Perth billionaire Tim Roberts abandons his own plans to rescue a stranded father and son

Tim Roberts built much of his fortune after his family’s construction company, Multiplex, was sold to Brookfield in 2007 for a combined payout of about $1.2 billion split between him and his two siblings. He invested his share into AvWest, his private aviation company at Perth Airport, and Warburton Group, the family investment office he now runs.

That aviation background proved decisive when Roberts landed his private helicopter at the William Creek Hotel on South Australia’s Oodnadatta Track, intending to stay the night. At the pub, he learned emergency services were searching for a father and son who had not returned from a trip toward Lake Eyre.

Bill Kosky and his son, from Middle Park in Melbourne, had been driving their Toyota along Halligan Bay Road when a storm turned the unsealed track into deep mud, leaving them stuck with almost no phone signal for 12 hours.

Roberts set aside his own plans, joined local resident Trevor Wright, and flew across the flooded terrain to search for the missing pair. The scale of the mud and water made the vehicle hard to spot from the air, but the two eventually found it and landed nearby.

“I thought you were in the army or something,” Kosky said as Roberts stepped out of the helicopter. Roberts, who began his career as a foreman on a Multiplex construction site before becoming an executive director, is also a director of mining-services company Mineral Resources.

Wright said 28 people have been rescued from the region over the past six weeks, as heavy rain floods roads leading to Lake Eyre and puts unprepared visitors at growing risk.

[Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]