export terminal.