Paul Fayman
Pinkus ben Shmuel Ze'ev, known professionally as Paul Fayman, was a Polish-born Australian entrepreneur. Based in Melbourne, he played a notable role in the city's post-war urban development. A holocaust survivor, Fayman honed his skills in the post-war German wholesale markets before marrying and moving to Australia. He is best known for his work in the Melbourne property market, and was the so-called "financial expert" behind property group Hanover Holdings – which built shopping centres, housing estates and city buildings between 1969 and 1979. He later founded Austram Corporation, which took over the First Artists film studio. Fayman died in 1985 and his fortune was inherited by his descendants, who operate the Fayman International Group of Companies.
Early life and Education
Paul Fayman was born in Pilica, a small village in east-central Poland, and was raised in the nearby industrial city of Sosnowiec. His father, Shmuel, was a livestock trader and his mother, Leja, looked after their 11 children. The family were observed Orthodox Jewish customs and were active in the local religious community – Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner described Fayman's upbringing as being "very Jewish". By the late 1930s, antisemitism and political instability had begun to affect Jewish communities across Europe. Fayman discussed his experience with journalist John Sorrel in 1969:"Then the Nazis marched through. We were Jewish, and in 1942 they split us up and carted us off to various concentration camps... I managed to survive the camps, mainly by good luck. I ended up being liberated from Buchenwald by the Americans. I spent the next year or so as a refugee tramping through Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland looking for my family, but I couldn't find anyone."Fayman eventually got word that his younger sister, Cesia had settled in Germany. "I found her. That was one of the happiest days of my life" he recalled. They reconnected, and Paul moved into a nearby unit in Neuhausen. Reflecting on that period, he stated: "For a long time I didn't know what to do. I had somehow lost the urge to work. Then I got a break. The Americans were selling some disposal goods from their post exchanges – chocolates, soap and other items. I became a wholesaler." His unofficial business was conducted through Germany's thriving post-war grey market, where post exchange goods deemed excess or obsolete by the military were sold or bartered informally.
His customer base included local Germans seeking Western products, fellow Jewish displaced persons who had access to hard currency or American relatives, and small shopkeepers looking to stock rare or in-demand items. During this period, Fayman became increasingly interested in Yiddish-language films. In a biographical interview, he claimed to have financed a film similiar to the locally-produced Long is the Road (1948), – except his was not shown because it supposedly got him into "political hot water" with the German government. Fayman married his wife, Fela, in 1946 and they had two children. After the Berlin Blockade began in 1948, his sister Cesia emigrated to Australia, fearing another European war. Paul initially planned to immigrate to the United States, having completed his paperwork and packed his belongings.
However, after speaking with his sister on phone, he changed his mind. As he later recalled: "When I rang Cesia in Melbourne she was so upset at the thought of the two remaining members of the family splitting this way that I decided, on the spot, to make Australia my new home too." Paul, his wife and their two young children left the Port of Genoa in December 1951 and spent several weeks aboard the TSS Maunganui, arriving at Melbourne in January 1952. He immigrated as Pinkus Fayman, but was known professionally in Australia as Paul Fayman. Arriving with "a bit of money" and limited understanding of English, he bought a house in the city's inner-north and began seeking opportunities to acquire a small business.
Fayman accumulated significant wealth through ventures in the wholesale meat and poultry industry, entering the trade via a private partnership with butchers Max Siegel and Sam Unglick. The syndicate wholesaled kosher meat under the supervision of the Melbourne Beth Din and maintained strong ties to Melbourne’s Orthodox Jewish community. Beginning with a single store in Carlton, the business expanded rapidly, growing into a network of 30 outlets across the city by 1955, each operating under a different name. Fayman later recalled working “sixteen hours a day, six days a week” during this period. The rapid expansion attracted the attention of the Prices Control Branch, which began investigating the chain in late 1953 for suspected breaches of consumer law. In a widely publicised case, Siegel and Fayman were charged and fined for systematically overcharging customers.
