Australian Story: July 22

Monday’s Australian Story profiles Richard Farleigh, who turned his life around and became a multi-millionaire, appearing on Dragon’s Den.

Richard Farleigh was born in country Victoria. He was brought up in a tent for the first three years of his life, with scarce food and a drunken violent father. Today, Farleigh is a multi-millionaire, a UK celebrity and former star of the popular reality series Dragons’ Den. Now in his fifties, Farleigh has been back home to rediscover aspects of his past.

Richard Farleigh amassed a fortune as a young gun in the financial markets. He went on to invest in start-up companies, established one of London’s most prestigious clubs, and became a TV star and celebrity in the UK.
But he is little known in Australia.

This is literally a rags-to-riches story. Farleigh was born “Richard Buckland Smith” in country Victoria, near the Murray River, the eighth child of itinerant parents. He spent the earliest years of his life being brought up in a tent, in abject poverty and in constant fear of a drunken, violent father. The children often went hungry and, not long before Richard was born, a sister had died from drinking contaminated river water where the family was camping. When he was nearly three, he and his remaining siblings were taken by welfare, separated and placed in foster homes. They lost touch with each other and never lived as a family again.

He was fostered by a Sydney family, the Farleighs. But he was so traumatised that life remained tough, exacerbated by a poor relationship with his adoptive father.

At school he was initially considered to be “backward” and put in a remedial class, until teachers –notably Jan Walker – recognized his potential. He was, in fact, highly intelligent and by his early teens had become a Junior State chess champion.

It wasn’t until his early 20s that, by chance, he was reunited with his birth parents and siblings. To his astonishment, his parents – who had made no attempt to get back the family they’d lost – had gone on to have three more children.

Richard Farleigh’s career began at the Reserve Bank, soon moving to Bankers Trust in Sydney where his mentor was Jillian Broadbent. He was later head-hunted to work for a secretive hedge fund in Bermuda, where he made enough money to retire at 34. Since then he has invested in start-up companies in the UK and appeared as a panelist on the popular BBC program Dragons’ Den.

Now aged 53, Richard Farleigh is single but dedicated to his three children from previous relationships.
He lives in London and holidays regularly with his natural siblings, making up for lost time, but Farleigh still carries the psychological scars of his childhood.

July 22, 8pm, ABC1.