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The infighting that has engulfed the self-made billionaire Fox family, according to one longtime friend of one of Melbourne’s wealthiest and most philanthropic families, is akin to the 1980s soap opera Dallas.
The drama was full of supreme wealth, and the ruthless, swaggering Ewing clan of Texan oil tycoons. And lots of family fights, the grist of soap families and real life families as well.
Andrew Fox (left)and Peter Fox (right) remain in the shadow of their father Lindsay. Michael Howard
“It was just like Dallas,” says the friend about the Foxes, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss patriarch Lindsay Fox’s announcement this week that his eldest son, Peter, would not be returning from a sabbatical to resume his duties as executive chairman of Linfox, a role he has held since 1995.
The decision, agreed to by family members weeks ago, was framed by some as a victory in a long power struggle for younger brother Andrew, who runs the property division.
“Andrew is JR Ewing,” the family friend continued, in reference to the soap’s dashing protagonist. “He has the charisma, he has the charm, and he has been able to outmanoeuvre his brother, who is quite reserved and conservative.”
While the Ewings and their famed Southfork ranch might have had a big impact on 1980s culture, they were entirely fictitious. The impact of the Fox family with its family wealth of $5.7 billion and massive compounds in Toorak and Portsea, complete with its own helipad, is all too real.
The famous Fox compound in Portsea.Eddie Jim
The Linfox conglomerate, meanwhile, employs 24,000 staff, runs a 5000-strong “You are passing another Fox” fleet of trucks, owns Avalon Airport, the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, cash transport business Armaguard and half of the Essendon Fields development.
“Is there tension between Peter and Andrew? Absolutely,” said one senior Melbourne business executive with a strong understanding of the family and the business.
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“Has it been occurring for many years? Absolutely.”
But until now, largely confined to Melbourne’s moneyed class. At week’s end, family patriarch Lindsay Fox and wife Paula were dining out in Paris, having timed the announcement of the Linfox corporate reorganisation for their departure for the European summer.
Peter Fox, whose family are upset by his portrayal in the press, according to the family friend, was said to be in Spain on business for the company’s cash transport business, Armaguard, the chairmanship of which he retains.
Andrew, who runs the property division, is set to join his parents aboard their luxurious $US60 million superyacht, Volpini 2, moored in the French resort town of Antibes.
Paula Fox spoke to this masthead to decry media reports in the Herald Sun that her husband no longer had the mental acuity to make business decisions. The couple married in 1959 and have five living children and 17 grandchildren.
“He might forget little things, but Lindsay went to work the other day and negotiated a deal for $100 million. How could they say that?” Paula Fox asked.
Fox family matriarch Paula Fox.Wayne Taylor
The remarks provide an astonishing insight into tensions within one of Australia’s richest, most influential, private and philanthropic families.
She said the decision to restructure was made by the entire family. “This was a family decision. It is not just Andrew and David,” Paula said.
“Peter retires next year, and we need to be looking for a new chair. It is so important – our business is so big.”
A senior Melbourne business executive, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, added that any suggestion that Lindsay, who previously has had serious health episodes, had dementia was “just unfair and wrong”.
Lindsay Fox flagged embarking “on a new governance model, beginning with the appointment of independent chairs for operational businesses”. Those operational businesses include the Linfox Property Group, which owns the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit and half of the Essendon Field development, run by Andrew, and Linfox Airports, run by younger brother David, also known as Froggy, after his father playfully threw him into the swimming pool one day.
It was David, and younger sister Katrina, who is involved in the family philanthropy division, who in 1991 discovered the body of their brother Michael, who took his own life when he was 23 after the breakdown of his marriage. Sister Lisa, who was the cultural ambassador for the Australia Now program in France in 2021 to 2022, is not involved directly in the business.
In recent times, Peter and Andrew have rarely had any personal contact after a dispute between them at the Portsea compound about two years ago. A rare exception occurred in May last year, when Peter did attend – for a period – his younger brother’s lavish men-only (a Fox family tradition) 60th birthday party.
The affair was a mix of sporting greats (Greg Norman), actors (Eric Bana), business executives (Luke Sayers, an adviser to the family, who in turn invested in his advisory firm Sayers) and politicians (former premier Daniel Andrews).
Andrews was another source of friction between the brothers. Andrew Fox, like his father, liked to keep politicians close and voiced his support with Andrews – as well as bestowing his friendship. In contrast, Peter was a vocal lockdown critic, and infamously fled the state during the pandemic and moved his family to the Gold Coast after persuading the Queensland government he was a truck driver, which entitled him to enter the state.
Lindsay Fox with Daniel Andrews at the site of the Paula Fox Melanoma and Cancer Centre in Melbourne in mid-2022.Luis Enrique Ascui
Some liken the different views of Andrew and Peter as akin to the rival families of the Montagues and the Capulets in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Peter Fox, older, more reserved, behind the scenes. Acknowledged as doing a good job with the company cash cow – the logistics business, although some ex-staff question his direct management methods.
Andrew is more charismatic, is known to quote Mark Twain, is more dashing and jet set, and uses aphorisms such as “an assassin never tells his target who he is going to hit” or “the harder you work the luckier you get” which could have come from his father.
Part of Andrew’s portfolio is Essendon Fields, which was purchased with Melbourne property developer Max Beck for $22 million at the turn of the century with a 99-year lease. The asset is now worth billions and Andrew Fox is quick to foreground his involvement in the deal.
Essendon Fields also houses one of the company’s headquarters and was the site of the rainbow lanyard incident, which caused great disruption among staff and executives.
As part of a company inclusion initiative, inclusive pride lanyards were distributed to employees at the company’s Essendon Fields headquarters. Peter asked at least one worker to remove it.
The incident led to unhappiness among executives and staff and occurred late last year, shortly before Peter Fox went on sabbatical.
Linfox’s Peter Fox with father Lindsay in Brisbane in May 2025.Dan Peled
“Lindsay was pissed right off – hence the reason Peter was stood down,” says a former executive who contacted this masthead, speaking anonymously to discuss internal matters.
Linfox declined to comment on questions about the incident, and Peter Fox did not respond to texts requesting an interview.
“I am not anti-anything, mate,” Peter said in January in an interview with The Australian Financial Review, which first reported the incident. He added he was due back at work in April.
While the planned Linfox reorganisation is yet to play out, Lindsay Fox is still sole determiner of final capital allocation decisions.
“He controls everything,” the prominent Melbourne businessman said.
“You are running a big property or logistics business and have to go cap in hand to daddy.”
“None of them have been able to get on and do their own thing. They are both in their 60s. It just becomes painful.”
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Stephen Brook is a special correspondent for The Age and CBD columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously deputy editor of The Sunday Age. He is a former media editor of The Australian and spent six years in London working for The Guardian.Connect via X or email.From our partners