Cesia's husband, Shayek, was a prominent table tennis player who partnered with Fayman on some of his earliest ventures in the country. In mid-1952, they jointly acquired a prominent corner site in Coburg. Known as the Rennie Service Station, it was leased to popular mechanic Frank Twigg.
Shortly before the 1956 Summer Olympics, Fayman partnered with Stan Fayman and Mark Nowak to acquire a joint share in a private company called Esplanade Freeholdings, which owned and operated the prominent Esplanade Hotel at St Kilda. At the time, it was regarded as was one of the largest resort hotels in Victoria. The directors had hoped for late-night trading approvals, but their expectations were unmet. Furthermore, the local council and licensing court rejected their proposed £1500 expansion of the hotel, which had been designed by notable architect J. Wallinga and would have seen the addition of a continental-style garden dining-room. "Unfortunately, a large block booking was cancelled, which, coupled with other problems, gave us a hard struggle which lasted two years" Paul recalled. He gave up the hotel, and, pooling funds with four partners, bought a controlling interest worth about $310,000 in Wright Bros; an old-established chain of delicatessens which had branches at Elizabeth Street and in suburbs like Collingwood, Malvern and Prahran. Fayman assumed the role of chairman, bringing with him prominent lawyers Maurice Slonim, Leon Velik, Joseph Emanuel.
After taking control of the company, Fayman assumed the role of Chairman and helped strategically expand its scope of operations by leading a program to diversify, creating subsidiaries that invested in property development, retail, electronics and produce wholesaling. "With self-service upon us, I realised were too small. So we sold them off at quite a nice profit" he later recalled.
The Wright Bros. Development company was established in July 1958, and focused on shopping centres and residential subdivisions in Melbourne's burgeoning outer suburbs. Many of these employed a mixed-use strategy that integrated residential, commercial, and sometimes industrial components within a single master-planned estate. Fayman noted the ease of property sales during that era, stating: "In those days it was so easy, you could sell off a map, you didn't even need to make roads." Between 1955 and 1959, he bought over poultry farm at Canterbury Road, Forest Hill. Fayman envisioned a large mixed-use development for the site, incorporating a large American-style shopping centre – which was a concept largely new to Victoria. First announced in mid-1957 as a joint venture with Walter McLaughlan and a private consortium of investors, the development experienced significant delays and was re-announced under a mostly-new partnership between the companies of Fayman, Raymond Borg and Stanley Korman.
The centre began construction in late 1959, around the same time Fayman and a separate consortium began planning to build several highly-modern licensed pubs and motels in Melbourne's booming outer-suburbs. Land was designated for a pub at Fayman's Forest Hill development, and an attempt was made to establish a similar venue at his Borrack Square shopping centre in Altona North. However, applications for a liquor license were vetoed by the local and state government on the grounds of possible interference with the welfare of the surrounding community. One proposal from this era that did proceed was the Hotel Monash at Clayton, which was said to be the first Hotel/Motel in metropolitan Melbourne. The mid-century modern complex opened in 1963 alongside 90 residential blocks and industrial sites.
In January 1960, as planning and development was progressing at both Forest Hill and Clayton, Fayman became a director of Gippsland Acceptance Ltd alongside his lawyer associates Maurice Slonim, Joseph Emanuel, and Leon Velik. The nine-year-old public company was experiencing record growth at the time, having recently diversified from its hire-purchase finance operations into the retail and property markets through the acquisition of Danstons, a home furnishing and building organisation. Profits continued to increase until late 1960, when it was revealed that the company's liabilities appeared to exceed six times shareholder's funds. The liquidity crisis left shareholders increasingly dissatisfied with the company, and its accounts were thoroughly criticised by the press. A "stormy" March 1961 shareholder meeting finally addressed the issue: an agreement was formed for the release of new shares in a bid to avoid liquidation. As share prices continued to slip, Fayman resigned from the board of directors due to "ill health". A scheme of arrangement for Gippsland Acceptance was approved the following day. The company recorded a loss of £404,000 for the financial year ending 30 June 1961.
