• Australia’s 200 most rich and powerful managed to accummulate 24% more wealth this year, according to the AFR Rich List.
• However, while there’s now a record 104 Australian billionaires, some didn’t fare so well.
• Among them were Flight Centre’s three founders, who fell off the list for the first time since the 1990s.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

If there’s a universal economic truth, it’s that the rich tend to only get richer. Well, most of the time.

While it’s true that many of the world’s most powerful people have made an absolute motza during the coronavirus pandemic, an unlucky few found themselves on the wrong end of fortune.

Those in the travel, entertainment, education, and hospitality sectors for example have had a year to forget and that goes for those at the very top as well.

According to Thursday’s AFR Rich List, this was the first year since the 1990s that Flight Centre’s holy trinity – Graham Turner, Bill James, and Geoff Harris – bowed out of the country’s top 200.

As countries around the world pulled down the shutters and international travel went on indefinite hold, the travel and aviation industries are going through an incredibly turbulent time.

Those factors have thrown a curveball to many, with Nepalese-born, Melbourne-based couple Shesh Ghale and Jamuna Gurung losing their billionaire status. The couple, who founded Melbourne Institute of Technology, have had little option but to watch as their tertiary education and commercial property empire was hit on all fronts.

Or take Alan Rydge, whose commercial interests reach far and wide through the entertainment and hospitality sector. Rydge, who operates his eponymous hotel chain alongside the QT and Altura ones, has lost an estimated $1.3 billion. His other businesses, including Event Cinemas and Thredbo Alpine Resort, have fared little better.

There have of course been plenty of other falls from grace for quite a different reason.

“Some of the blue sky has started to come out of the tech scale-up scene, which could be a harbinger for other sectors as cheap money dries up,” Rich List co-editor Michael Bailey said.

While venture capital flowed into promising businesses, it has since receded as the shine came off this year. Patrick Grove, who founded Netflix competitor iflix, fell off the list as did Tim Kentley-Klay, when his driverless car business Zoox sold to Amazon for a $1.5 billion, a long way from its earlier $4 billion valuation.

Of course, Australians could be excused for not feeling much sympathy for fallen billionaires. All retain enviable, albeit reduced, fortunes at a time when most are simply happy to have a job.

But as individuals, they stick out as they fall from an elite club that has only grown richer this year. There are after all a record 104 billionaires on this year’s list, with a minimum fortune of $540 million required to even get a look into the top 200.

Some, like iron ore magnates Andrew Forrest and Gina Rinehart, more than doubled their already considerable fortunes in just 12 months to top the list. While exceptional performers, the trend was widespread with all members growing their wealth by an average of 24%.

As Australia heads into its first recession in three decades, there’s little the rest of us can do but look on in envy.

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