BRW's Young Rich List Image credit: BRW

Move over Nathan Tinkler. Australia has a new breed of billionaires. Enterprising geeks have quietly taken over the top spot of Australia's richest in Business Review Weekly Young Rich List . Coal magnate Nathan Tinkler is overshadowed by software engineers Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes in terms of net worth.

The combined worth of Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar in 2012 is $480 million while Tinkler's net worth $400 million. Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar are now the youngest billionaires in Australia.

The former college friends own software company Atlassian which quickly rose to the top to lead Australia's booming technology industry. Nathan Tinkler, the poster boy for the mining industry in Australia has been bumped off the top of the "young rich list" in Australia.

The technology boom is currently driven by biotech and start-up industries looking to make Australia as an exporter of ideas. The industries in a 10-year mineral boom is fighting bankruptcy while some are facing probes for plummeting shares like Newcrest Mining.

Internet entrepreneur Matt Barrie says Australia's dependence on mining seems like a primitive economy. The government wants to focus on technology and as part of its plans, millions of Australian dollars will be put in new venture capital funding. Part of the funds will also be used to conduct large-scale reviews of the technology sector.

National Broadband Network (NBN) plans to allocate $38 billion to provide high-speed Internet service to the 23 million-strong population.

According to Communications Minister Stephen Conroy says that as NBN continues to implement changes, many start-up companies particularly those in technology sectors will have more capacity to build game-changing businesses.

Start-ups on the rise

Even if the tech start-ups account for only 0.1 per cent of Australia's GDP and provides 9,500 jobs, digital and high tech start-up companies are on the rise. Based on data gathered by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), start-up companies will be responsible for 540,000 jobs and 4 per cent of GDP in Australia by 2033.

The spotlight is on Farquhar and Cannon-Brookes as Atlassian is slated to be part of Nasdaq within 2014. Accel Partners, a US venture capital firm, saw the potential of Atlassian and invested $60 million last 2010.