Robert Ian Oatley (11 June 1928 – 10 January 2016) was an Australian businessman, winemaker, yachtsman and philanthropist. He was perhaps best known for owning the nine-time
Sydney-Hobart-winning yacht ''
Wild Oats XI
''Wild Oats XI'' is a maxi yacht, most famous for being the former race record holder and a nine-times line honours winner of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. Launched in 2005, she was owned by Bob Oatley (Oatley's estate since his death i ...
''. He bought
Hamilton Island,
Queensland
Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
in 2003 for $200 million, he also owned retirement homes and a villa in
Sardinia, Italy. Oatley also established the
Rosemount winery, in the Hunter Valley in 1969.
Biography
Robert Oatley was born in the Sydney suburb of
Mosman
Mosman is a suburb on the Lower North Shore region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mosman is located 8 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local governm ...
in 1928, the son of Geoffrey Oatley and Isabel "Jean" née Brown.
Oatley was a great, great grandson of British clock maker
James Oatley.
and a great grandson of James Oatley, Lord Mayor of Sydney and a Member of the Legislative Assembly of
New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
.
Oatley's mother, Jean, died from
melanoma
Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer; it develops from the melanin-producing cells known as melanocytes. It typically occurs in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye (uveal melanoma). In very rare case ...
13 months after his birth, leaving him as an only child. Oatley's father was employed in the wool industry, which meant spending much of his working life was spent travelling in rural New South Wales. Consequently, Oatley was raised by his mother's sister, Muriel, the wife of Duncan A. Cameron. Oatley attended the Mosman Primary School.
Oatley's first employment, in about 1943 and still wartime, was by the firm, Colyer Watson, owned by Rupert Alexander Colyer. His tasks included delivering letters by hand to other local businesses and to fill the company's inkwells. Later, as Bob gained expertise and business acumen, he accompanied his employer on business trips. The Colyer Watson firm also owned a coffee division on Papua New Guinea; a division which owed money to the parent company. The task of recovering the money was handed over to the increasingly competent business employee, Robert Oatley. Oatley started out as a businessman in the 1950s trading coffee and cocoa beans from Papua New Guinea.
In his early 40s Bob bought this Papuan Division of the Colyer company from his employer and changed its name to ''Angco''. Oatley then expanded his company both in Papua and by establishing trade with northern hemisphere countries, an enterprise which earned him a British Empire Medal about fifteen years later, in 1985. Soon afterwards he sold the last of his Papuan businesses. After Papua gained independence in the mid-1970s Oatley had begun to sell off his business holdings there.
Oatley had also established his successful
Rosemount winery, in the Hunter Valley, started in 1968. Actually, the name was not original for the district. The original Rosemount winery was established in the same area, near
Denman, during the 1860s. Oatley's Rosemount winery was sold in 2001. By this time Oatley and his family had established other wineries, including, in the early 1990s, another winery, near
Mudgee
Mudgee () is a town in the Central West (New South Wales), Central West of New South Wales, Australia. It is in the broad fertile Cudgegong River valley north-west of Sydney and is the largest town in the Mid-Western Regional Council Local gov ...
, with the company name ''Oatley Wines'' and label ''Wild Oats''.
He died from a lung infection on 10 January 2016, aged 87.
Personal life
Oatley married Rosemary Nell Bray on 12 April 1951 in St Clement's Church, Mosman; and divorced on 2 December 1982, about seven weeks before Rosemary died. They had three children, Andrew "Sandy", Ian, and Rosalind. Two of Oatley's grandchildren, cousins
Kristy Oatley and
Lyndal Oatley, are Olympic equestrians.
Oatley later married Valerie.
Honours
Oatley was awarded the
British Empire Medal
The British Empire Medal (BEM; formerly British Empire Medal for Meritorious Service) is a British and Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth award for meritorious civil or military service worthy of recognition by the Monarchy of the United Ki ...
in 1984, for his service to the coffee industry in Papua New Guinea.
In 2014, Oatley was appointed an Officer of the
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...
.
[OATLEY, Robert Ian]
''It's an Honour''.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Oatley, Bob
1928 births
2016 deaths
Australian billionaires
Australian winemakers
Businesspeople from Sydney
Officers of the Order of Australia
Australian recipients of the British Empire Medal
Australian male sailors (sport)
Sailors (sport) from Sydney
20th-century Australian philanthropists
20th-century Australian sportsmen