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100 MOST INFLUENTIAL15RALPHSARICHThe University of WesternAustralia has fostered the State’suniquely entrepreneurial spiritfor 100 years. UWA alumniexemplify the bold vision of theUniversity’s founder, Sir JohnWinthrop Hackett, whoestablished UWA to “advance theprosperity and welfare of thepeople”. The driving spirit ofentrepreneurship will carry UWAinto the future, as it aims tobecome one of the world’s top 50universities by 2050.Paul Johnson, UWA vice-chancellorThe only thing more formidable thanRalph Sarich’s business acumen is hismind.In the 1970s his stunning invention, theorbital engine, propelled him into theinternational spotlight. He spent the next20 years with the Orbital EngineCompany, developing and selling his idea.Then in 1992 he surprised investors byselling out of Orbital Engine Corporationand making a well-timed move intoproperty investment and development,which is where he has made most of hisfortune.Orbital Engine Company’s shares havesince headed south and Sarich’s ability toget in and out of investments at the righttime has become part of local businesslore.He bought into iiNet and AmcomTelecommunications in 2010 — realising a200 per cent-plus gain when he sold outthis year.He pocketed more than $500 million oncommercial office building sales in 2006amid his prescient fears aboutunsustainable boom time prices.While his son Peter now manages theday-to-day business affairs of the family’sCape Bouvard Investments, Sarich stillcalls the shots as chairman — while therest of the business community takesnote.DALLASDEMPSTERIt was the heady days of the mid 1980s. WAwas high on the America’s Cup win of 1983and the 1987 stock market crash was yet totake the wind out the sails of Perth’s circle ofcolourful billionaires.Wall Street’s Gordon Gekko had not yetuttered the words “greed is good” but herein WA, we knew it already. The town wasawash with money.While Dallas Dempster’s former employer,Alan Bond, was busy building skyscrapers,Dempster and his Malaysian-based partnerGenting Berhad had their sights set onbuilding Perth’s first casino.In 1984, Brian Burke’s Labor Governmentgranted them an exclusive licence to build acasino on one-time landfill site BurswoodIsland. Planning was fast-tracked to ensure itopened before the America’s Cup defence inFremantle in 1987.The casino, now James Packer’s Crown,opened in December, 1985. It was a local hit.Dempster’s dealings were probed duringthe WA Inc Royal Commission, whichuncovered big donations he made to the ALPand a $2 million “success fee” to Rothwell’sBank chairman Laurie Connell in relation tothe casino bid. Dempster had also been inRalph Sarich, chariman of Cape Bouvard.Below: Working on his Orbital engine.partnership with Connell over a failedpetrochemical plant at Kwinana whichbecame part of the Royal Commission’sinquiry. He was found to have madedeliberately misleading promises regardingits viability.Dempster’s place on this list was earned bythe founding of WA’s first casino. In one fellswoop he wiped out Perth’s illegal gamblingdens. Today, the casino complex is thebiggest single-site employer in Perth.ALFREDCARSONAlfred Carson withhis daughter.At the gritty height of the industrialrevolution, men built their empires fromnothing. Alfred Carson should have beenone of those men. His brilliant, inventivemind came at precisely the right time inhistory. But he found himself, arguably, onthe wrong side of the planet and without aserious benefactor to turn his inventionsinto rivers of gold.Carson arrived in WA in 1831 as anindentured servant aboard the Sterling —a vessel short on rations not infested bymaggots.According to his biographer, RicaErickson, in Early Days, Carson quicklygained a reputation as a mechanic,engineer and a skilful blacksmith. Theywere handy skills in a young colony andhe was soon in demand. In 1836 he wasone of a group of artisans whosuccessfully tendered to build the PublicOffices.He became a millwright andwheelwright and engineered a new type offorge blower using a centrifugal blastwhich was strong enough for casting ironand brass. He also invented a new kind ofplough which survived better in localsoils and a horse-drawn “reapingmachine”.By 1845 he was operating a flour milland a sawmill and was developingsteam-operated machinery. In 1851 he wonthe contract to develop and install arotating apparatus for the new lighthousebeing built on Rottnest.By 1861 he had invented an enginecapable of propelling a boat or ship bysteam and a pneumatic machine capableof producing a long and steady blast.But securing the patents to hisinventions, in a young colony, was afruitless struggle. He died a pauper inreceipt of a public pension. His grandson,also Alfred Carson, would become a notededitor of The West Australian.Friday, November 29, 2013