Publishing heir James Fairfax dies

 James Fairfax AC (pictures above left with Edmund Capon), the former chairman of publisher John Fairfax Ltd, passed away age 83 on Wednesday at his Southern Highlands home Retford Park in Bowral. 
James was a great philanthropist and art collector and the son of Sir Warwick Fairfax. In our snap above James donated a substantial body of precious art works of old masters worth then, around $35M to the the NSW Art Gallery.

Barry Humphries at the NSW Art Gallery & one of James' donated works

In 2016 Mr Fairfax bequeathed his Retford Park homestead,  worth around $20 million, to the National Trust for the Trust to preserve in perpetuity for the local community. For the past few decades Fairfax lived and traveled with his companion Ray Hansen who died in 2015.

When the young Warwick Fairfax Jnr, James half-brother launched his ill-fated move to take back the family business Fairfax Newspapers in the 1980s James recived an estimated $200M. He was a director on the Fairfax board from 1957 until 1987, and chairman from 1977 to 1987.

Spending half the year at a property in the UK, James retired permanently to Bowral in 2003. One of the highlights of the social calendar in his Sydney days was an annual masked drag ball where guests, mostly well heeled bachelors from Sydney and Melbourne competed and spent a small on extravagant gowns.
James Fairfax is survived by step mother Lady Mary Fairfax who like James has bequeathed the family home Fairwater in Double Bay to the National Trust on the proviso all her staff live there for life. James leaves behind two half sisters, Annalise Thomas and Anna Cleary, his half-brothers, Warwick and Charles Fairfax.
Below : Retford Park

 

Kylie's a Living Treasure

The National Trust has just announced 7 new Living Treasures in association with that esteemed organ of repute Woman's Day and although some are predictable, others may surprise.

Dr Karl Kruzelnicki

No list would be complete without Kylie Minogue who wowed them at the Sydney Mardi Gras last night and has been elevated to almost Sainthood status in the UK. Olivia Newton John is one along with racing driver Jack Brabham, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki the scientist and ABC broadcaster (his wife makes those lurid shirts he is fond of), conservationist Dr Harry Butler, cancer expert and pioneer Professor Ian Frazier and mining billionaire Clive Palmer.

Clive Palmer?. Just days ago Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan was warning us against the dogged pursuit of power and wealth by the handful of mining magnates Clive Palmer, Gina Rinehart (on her way to become the world's richest person) and Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest. 

treasures: Clive Palmer

Swan called them a 'danger' to democracy with their capacity to affect government policy as they did in 2010 by funding a multi-million dollar advertising campaign to derail the new mining tax. Clive and the other two billionaires said it would break them although Twiggy Forrest confessed he hadn't actually hadn't got around to paying tax yet but "soon would". The campaign successfully dispatched PM Kevin Rudd's career to history and just to show there were no hard feelings, Palmer splashed out and gave 55 treasured employees a brand new Mercedes each for Christmas that year.!

Palmer's latest campaign is to destroy the Football Federation (run by Australia's second richest person, Westfield owner Frank Lowy) with his new soccer association. A real treasure!