Revamped resort into receivership

The Great Barrier Reef's Fitzroy Island has placed its freshly revamped resort into receivership just five months after it opened...

The £48 million Hunt Resort, on Fitzroy Island in the Great Barrier Reef, was placed in the hands of receivers Ferrier Hodgson and administrators McLeod and Partners last week.

The ABC reported that the resort's owner, Joshua Hunt bought the resort from adventure tourism operator Raging Thunder for £8 million in 2006.

Raging Thunder claims that Hunt still owes £6 million to them, while reportedly also owing £24 million to BankWest.

Fitzroy Island, with its famed Nudey Beach, was previously known as a favourite destination for backpackers and budget travellers.

Since purchasing the resort, Hunt had taken the location upmarket, creating what he called a "mini-Hamilton Island" able to accommodate 450 people in a variety of hotels, suites and one- and two-bedroom apartments.

The resort had received its fair share of publicity since opening, hosting the contestants of reality TV series The Biggest Loser and offering 500 victims of the Victorian bushfires a week's free holiday.

In a further blow to the venture, the resort's generators broke down last Tuesday, forcing the evacuation of all guests. In a statement, Ferrier Hodgson said it would take the opportunity in the absence of guests to finishing outstanding infrastructure work on the island.

The work is estimated to take about one month and the resort will remain closed during this time. Guests who have booked and paid for accommodation during this period will be relocated to nearby Green Island, the statement said.

The problems at Fitzroy Island came as the Tourism and Transport Forum, an industry lobby group, warned that up to 29,000 jobs could be lost in the tourism sector due to the global recession.

It predicted that more remote areas, such as northern Queensland and central Australia, would be worst hit.

Source: www.theage.com.au