Cardboard heir Anthony Pratt has leapfrogged gaming tycoon James Packer to become Australia’s second richest person.

Gina Rinehart keeps the top spot on the Forbes Australia Rich List, with the iron ore queen’s fortune climbing by a cool $804 million, or four per cent, to $20.3 billion in 2013.

Australia now has a record 30 billionaires, according to Forbes, when their fortunes are expressed in Australian dollar terms.

Pratt, who inherited the Visy packaging business from his late father Richard Pratt in 2009, was the biggest climber, leaping from seventh to second position as his family fortune grew by 36 per cent.

Pratt and his two sisters’ net worth surged by $2.9 billion to $8 billion, as Visy expanded its packaging footprint across Southeast Asia.

Cardboard heir Anthony Pratt is now Australia’s second-richest person.

Fellow Asia-focused business leader James Packer’s wealth grew by nine per cent, or $689 million, to $7.58 billion. He remained at three on the list.

The Crown Resorts chairman is pushing to build new casino resorts in Australia, Macau, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

Media and mining equipment mogul Kerry Stokes was among those to fall down the list of Australia’s top 50, with his estimated worth of $1.8 billion dropping him from 13th to 16th place.

The 73-year-old Seven West Media chairman lost an estimated 20 per cent of his fortune as demand for Caterpillar trucks tanked.

Westfield’s 83-year-old co-founder Frank Lowy, with a net worth of $5.3 billion, dropped from fourth to sixth place.

Fortescue Metals Group founder Andrew Forrest kept fifth spot with a $5.7 billion fortune.

Glencore Xstrata chief executive Ivan Glasenberg took fourth place with wealth of $7.2 billion.

Mining magnate turned federal MP Clive Palmer just scraped into the list at 50th place, but his $632 million fortune marked a 40 per cent drop from a year earlier.