Dale Elphinstone

Dale Elphinstone, who heads the Elphinstone / William Adams group of companies, was ranked 89th in the BRW's Rich List. BRW estimated that Elphinstone's wealth at $520 million.

Elphinstone is also a Director of Exergen, a Melbourne-based company seeking an allocation of brown coal resource from the Victorian government to enable it to develop a brown coal based export project.

Background
A biographical note states that Elphinstone:


 * "Dale is widely known for his role in founding Caterpillar Elphinstone, an organisation specialising in the design and development of specialist underground mining equipment, an interest he divested to focus on his role at the helm of the Elphinstone / William Adams group of companies. Dale has many other commercial interests as well as directorships on the boards of several private and public companies. Dale is highly regarded for his role as a leading contributor to the community and economic life of the State of Tasmania."

Supporter of the Franklin dam, Gunns pulp mill and opponent of minority governments
In a 2012 interview with the Australian Financial Review, Elphinstone revealed his support for the building of the Franklin dam, Gunn's proposed pulp mill and an opponent of minority government."Once upon a time, we had clean, renewable energy in abundance which would attract the manufacturing industries to Tasmania ... Some decisions that the Greens drove back in the 1980s to stop the Gordon-below-Franklin Dam [which was to provide hydroelectricity] took away an opportunity for us to continue to have a clean energy source. Now we've got a cable across Bass Strait so we buy power into the state that's generated by coal or other sources that are nowhere near as clean as what we could have. [I don't know] whether they [the Greens] really think about the wellbeing of the entire economy and trying to deliver a good long-term solution," he said.

Elphinstone also railed against the formation of minority government's. "It just should not be allowed. We should have to go back to the polls until we’ve got a government that can get in there and do the job," he said.

In a letter to the editor in response to his comment, Tasmanian Greens Senator Bob Brown wrote that "The World Heritage Wild Rivers now attract more than 100,000 visitors to Queenstown and Strahan each year, driving investment and jobs. Elphinstone’s favoured Liberal government of Robin Gray turned down Malcolm Fraser’s $500 million offer in 1982 for power alternatives, eventually getting less than $300 million compensation from the Hawke government which saved the Franklin. Gray also left Tasmania with a $100 million budget black hole in 1989. The Greens welcome Elphinstone’s manufacturing nous, but there is much more to the future than bulldozers."

Timeline

 * August 2012: Venture Minerals undertakes a $17 million capital raising to assist with the develop of three mining projects in the Tarkine area of north west Tasmania. It was reported that Elphinstone Holdings would take a $6 million stake in the company.

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Victoria and coal

External articles
August 15, 2012.
 * Tasmanian Liberal Party, "On the Couch with Dale & Cheryl Elphinstone", Tasmanian Liberals website, accessed August 2013.
 * Sean Ford, "Glimpse of Elphinstone insights", The Advocate, July 12, 2013.
 * Mark Acheson, "Mining magnate takes trip down memory lane", The Advocate, August 3, 2013.
 * Patrick Billings, "Elphinstone to invest in Tarkine miner", The Examiner,