Carrickalinga eyesore on Gold Coast Drive reduced to rubble

Demolition crews have flattened a notorious unfinished house on SA’s Fleurieu Peninsula – see the photos and video.

An unfinished house – which has blighted one of South Australia’s premier holiday towns for years – has been reduced to rubble.

Demolition crews today flattened and scrapped a notorious esplanade property at 9 Gold Coast Drive, Carrickalinga, once owned by embattled businessman and publican Stephen Marks.

The demolition – filmed by interested neighbours and bystanders – comes three months after Bendigo and Adelaide Bank forcibly sold the building.

A bulldozer demolishes the home at 9 Gold Coast Drive.

It is understood the bank took control of the property in March 2019 after Mr Marks’ company New Wave Seafoods had failed to meet mortgage repayments.

The decaying property was bought by an Adelaide woman, who The Advertiser understands paid $1.55m in February.

Yankalilla Council said no redevelopment plans have been lodged for the property, which commands sweeping sea and coastal views.

A digger tears through the front of the unfinished house at 9 Gold Coast Drive, Carrickalinga.

It took just a few hours for the building to come tumbling down.

It took demolition crews a morning to scrap the two-storey property which had been at the centre of a protracted legal battle between Mr Marks and the council over development approvals.

The house had remained unfinished since the council issued Mr Marks with a stop-work order in 2015 after complaints the house was being built taller than approved.

In 2019 the council had also threatened to sell the house over unpaid rates.

Mr Marks was former manager of the Marina St Vincent at Wirrina Cove. But he and his company New Wave Aerospace were evicted last year for breaching the head lease with the State Government.

Former property owner Stephen Marks. AAP Image/Russell Millard

The company was also the subject of a class action by 75 berth owners who unsuccessfully sued for $706,000 in damages after the District Court ruled the company had wrongly used marina funds to prop up related companies.

Mr Marks liquidated the company in August, one business day before a damages ruling effectively blocking boaties’ attempt for compensation.

Mr Marks is refurbishing the Callington Hotel.

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