Fayman ultimately prevailed through the credit squeeze, largely thanks to his shareholding in the Toppa ice cream company. Several of his associates fell on hard times. Raymond Borg and Stanley Korman, partners in Fayman's Forest Hill project, both declared bankruptcy and later faced charges for fraudulent activities. As a result, planning and construction at Forest Hill was effectively abandoned until 1964, when development restarted under a partnership with Maurice Alter and George Herscu. Following its successful grand opening and sustained popularity, Fayman formally partnered up with Alter and Herscu, consolidating their interests as the Masaga Group. The business primarily developed large-format retail stores and supermarkets as well as housing estates and industrial land.
Airport contracts
In 1966, the Australian Minister for Civil Aviation announced that Paul Fayman, along with Leon Velik, Joseph Emanuel and Irvin Rockman, had partnered with the Petersville Corporation to establish a company called Aerojet Caterers, which was let an initial ten-year contract for all catering services within the soon-to-be opened Tullamarine Airport at Melbourne. Aerojet was granted over $750,000 to equip and fit-out the cocktail, dining and buffet lounges of the terminal. Their iconic Top Air restaurant, which regularly hosted celebrities and prominent politicians, quickly became a popular destination. It was considered to be among Melbourne's leading restaurants at the time, with an elevated view above the world's first purpose-built Airport city. Aerojet was formally dissolved in 1995 following deregulation and Supreme Court litigation.Fayman was also a director of an affiliate company called Astrojet Exhibitions, which in 1967 obtained the lease of a large vacant space adjacent to the future airport site and released plans to build an aviation-themed entertainment complex. This eventuated as the, which opened in August 1970 with a 300-seat cinema, an observation deck, shops, cafes and aviation exhibits with a guided-tour service. A severe rainstorm in 1974 destroyed most of the Space Centre's exhibits, though the cinema itself remained intact and continued normal operation until mid‑1978, when the airport doubled the independent cinema's rental rates. The site was later repurposed by Ansett Airlines as a training and office complex for cabin‑crew and ground‑staff until Ansett's collapse in September 2001. The facility finally emptied in 2002, and after decades of neglect and decay, was demolished in 2023 to make way for the airport's next phase of expansion.
Hanover Holdings
In 1969, the Masaga Group orchestrated the takeover of a publicly listed hire-purchase company, which was transformed to create Hanover Holdings Limited — a diversified property and investment conglomerate. The acquisition, effectively a reverse listing, enabled the trio to bring their private commercial interests onto the ASX without undergoing a traditional initial public offering. Hanover quickly rose to prominence as one of the most dynamic and controversial property groups of the era, capitalising on the post-war population boom and surging demand for residential and commercial development.Under Fayman's joint leadership, Hanover undertook large-scale property ventures across metropolitan Melbourne, regional Victoria, and interstate—spanning New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, and eventually the United States. The company's portfolio included office towers, suburban housing estates, and regional shopping centres, many of which were developed through a web of subsidiaries and joint ventures. Despite its early successes, Hanover's financial performance began to decline in the mid-1970s. In 1976, Fayman, Alter, and Herscu initiated a buyback of Hanover's shares and took the company private, a move that provoked backlash from minority shareholders and drew scrutiny over corporate governance standards. Following the privatisation, the partners divided Hanover's assets among themselves, with each integrating parts of the former group into their respective business empires.
One of Fayman's most ambitious inner-city projects was Centrepoint Mall on Bourke Street in Melbourne's central business district. Undertaken as a joint venture with Maurice Alter, the mall opened in 1979 and received a mixed public reception. The development aimed to revitalise a prominent block of under-utilised buildings and brought together fashion retailers, specialty stores, and dining outlets under one roof. Fayman also owned the adjoining Leviathan Building. His estate sold these sites three years after his death, fetching over $74.2 million. The joint sale marked the largest single property deal in the Melbourne market since the 1987 stock market crash.
