Maxx was walking on Bridge street Friday last week - Sydney's version of Wall Street NYC, and named so because it was the location of the first bridge over the Tank Stream.
The stream once divided the working class area of The Rocks from the grand sandstone buildings of the government in the east.
It was on the east side and up the hill that I crossed paths with three generations of a powerful and exceptionally wealthy family. Remaining inconspicuous was not their plan, with a private security entourage leading, surrounding and trailing the family, heading towards Govenor Phillip Tower.
A man stopped at the lights of Elizabeth street had some knowledge he was clearly eager to share. He was well dressed but unkept, whispy black hair with drandruff on the shoulders of his dark blue suit - a well estabilished lawyer type, successful and noticibly eccentric.
He said, "you know who they are?"
Maxx shrugged.
"Old money," the man replied. "Schiffer family, from Germany. People like that don't make a trip to Sydney without good reason."
I learnt that Great-Grandfather Schiffer made the family's fortune in copper and railroads then set up mining interests on the family's vast land holdings.
With Europe stuggling to keep whole nations in the black, let alone generate good returns for people like the Schiffers, money must find safety in hard assets like manufacturing and natural resources.
So old money is heading to the antipodes and the safety of Australia's natural resourses, because China and Africa are too politically and financially risky, and it's easier for the Schiffer's to say 'hello' than 'ni-hao.'
