Australian iron ore billionaire Alexandra Burt gives $84 million to environmental groups

Australian billionaire Alexandra Burt, a granddaughter of iron ore pioneer Peter Wright, and her husband Julian are giving more than A$120 million ($84.5 million) to 10 environmental groups, among them Greenpeace.

The Perth couple are making the gifts through their family charity, the Wright Burt Foundation, and the money will be paid out by the end of 2026. The Australian Wildlife Conservancy, Bush Heritage Australia and Greenpeace will each receive A$25 million ($17.6 million). The Great Southern Land Conservancy, a new group led by Atticus Fleming, a former head of the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, and BirdLife Australia will get A$10 million each.

Aussie Ark, Conservation Partners, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, Rainforest Rescue and the South Endeavour Trust will each receive about A$5.33 million ($3.75 million).

"We just have a lot of passion for bark and leaves," Julian Burt said. He said the size of each gift reflected how large each organization was and how quickly it could put the money to use.

Fleming said the donation could be the biggest conservation gift in Australian history, and the biggest he had seen in his 30 years in the field.

A gift to Greenpeace

Greenpeace stands apart from the other nine recipients, which focus on buying and managing land and protecting threatened species. The environmental group, led in Australia by David Ritter, campaigns against fossil fuel projects and has often clashed with the mining and gas industries.

"It was a different choice," Julian Burt said, adding that the foundation already had a relationship with the organization.

The couple's money comes from iron ore, the country's biggest export. "Let's be frank, it's done well for Alex's family," Julian Burt said. The Burts said none of their wealth came from fossil fuels. Alexandra Burt said she hoped the gift would push others in philanthropy, business and government to do more for the environment.

An iron ore fortune

Peter Wright, an accountant, was the business partner of prospector Lang Hancock, the father of Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest person. In 1963, the two men struck a deal with Rio Tinto that gave them a 2.5% royalty on the iron ore mined from their Pilbara claims, a payment stream that has made both families among the wealthiest in the country. Wright died in 1983.

Alexandra Burt and her sister, Leonie Baldock, inherited their share of the fortune after their father, Michael Wright, died in 2012. Baldock runs the family's mining company, Wright Prospecting, while Burt took over Voyager Estate, the family winery in Margaret River.

The sisters' wealth grew further through Rhodes Ridge, a large undeveloped iron ore deposit in Western Australia. A 2010 court ruling forced Hancock Prospecting to hand over a 25% stake in the project to the Wright heirs. In February 2025, the sisters' company, VOC Group, agreed to sell that 25% stake to Japan's Mitsui & Co. for $3.3 billion. Their aunt, Angela Bennett, agreed to sell a further 15% of the project to Mitsui for $2 billion.

Burt and Baldock joined Forbes' list of Australia's richest people in 2024, with fortunes of about $1.2 billion each, before the Mitsui sale.

Julian Burt, a descendant of Sir Archibald Burt, the first chief justice of Western Australia, was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2025 for his work in the arts, the church and the environment.

Figures were converted at A$1.42 to the dollar.