John Kahlbetzer, from oil rigs to the Rich List, dies at 92
Businessman John Kahlbetzer retained his competitive spirit and was still fit enough to play tennis just months before his death at the age of 92, according to his family.
John Kahlbetzer died in Sydney on October 27, a little over a year after selling out of agriculture in Argentina and returning to Australia, where he made his name in farming after earlier ventures selling tyres, in steel trading and as a corporate raider.
John Kahlbetzer snr playing at family Polo grounds at Jemalong in 1993.
German-born Kahlbetzer worked on oil rigs after arriving in Australia in his early 20s before his entrepreneurial flair helped build a vast family fortune. The family was worth $1.42 billion on the 2023 Financial Review Rich List.
The Rich List family made much of its billion dollar-plus fortune in farming but has since diversified into venture capital and other investments under Mr Kahlbetzer’s sons, Johnny and Markus.
The brothers said he would be remembered for his “business success and sharpness” and, at times, his “ruthlessness”.
“But also for your compassion and caring for individuals,” they said in a joint obituary published on Monday.
Businessman John Kahlbetzer pictured in The Australian Financial Review in November 1961.
“Your love of sports, art, food, beer, wine and your competitiveness was legendary.”
The family’s Twynam Agriculture Group was once one of Australia’s biggest owners and operators of broad-acre farmland, producing grains, oilseed, cattle, wool, cotton, rice and citrus.
The group also held extensive water rights, but started selling off those assets in the 2000s.
The family walked away from farming in Argentina, where it had operated for 40 years, in 2022 after becoming fed up with economic uncertainty
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