Hart makes Australia-NZ top 10

Graeme Hart

New Zealand's only billionaire, Graeme Hart, is the sole Kiwi to make it on to Forbes magazine's inaugural Top 10 rich list for Australia and New Zealand.

The food tycoon's US$760 million ($1.08 billion) fortune saw him just make the cut, ranking 10th equal with Australian retailer Gerry Harvey.

Hart controls Australasia's biggest food business, Burns Philp.

It's the first time Forbes has ranked individual fortunes in the neighbouring Tasman countries.

New Zealanders to gain a place in the top 40 were Michael Erceg, who owns the country's largest liquor outfit Independent Distillers Group. Erceg shared 30th place with the founder of Australian surfboard company Billabong, Gordon Merchant, and is worth US$410 million.

Liquor baron Douglas Myers - with US$350 million to his name -ranked 35th on the list, and Douglas Goodfellow, the son of dairy industry pioneer Sir William Goodfellow, ranked 38th with his US$300 million fortune.

Kerry Packer, the major shareholder of media empire Publishing & Broadcasting, topped the list with US$5 billion. Packer is 67.

Packer scooped the top position now that media mogul Rupert Murdoch, worth US$7.8 billion, is officially an American citizen.

Hart, who left school at 16 to become a panelbeater's tow-truck driver, largely acquired his first fortune courtesy of the former Government Printing Office.

He bought Burns Philp for US$300 million in 1997 and within months his shares were almost worthless and the company was in the hands of bankers.

But he traded his way out, building the company to a size that had commentators declaring him New Zealand's first billionaire.

A minimum net worth of US$250 million was required to make the list.