“Money doesn’t buy happiness”
“I’m passionate about the causes we support and believe they can resonate.”
In the red-dirt landscape of the Pilbara, local Thalanyji artists paint from above, as creation spirits – eyes in the sky looking over their children below. Gazing down today from our little Cessna, the terrain looks as alien as the surface of Mars, yet few places on Earth feel as Australian. Mountain ranges ripple like muscles and ancient watercourses spider across the land. In the middle of it all is an unlikely oasis: Minderoo Station, home to Nicola Forrest, Australia’s greatest philanthropist.
Minderoo means ‘place of clean, permanent water’ in Thalanyji, and the Forrests have been a presence here since 1878 when brothers Alexander, David and John staked 960,000 hectares on the Ashburton River. Today David’s great-great grandson, the mining magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, owns it but Nicola, his wife of 30 years, runs it.
When she appears, it’s with sleeves rolled up and hair swept back. Nicola Forrest, 60, is diminutive in stature, formidable in presence. She holds my gaze, weighs our handshake and smiles with her eyes. Despite the wealth, she doesn’t scream money. Her voice is rich, her laugh earthy. There’s no stylist within cooee here. Nicola wears her daughter’s dress, her son’s wide-brim hat and her own dusty R.M. Williams’ boots.
Ours is a rare interview. “I’ve always dodged the spotlight,” she soon confides, munching on cold Vegemite toast. “It was fantastic to have the freedom to just be me. But our country
