THEY are Sydney’s most reclusive multi-millionaires and our most generous migrants.

Property magnates Isaac Wakil, who emigrated to Australia from Iraq, and his wife Susan, who fled Romania as a child, have quietly been selling off parts of their property empire to set up a charitable fund.

Estimated to be worth more than $200 million, it is a gift to the nation they say has “treated them so well”.

The first to benefit from their generosity was the University of Sydney, after the Wakils made a record $10.8 million donation to its nursing school — the largest ever private donation to a nursing school.

Mr Wakil said nurses were often overlooked for the contributions they made to the community.

“Susan and I appreciate the valuable work of nurses in the frontline of health care,” he said.

“Regrettably, nurses don’t always get the recognition or headlines they ­deserve for the critical and very personal care they bring to patients.

“These new scholarships are a way of supporting the tuition and career development of deserving students and nurses now and into the future. Australia is a great country and it’s a good feeling to give something back.”

media_camera Student nurses at the Camperdown campus, (from left) Danielle Terlecky, Courtney Lopez and Kiandra Russell, who will benefit from the massive donation. Picture: Rohan Kelly

Dean of Sydney Nursing School Professor Donna Waters described the gift as “an extraordinary act of generosity”.

The Wakils, together with other donors, are to be recognised this week, although the couple are understood to be intending to watch the proceedings online via an iPad.

The university will use the funds to establish a scholarship for 12 nursing students, especially from indigenous communities and the bush, at the Wakils’ request.

The scholarships will pay study, tuition and accommodation fees from next year.

The couple will also make yet-to-be disclosed donations to St Vincent’s Private Hospital, Opera Australia, the Sydney Jewish Museum and TAFE.

type_quote_start “Australia is a great country and it’s a good feeling to give something back.” type_quote_end

The Wakils, who have no children, are possibly Sydney’s most intriguing socialites.

Once darlings of the city’s A-list scene, Mr Wakil and his immaculately-dressed wife, who was once just one of 30 women around the world to buy haute couture, were permanent fixtures at Opera House opening nights and arts events, and hosted lavish parties.

Then, mysteriously, they retreated from public life more than two decades ago.

Even then, the Wakils ­remained active donors to many charities they had supported throughout their lives, such as the Black and White Committee and St Vincent’s.

Mrs Wakil, who was known for hosting lavish dinners at the American Club while wearing Yves Saint Laurent, could always be counted on for buying the flowers that adorned the ­famous Black and White Committee charity balls.

media_camera Isaac Wakil and wife Susan in 1975. The couple are now very reclusive. Picture: Australian Women's Weekly

Mrs Wakil had previously told how she was born in Bessarabia in 1932, then a province of Romania.

When she was seven, her father was imprisoned in a ­Siberian gulag for being a capitalist land owner

When her mother died after being taken to a Soviet concentration camp, she and her aunt escaped to Australia. Her father moved here after his release.

Mr Wakil was born in Baghdad.

Starting out in the garment industry, the Wakils ­accumulated their wealth through prime property purchases in the 1970s and ’80s.

In recent years they have become known as the “mystery owners” of many of Sydney’s abandoned buildings.

Among the properties they owned were the historic Griffiths Teas building in Surry Hills, which sold for $22 million last year and is rumoured to be set for development into New York-style apartments, with Melbourne’s hit restaurant Chin Chin to be established beneath.

A century-old warehouse in Harris St, Pyrmont, one of over 10 owned by the Wakils in the suburb, also sold recently for $90 million.

Notoriously reclusive, the couple have long declined ­requests for interviews, while even some old friends of the pair claim not to have seen them in years.