Born to an immigrant family of fruit and vegetable growers, Menegazzo was said to be an intensely private person who rarely gave media interviews.
In 1987, after a Cape holiday, Menegazzo moved his interests to beef and purchased several cattle stations, including Van Rook, Glen Ore and Warren Vale.
Partner in the Nebo Consortium (with Jack Cowin, founder of Hungry Jack's, and Queensland grazier Peter Hughes), Menegazzo became one of Australia's largest landholders, and the third-biggest cattle owner, with the $417.5 million plus debt sale, gaining 115,000 square kilometres (44,000 sq mi) and a herd of half a million cattle.
Eight months after the sale, the Nebo group split over the management of the properties, and Menegazzo bought out the remaining half for a rumoured $340 million.
Around 2:30 on the afternoon of 2 December 2005, Menegazzo, his wife Angela, pilot Anthony Gobel, and co-pilot Derek Mostyn were killed when the 23-year-old twin engine Piper Chieftain Rego VH-PYN they were flying on, crashed.