She is Australia’s richest person — and one of the most successful businesswomen in the world.
How could we not include Mrs Gina Rinehart in the very special, 80th birthday edition of The Australian Women’s Weekly?
We put the request to Mrs Rinehart’s office earlier this year, not really sure how we’d go since Mrs Rinehart is a private person but, after several months of negotiations, her office came back with an invitation that was too good to refuse.
Would The Weekly like to photograph Mrs Rinehart in her beloved Pilbara? It’s the place where she’s happiest, and she loves to show off the beauty of the landscape.
We could hardly believe it, and immediately accepted.
The trip took place in June. We weren’t the only people on it. Mrs Rinehart had also invited 70 bankers along, including the ANZ’s big boss, Mike Smith.
We toured the Roy Hill mine site, where Mrs Rinehart is planning her next big project. The scale of the investment boggles the mind: Mrs Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting and its partners, have to build port facilities, a 344-kilometre railway line, and accommodation for 5000 workers, before they can make a cent from the project.
It’s a big risk, and Mrs Rinehart was keen to explain to The Weekly’s readers how much goes into trying to get a big investment off the ground.
The hospitality was incredible: on our first day in the desert, waiters came out of nowhere, carrying silver platters with chilled watermelon juice.
Mrs Rinehart works with a small, trusted team, but the next day, they somehow produced slow-cooked lamb, grilled asparagus, even pavlova.
Lunch was served at long tables, set with white linen cloths and proper tableware, under a vaulting sky, near the Fortescue River.
Mrs Rinehart arrived in four-wheel drive, wearing a pair of hot pink sand shoes. She greeted everyone by name, and she gave a speech about the importance of building for the future.
The Weekly offered to bring glamorous gowns and jewels to the shoot but Mrs Rinehart declined all that fuss, saying she was far too busy and, in any case, when she’s working, she — like everyone else — wears the same tan pants and blue shirt that is the Roy Hill uniform.
Just in case she changed her mind, we borrowed a strand of impressive pearls but when I showed them to Mrs Rinehart, she said: “Oh no, the media picks on me when I wear the small ones, so what will they say if they see me in those?”
She happily sat for two portraits, including one by the river, even as rain started to fall.
She was dismissive of gossip that gets into the media, saying much of it is “inaccurate or distorted anyway, and just people talking out of jealousy, or bias” and so she tends to ignore it, focussing instead on “the honesty and friendliness of country people … I’m very fond of such Australians, wherever they live.”
For the full text of the article and the stunning photographs of Mrs Rinehart in the Pilbara, see the historic 80th birthday edition of The Weekly, out today.
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