Boomtown is a six-part series made for the ABC by Electric Pictures.

Seven Perth entrepreneurs, Young, fashion designer Ruth Tarvydas, Nobel Laureate Barry Marshall, nightclub owner Bree Maddox, iiNet founder Michael Malone, car dealer John Hughes and renovator Sasha De Bretton were followed by the cameras for a year.

As CEO of iron ore producer BC Iron until May this year, the show follows Young to the Pilbara and Diggers & Dealers in Kalgoorlie, tracking the rapid growth of the company in a time of volatile iron ore prices.

The first episode sees Young address his critics over BC's decision to sell half its Nullagine project to Fortescue Metals Group.

Boomtown director Alison James said the series was about challenging the notion that Western Australians had become rich from the sheer luck of the state's resource riches.

"Perth is home to more self-made millionaires than any capital city in the world, but they're not all in mining," she said.

"The idea for this documentary series came from wanting to explore what it is about this place that makes it different from the rest of the country, and the rest of the world.

"I think Perth is home to people who have learned to constantly think outside the box - innovators who rely on their own skill sets to get things done; people who have turned their physical isolation into an advantage and now, through the connectedness of the internet, are thriving."

Boomtown will premiere on Sunday night at 6.30pm on ABC1.