It was 1997 and Narelle Bruhn was only one month away from her 21st birthday.
Working casually as a promotional model, she regularly attended corporate golf days to serve food and drinks to businessmen – but turning up on this day was different.
Unbeknown to her and the three other girls booked by the agency, they were about to hit the jackpot as golf caddies for Australia’s richest man, Kerry Packer.
At the end of three long days of golf, gambling and lavish wining and dining, the billionaire paid each of the women $75,000 – a collective sum of $300,000.
But for more than 20 years after the now mother-of-three kept her incredible pay day secret, only deciding to spill the beans to win a radio contest before sharing stories and photos from her night of partying with Daily Mail Australia.
Narelle Bruhn (pictured) has revealed how she was paid $75,000 by billionaire businessman Kerry Packer to serve him drinks and act as his golf caddy on the Gold Coast in 1997
Then just 20, Ms Bruhn (left) has told Daily Mail Australia her incredible story of how Mr Packer paid her and the other women $25,000 each – before gambling and winning another $50,000
The billionaire businessman owned casinos and media corporations, with his wealth peaking at a total of AUD$6.5billion in 2004
Ms Bruhn, now 40, won tickets to see popstar Ariana Grande after telling her story to Fitzy and Wippa on their Nova radio program on Monday morning.
But going into detail about the incredible event to Daily Mail Australia, she said their three days of work began with a trip to a golf course on the Gold Coast, Queensland.
At the time they had no idea who they would be caddying for, or that golfing legend Ian Baker-Finch would be their private golf coach.
‘We were booked for a promotional agency but didn’t know anything about the job,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘We were told we would be selling drinks to a high-profile client, but not told who it was and on the first day we were told to stay 100 metres back and only approach if they waved or called for a drink.
‘We were booked for three days in a row. On the first day, we weren’t waved over at all, so still didn’t know who it was, so we just sat 100 metres back and had fun.’
But by day three Mr Packer – who had an estimated worth of $6.5 billion – was nursing an injured knee, forcing him to ride with Ms Bruhn and the other women in the carts.
After spending the day laughing with each of them on the course at Beaudesert, Queensland, Mr Packer invited the girls to join him back at Jupiters Casino on the Gold Coast – an opportunity they jumped at.
‘He said, “You girls are really cool. Why don’t we go to the casino and we’ll see how much money we can earn for you?”,’ Ms Bruhn told Daily Mail Australia.
‘So he and the group jumped in the chopper and went to the casino, and here we are trying to drive as fast as we can to the casino as they flew ahead in a helicopter.
‘We eventually found them and he had booked the penthouse suite, so we had some food and drinks then he went down to the high rollers table and gambled a bit.’
After spending the day laughing with each of them on the course at Beaudesert, Mr Packer invited the girls to join him back at Jupiters Casino where they drank Dom Perignon (pictured)
After handing them their tax-free casino cheques each for $75,000, Mr Packer put the women up in a penthouse suite and let them party into the early hours of the morning while he slept
Now 40 and a mother-of-three, Ms Bruhn (pictured with her husband and family) told Daily Mail Australia the money had allowed her to buy a house and ultimately set her up for life
The 6th hole at Beaudesert Golf Course, where Ms Bruhn and three others caddied for Kerry Packer
After returning for dinner with some winnings, Mr Packer came good on his promise of making the women money, but only after asking each what they thought was an appropriate amount.
With the four writing on a napkin a figure they deemed adequate for their three days of caddying, figures ranged from $10,000 to Ms Bruhn jokingly penning ‘priceless’.
‘He gave us all a cheque for $25,000 at that stage and said: ‘You can walk away with 25,000 now and I’ll never see you again, or you can give it to me and I’ll gamble and you take it all’,’ Ms Bruhn said.
‘So we ate dinner, went back to the high-rollers, and waited anxiously for hours, but he wasn’t on a winning run – he just kept losing and losing.
‘But the tide eventually turned and we were there until 3am and then we all had to try and contain ourselves when he gave us our first cheque and another for $50,000.’
Always a fierce opponent of paying too much tax, Mr Packer told the women to get casino cheques so the $75,000 was dubbed winnings.
A notorious gambler, Mr Packer is reported to have paid multiple waitresses large tips over his time in casinos around the world
Ms Bruhn dubbed Mr Packer ‘the nicest man ever’, saying he never asked the women for anything in return
The picturesque Beaudesert Golf Club in Queensland – where Ms Bruhn caddied for Kerry Packer in 1997
After putting the girls up in a penthouse for the night, Mr Packer soon went off to bed and left them to party into the early hours with bottles of Dom Perignon champagne.
‘We were just jumping up and down on the bed. I was 20 and wanted to buy a house but didn’t think I’d ever get there – but after that night I ended up buying a house within the month,’ she said.
‘It was pretty amazing. The next day, when saying goodbye, we asked him if he had any advice.
‘He said, “I’m not going to give you any monetary advice but what I can say is this will never happen again in your life, so spend it wisely”.
‘I’ve got three kids now and I’m a stay-at-home mum. It set my whole life up, property prices went bonkers after so I’m totally grateful for it.’
Revealing the reason she kept her story a secret for so long was that most people she told suggested she had to do other acts to get the money, Ms Bruhn claimed Mr Packer would never have made them stoop so such levels.
‘Everyone asks, “What else did you have to do?” But I can honestly say Kerry Packer was the nicest man ever,’ she said.
‘I have the utmost respect for him. Seeing how people treated him, he was such an absolute gentleman.’
Among Mr Packer’s group was 1991 British Open winner and golfing legend Ian Baker-Finch (pictured), who was their private golf coach
Mr Packer’s only son James (left) inherited his billion dollar empire, including Crown casinos
Ms Bruhn’s story isn’t the first time the iconic Australian businessman has reportedly paid a waitress a mega tip.
In another similar instance he reportedly paid off the mortgage of a waitress at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
‘He liked the service the girl was providing. He asked if she had a mortgage,’ Mirage Resorts president Bobby Baldwin wrote in the Las Vegas Review Journal in 2005.
‘She said yes, and he said, “Bring it in tomorrow and I’ll pay it off for you”… It was for $150,000.’
It’s reported that during his many outings to casinos in the U.S. Packer paid at least $200,000 more to waitresses and staff with mortgages.
Mr Packer, the former owner of Channel Nine and founder of World Series Cricket, died in 2005 and had been married to wife Roslyn since 1963.
Mr Packer, the former owner of Channel Nine and founder of World Series Cricket, married his wife Roslyn (right) in 1963. He died in 2005.