Last week the private aged care group Arcare announced it will grow its number of beds from 2,600 across 27 care facilities to 4,000 within two years. Comparing this with Japara and Estia’s stock exchange listing, Arcare will be valued north of $700 million. This will be the second fortune made by brothers John, Russell and Graham Knowles and Ian Ball.

Their first fortune was sealed in 2007 when they sold their retirement village business, Australian Retirement Communities – ARC - for $329 million to Stockland. At the time it was the largest private retirement village operator with 17 villages with 2,850 units, a business they commenced in 1969 when they built the Frankston Baptist Centre.

The Knowles and Ian Ball remain close to the growth of the village operator Retirement Communities Australia (RCA) led by Andrew Phillip, who was employed by them at ARC.