Twice in the last 6 weeks, the wealth of Andrew Forrest, grand nephew of Western Australia's first Premier, Lord John Forrest, has increased by - wait for it - $1 billion - between breakfast and lunch as the shares in his company Fortescue Metal Group have continued their upward climb from an adjusted 72c a share to $7.20 a share in 18 months. That values FMG at $20.2 billion and Forrest owns nearly 40% of the shares.

This latest rise puts Forrest ahead in the wealth stakes of Jamie Packer who was Australia's wealthiest individual for a short period following his father Kerry's death on Boxing Day 2006.

With iron ore prices expected to increase by another 30% this year, and FMG planning to ship their first ore in May this year, you can expect the fortunes of West Australia's iron ore barons to continue to rise for a few years yet.

Recently Andrew Forrest gifted shares, worth $94 million at the time, to his favourite charity.

Lord John Forrest is best remembered for his work as Western Australia's first Premier where he instigated two very ambitious projects. The was the Fremantle Harbour Works, one of the few public works of the 1890s which is still in use today; and the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme, one of the greatest engineering feats of its time, in which the Helena River was dammed and the water piped over 550 kilometres (330 miles) to Kalgoorlie.

In the family history of my family - the Tomlinson's - there is a great story about our brush with Lord Forrest. My Aunt Ruth tells the story: "Mum was singing at the Mill ( in Karridale ) one evening for the then Sir John Forrest, and he was so impressed he questioned if she and Dad owned land. When told not, he granted her a piece of land."

The land was Lot 968, Karridale ( Boranup ) and the family built their homestead "Forestdale".

Tomlinson Steel, now called RCR Tomlinson, is Western Australia's oldest public company and was founded by my great uncles as The Black Swan Foundry, running from Wellington to Murray Street in Perth. By co-incidence, my current office is in Wellington Street, Perth.

I am often asked "what happened to your part of the wealth??" Well, the Tomlinson's bred like rabbits, and my grandmother was the 13th of 14 children, and by that time, there wasn't too much of the family wealth left.

RCR Tomlinson still operates to this day.

So here ends this instalment of the history of the "Boy from Margaret River."