Meet the rural millionaire making Aussie rich list with unlikely success story

Wes Maas, 44 played for the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the NRL before a shoulder injury relegated him to a desk job.

The injury proved good fortune for Maas, who has since built a billion dollar business in an unlikely location: Dubbo in western NSW.

Maas Group is Australia's leading construction materials, equipment and services provider which is now so successful it is diversifying into other areas such as the property and infrastructure sector.

Established in 2002 with "one Bobcat and a tipper truck" it now boasts a fleet of over over 450 machines and 1800 employees.

Maas debuted on the 2022 AFR rich list but a fall in his company's share price knocked him off.

A subsequent rally, plus his participation in a share buyback, led his wealth balloon to $814 million, placing him at 176th spot.

But Maas isn't the only regional player on the list.

Tim Heath, described as the "biggest success story out of Warracknabeal, Victoria, since singer Nick Cave" is a new arrival.

The crypto king is worth a staggering $2.27 billion dollars.

The Estonia-based Heath, 45, made his first fortune with a Tallinn-based online casino that accepted bitcoin.

He now runs Yolo Group, which operates global gaming brands such as bitcasino.io and sportsbet.io and has around 900 staff.

According to his company profile he specialises in "transforming ideas into successful businesses, and has done so with such brands as the innovative content aggregator Hub88.io, and the mobile- focused games studio OneTouch.io".

One of the country's biggest farmers and meat processors, Roger Fletcher, is another regional success story.

His family company diversified from droving into small-meat processing operations in rural NSW, and from there into a large abattoir at Dubbo.

The company now exports lamb and sheep meat, skins, wool and grains to eighty countries

But the most notable debut goes to Nicola Forrest, the ex-wife of Fortescue founder Andrew Forrest.

Forrest is seventh on this year's list, with an estimated fortune of $16.92 billion, outpacing her former husband (in eighth) after a highly publicized marriage split in July 2023.

She has equal ownership with her husband of the private Tattarang business empire that includes RM Williams. But her wealth also lies in a company called Coaxial, which includes around $50 million FMG shares.

The cut off to make the list, released on Friday, was a cool $718 million, a record.