Clive Palmer is an Australian politician and businessman. He is the owner of the mining company Mineralogy and the eccentric billionaire who wants to build Titanic II ship and Jurassic park. He is known to be opinionated, bombastic, impetuous, a little naive, a man obsessed with publicity but some kind deeply sensitive to criticism.
Clive Palmer is one very intriguing character.
Who is Clive Palmer
Clive Frederick Palmer was born on March 26, 1954 in Victoria at Footscray Hospital in the family of George and Nancy Palmer. Till 1963 they used to live at working-class Williamstown, a heavily industrialized Melbourne bay-side suburb, after that they moved to Gold Coast due to Clive’s asthma.
Clive attended University of Queensland but didn’t graduated at his major – law. There he meets his first wife – Susan. They are married for 22 years and have two children – a 24 year-old son Michael and a daughter Emily aged 19. Susan dies from cancer in 2006.
Since 2007 Clive Palmer is married to Bulgarian-born Anna who is 20 years younger than him. In 2008 their first child Marry was born . They expect a second one at the end of 2013.
Clive Palmer sleeps with breathing mask on, because he suffers from a rear disease sleep apnea.
Curios about him is despite the fact he is a billionaire, drives a Rolls-Royce Phantom, owns homes in Australia and abroad, two Bentleys, a Ferrari, boats, private jets, he still is seen with trousers from Lowes for the price of $23.
Clive Palmer’s Politics and Business career
Clive Palmer’s first businesses is in the real estate area where he makes a fortune in property development. He gets his license after he drops out of University of Queensland and he retires from that activity when his profit reached $40 million.
His current private company Mineralogy was founded in 1984. Mineralogy has 160 billion tonnes of iron ore reserves in the Pilbara Ranges, remote Western Australia.
Clive Palmer avoid the question for his wealth but he says that it exceeds the estimated $2.2 billion. He is also owner of Waratah Coal and Yabulu nickel refinery near Townsville, bought in 2008, and he owns a gas and oil concession off Papua New Guinea.
He became the world’s best boss for 2010 with his decision to hand out $10 million in gifts to his Townsville nickel refinery staff, he also gave 55 Mercedes-Benz cars and 700 overseas holidays
The eccentric billionaire had also a soccer team – Gold Coast United FC. He bought it in 2008 but the club was demised in 2012.
He owns the resorts Palmer Sea Reef Golf Course at Port Douglas, Palmer Coolum Resort on the Sunshine Coast, the former Club Med in Tahiti and Palmer Colonial Golf Course at Robina.
Clive’s career in the politics starts in 1974 when he joins the Queensland division of the National Party of Australia. Currently Clive Palmer is the leader of the party with motto “Bringing people together”.
Clive Palmer’s Titanic 2 ship project
One of the ambitious projects of the eccentric billionaire is to build a replica of the RMS Titanic. The name of the new Titanic ship will be Titanic II and it is expected to be launched in 2018, the maiden voyage is planned to be as the original one from Southampton, UK, to New York.
“Titanic 2 ship is the place where dreams will come true,” says Clive Palmer and truly believes that this is the “ship of love”
As usually he keeps in confidence the price for making a full-scale replica of RMS Titanic but the estimations show that it would be more than $US200 million.
The recreation of RMS Titanic in the new Titanic II is planned to be in China. The company Blue Star Line and Clive Palmer’s team will try to recreate the look, the luxury and the feel of the original Titanic. Some modern convenience will be added – air conditioner, casino, a theater, even Steam bath. It is not yet a decision, but Clive Palmer is against the idea of having Internet or TVs.
The Interest in Titanic II grows every day as the projects develops. The passengers will have the opportunity to buy ticket for first, second and third class. Clive Palmer has already decided that he will be in third class on the board of Titanic II for the six day voyage.
Romantic dream that might come true on Titanic II is the fact that the passengers may dress in 1912 style or pretend to be the stars in James Cameron’s movie Titanic Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.
Clive Palmer disagrees that the re-creating of RMS Titanic is a bad luck. He is convinced that the climate change play positive for the fate of Titanic II.
Palmer compares his project to the idea of the President Kennedy to go to the moon. For the Australian billionaire the recreation of the past is a form of leadership into the future.
Clive Palmer’s Jurassic Park project
The second ambitious plan of the Australian billionaire is to build animatronic dinosaurs park. Clive wanted the name of the park to be Jurassic park but due to copyright issues the official name will be “Palmer Coolum Resort: Dinosaur Park“.
The park will be on the grounds of his Sunshine Coast resort.
Already, there is an eight-meter tall T-Rex dinosaur named Jeff and a vintage car museum. Another 149 life-size dinosaur models are expected to join T-Rex.
The regional council of Sunshine Coast voted unanimously some restrictions for the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs’ roaring should not exceed 5 decibels above background noise levels. The models are with various height restriction of a maximum 6 meters, only Ruyangosaurus is allowed to be 10 meters tall.
The park will be open in 2014.
The life of Clive Palmer so far is even described in a book – Clive: The Story Of Clive Palmer
By Sean Parnell. There the author makes his conclusion on Clive Palmer:
“He sort of always created the impression that he was much bigger than what he is. It’s like the old story, ‘You’ve got to fake it before you make it.'”