Chris Wallin is an Australian

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

and businessman. He is the Managing Director of QCoal Group and Chairman of the QCoal Foundation.

Early life

Chris Wallin grew up in Moorooka, a suburb of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

. His father was born in Eidsvold, Queensland and fought in World War II. He attended

Brisbane State High School Brisbane State High School (BSHS or commonly State High) is a partially selective, co-educational, state secondary school, located in South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is a member of the Great Public Schools Association of Queensland, ...

and was interested in rocks, minerals and soils from a young age. He was awarded a scholarship to attended the

University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...

and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Geology.

Career

After graduation from university, he worked as a geologist for the Department of Mines and Energy of the

Government of Queensland The Queensland Government is the state government of Queensland, Australia, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Government is formed by the party or coalition that has gained a majority in the state Legislative Assembly, with the governo ...

. Wallin discovered coal deposits throughout Queensland. In 1989 he founded QCoal for the purpose of developing these deposits into operating mines. QCoal mines coal from a number of mines in the

Bowen Basin The Bowen Basin contains the largest coal reserves in Australia. This major coal-producing region contains one of the world's largest deposits of bituminous coal. The Basin contains much of the known Permian coal resources in Queensland includ ...

, including the Sonoma mine, Drake mine and Byerwen mine.

Personal life

He lives in The Gap, a suburb of Brisbane. In 2013 he partnered with the

Royal Flying Doctor Service The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), commonly known as the Flying Doctor, is an aeromedical retrieval service in Australia and the largest of its kind in the world. It is a non-profit organisation that provides urgent and emergency medica ...

to deliver a mobile dental service to provide free dental health care to communities across central and northern Queensland.

Net worth

In January 2019 ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' estimated Wallin's

net worth Net worth is the value of all the non-financial and financial assets owned by an individual or institution minus the value of all its outstanding liabilities. Financial assets minus outstanding liabilities equal net financial assets, so net w ...

as 910 million. , Wallin's net worth was assessed by the ''

Financial Review The ''Australian Financial Review'' (''AFR'') is an Australian compact daily newspaper with a focus on business, politics and economic affairs. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New South Wales, and has been published continuously since its foun ...

'' on the 2025 ''Financial Review'' Rich List as 2.06

billion Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: * 1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is now the most common sense of the word in all varieties of ...

References

Living people Scientists from Brisbane People educated at Brisbane State High School University of Queensland alumni Businesspeople from Brisbane Year of birth missing (living people) Australian billionaires 21st-century Australian geologists {{australia-business-bio-stub