She could buy two iPads for each of her fellow 22.9 million Australians, or eliminate world hunger for a year. If that should not appeal, she could play her own game of Monopoly with all the mansions in the nation's most expensive address, Wolseley Road, Point Piper.

Gina Rinehart has just become the richest woman in the world - and Australia's wealthiest person - with the BRW Rich 200 list estimating her wealth has nearly tripled in the past year to $29.17 billion.

Mind boggling ... Gina Rinehart's golden year in numbers. [These figures have been rounded up].

She roared past Christy Walton, a widow with a large stake in the US retail giant Wal-Mart, who is reputedly worth $25 billion.

It was only 20 years ago that Ms Rinehart debuted on the list with a relatively paltry $75 million, after the death of her father, Lang Hancock. Apart from the West Australian billionairess, whose estimated fortune rose from $10.3 billion to its current peak, most list veterans had a difficult year, with 104 losing money.