Planning fallacy
The Sydney Opera House was expected to be completed in 1963. A scaled-down version opened in 1973, a decade later. The original cost was estimated at $7 million, but its delayed completion led to a cost of $102 million.
Joseph Wyatt (theatre owner)
Wyatt sold the Royal Victoria Theatre in 1854. He built a new theatre in Sydney, the Prince of Wales Theatre, on Castlereagh Street, at a cost of about £30,000. It had a dress circle, upper boxes and gallery, and was said to seat about 3,000. It opened on 12 March 1855. "It was soon apparent," wrote an obituarist, "that "two" theatres would "not" pay in Sydney... he was at length compelled to take the benefit of the Insolvent Act." He sold the theatre at a heavy loss in 1858.