Last year saw the largest increase in the number of billionaires, and their wealth, since the start of this century, widening the gap between Australia's richest and the rest of the nation.

The number of Australian billionaires grew by a third in 2017, and has more than doubled in the last decade, prompting calls for greater income equality in the country.

Australia added eight new billionaires in 2017, lifting the number to 33, while their overall wealth increased by around $38 billion and their total wealth sitting at around $115.4 billion.

Miners make up a large proportion of the nation’s top 10 billionaires, Gina Rinehart, her daughter Bianca Rinehart, and Andrew Forrest – who made their wealth through iron ore mining – are joined by property and shopping centre magnates Harry Triguboff, Frank Lowy and John Gandel, Visy manufacturer Anthony Pratt, James Packer, Linfox transport owner Lindsay Fox, and Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes.