Having surveyed the evidence on the overall distribution of wealth in Australia, it is interesting to look more closely at those at the top of the tree. We can do so by drawing on data from the Business Review Weekly (BRW) to provide insights into the economic situation of the nation's most wealthy people. The ‘Rich 200’ edition that the BRW publishes annually shows the wealth of the top 200 individuals and families. A study of the character and changing composition of this group can provide potentially useful insights into the economic situation of the very richest people in Australian society. Unlike some other data on income and wealth, the BRW information is published with no significant time lags, so it provides a very up-to-date picture of who owns what.

Before the BRW started publishing its annual ‘Rich 200’ list edition, spotlighting the wealthy was largely done by the publications of the political Left. In other countries, such as the UK and the USA, there had been a strong, popular, journalistic tradition of studying the wealthy (for example, Lundberg 1969; Davis 1982). In Australia, the Communist Party of Australia took the lead, running a series of portraits of the ruling class in its newspaper Tribune during the 1970s that were subsequently compiled into a booklet entitled Who's Running Australia. Pen portraits of Kerry Packer, Vincent Fairfax, Reg Ansett, Peter Abeles, Lang Hancock, Rod Carnegie, the Baillieus and other major property owners were included.