Mascot Industries (Austram Corporation)
In late 1980, a company representing Paul Fayman and his family launched a successful takeover of Mascot Industries, a New South Wales–based meat processing business. Following the acquisition, Fayman, his son William Fayman, and his nephew Marvin Fayman joined the company's six-man board. Mascot was soon effectively merged with Protean Holdings, a wholesale and processing group in which the Fayman family held a 20% stake. As part of this restructuring, Mascot divested its major subsidiaries—including abattoirs and businesses in tallow, meat meal, fertilisers, tennis strings, and smallgoods—to Protean for $7.89 million, receiving shares and debenture stock in return. Protean subsequently increased its stake in Mascot to approximately 80%, gaining full control.In 1981, Protean became embroiled in public controversy after two Victorian Liberal MPs, Maurice Williams and Don Saltmarsh, alleged—under parliamentary privilege—that the company had ties to organised crime in Las Vegas, suggesting that its meat exports could serve as a front for drug smuggling. Although no evidence was produced, the claims sparked a media storm. Further scrutiny followed when one of Protean's subsidiaries was reported to have exported cartons containing horse and kangaroo meat. The negative press, compounded by sector-wide challenges and rising interest rates, led to severe financial losses. Protean posted a $1.5 million deficit in 1981 and, the following year, a suspicious fire destroyed its recently renovated Brooklyn abattoir, causing over $13 million in damages. With operating losses surpassing $7 million, the company was placed into receivership in late 1982.
While Protean collapsed under a mounting debt, Mascot Industries pursued diversification, particularly in the entertainment sector. In 1981, the Faymans acquired a majority stake in First Artists, a Hollywood production company originally founded by Barbra Streisand, Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier, and Steve McQueen. Though the venture produced several films, it eventually faltered due to creative disputes and weak scripts, leading to the Faymans selling their shares to LA investor Sam Schulman. In 1983, Mascot rebranded as Austram Corporation, reflecting its expansion into diverse sectors including film, plastics, chemicals, fashion, bowling alleys, and property development in Australia and the United States. In 1984, Austram launched an ambitious $66 million partial takeover bid for whitegoods manufacturer Email Limited, acquiring a 7.1% stake and proposing to purchase a controlling interest, citing confidence in Email's post-restructuring recovery and long-term growth potential.
Later life and legacy
After achieving financial success through various investments into the growing post-war property market, Paul and his family started looking for a more permanent place to live. They chose a block at Balmoral Court in the upmarket suburb of St Kilda East. Around 1959, Fayman commissioned architect John Wallinga to plan a new house for his family. Wallinga designed a striking mid‑century modernist residence with expansive entertaining areas, which later became a regular venue for meetings with political and business associates. In March 1970, it was the scene of a nationally publicised burglary when serial offender John Harvey Rider allegedly stole around $15,000 in cash and jewellery on the eve of the Fayman family's departure for holiday. Although Fayman's lifestyle was generally more restrained than that of peers, such as long-time business partner George Herscu, he was known to host high‑profile social functions and once imported a 1966 Pontiac GTO from the United States.Outside of his business and communal commitments, Fayman developed an interest in horse racing, and co‑owned several thoroughbreds with fellow developer Eddie Kornhauser. He was also a member of the Victorian Racing Club, the Victoria Amateur Turf Club and the Mooney Valley Racing Club. He frequently travelled to the United States to conduct property and retail ventures, and was a periodic attendee at International Council of Shopping Centres conferences during the 1950s and 60s. Fayman granted only 1 in-depth biographical interview, conducted by journalist John Sorell at the Fayman family home in 1969, during his company's ultimately unsuccessful takeover bid for the retail group London Stores. Towards the end of his life, Paul lived at the luxurious-for-the-time Clarendon building overlooking Fitzroy Gardens, which he developed in 1982/83 with law firm owner Sam Kliger.
Fayman was associated with what journalist Ruth Ostrow called the "New Boy Network"—a cohort of largely migrant entrepreneurs, including many Holocaust survivors and Jewish businessmen, who helped transform corporate Australia in the post-war era. Often operating outside the traditional Anglo establishment, they forged new pathways to wealth in industries such as property development, retail, and finance. Fayman always preferred joint ventures, particularly with other members of the flourishing local Jewish community. During his more than 30 years in Australia, he undertook ventures with–or had business dealings with–many prominent figures in post-war corporate Australia, most notably Maurice Alter, George Herscu, Stanley Korman, Eddie Kornhauser, Arnold Bloch, and Chaim Liberman. Reflecting on their long professional association, solicitor Leon Velik described Fayman as "a brilliant financial mind", noting, "he was also a bit of a dealer... he would swiftly sell and move onto the next deal." Fayman told John Sorrell: "I believe that anyone who works with me should share in any prosperity. I work them hard, but I pay them well. I'm an easy going man, I tackle any job, I thoroughly enjoy being a good businessman."
Several of Fayman's business associates were later implicated in high-profile cases of fraud and corruption. Notably, George Herscu was convicted of bribing Norm Gallagher, the then–federal secretary of the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF), in exchange for favourable industrial outcomes. Another associate, Raymond Borg, fled overseas and changed his name after government inspectors accused him of falsifying financial records and generating "fictitious profits" to inflate company value. While Fayman himself largely avoided direct legal scrutiny, his business practices drew criticism, particularly after he was publicly named as a major beneficiary of an elaborate tax avoidance scheme. The operation—centred on the falsification of corporate returns using fabricated names and addresses—was estimated to have defrauded the Australian Government of more than $200 million, equivalent to approximately $1.2 billion in 2024.
Fayman was a well-known supporter and donor of the Victorian Labor Party, and maintained close relationships with several influential figures within the party. Cultivating close ties with key Labor politicians including Sam Cohen, Irvin Rockman, Ted Innes, and Alwynne Rowlands, he was also connected to associates of Prime Ministers Gough Whitlam and Bob Hawke. One such associate, Leon Velik, played a behind-the-scenes role in Whitlam's election as leader of the Australian Labor Party in 1967. Fayman's political engagement reflected a broader trend among his business peers—many of whom, especially Eddie Kornhauser, George Herscu, and Maurice Alter, also maintained strong affiliations with the Labor Party. Fayman also had many connections within the greater Jewish community and maintained friendships with Rabbi Chaim Gutnick & Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner. Fayman was a committed supporter of Israel and an active donor to a wide range of Jewish causes. In Melbourne, he contributed to institutions including Beth Rivkah College, Yeshivah College, Elwood Talmud Torah Hebrew Congregation, Mount Scopus Memorial College, the United Jewish Education Board, and the Montefiore Homes for Jewish Aged. He also supported national and international initiatives, such as Magen David Adom, the United Israel Appeal, the WIZO State Council of Victoria, and the Samuel Herbert Cohen Memorial Fund. In 1963, Fayman contributed funding towards the construction of the 13-storey Jabotinsky Centre and National Museum in Tel Aviv.
Since surviving the European concentration camps, Paul Fayman experienced recurring health issues that occasionally disrupted his work. In the lead-up to his death, he had undergone coronary artery bypass surgery and was known to enjoy a morning cognac, suggesting he was not in ideal health. Fayman died unexpectedly on 7 April 1985, at the age of 63—on the Second Day of Passover —just hours before he was scheduled to fly out for a meeting with Guinness executives to finalise a very important business deal. He is buried alongside his wife at the Chevra Kadisha Cemetery in Springvale. His business interests were passed on to his family members, who continue to manage the Fayman International Group of Companies—which is primarily engaged in produce wholesaling and biochemical production. In his memory, the Paul Fayman Memorial Scholarship was established at Yeshivah–Beth Rivkah Colleges to "give the opportunity to children of families who would otherwise be unable to financially provide them with a Jewish education". Rabbi Groner said in 1987: "Mr. Fayman appreciated the importance of a Jewish education, particularly in countries such as Australia and felt the necessity to imbue our youth with the true principles of our faith."