Marina St Vincent berth holders accuse Infrastructure and Transport Department of leaving them vulnerable to abuse

Angry boat owners are pushing for an investigation into State Government oversight of a troubled country marina.

Trevor Gadd and Gregory Schulz, at the Marina St Vincent, want an investigation into the Infrastructure and Transport Department’s oversight of the marina. Picture: Renato Castello

Angry boat owners have accused the State Government of leaving them vulnerable to finance abuse and want a probe into its oversight of the troubled Marina St Vincent.

The Wirrina Cove marina berth holders also claim the Infrastructure and Transport Department allowed the marina to fall into disrepair, failed to act on their concerns about management of the 210-berth facility and was complicit in their “exploitation”.

But the department has defended its conduct.

In a stinging critique, they have written to SA Best MLC Frank Pangallo asking for his help to investigate DIT for its “longstanding questionable” administration of the publicly-owned marina.

The plea comes after the conclusion of a four-year class action by 75 berthowners against the former manager and head leasee New Wave Aerospace who the District Court found had failed to maintain the marina, had overcharged boaties by $1.79m and used $658,166 of marina funds to prop up companies of which director Stephen Marks had a direct or indirect interest.

The berth holdes had sought $650,000 in damages but their compensation was denied after Mr Marks put his company into voluntary liquidation one business day before a crucial court hearing.

Stephen Marks was found to not be a “witness of truth” during a hearing into allegations his company misappropriated berth owner fees. Picture: Tait Schmaal

The court has ordered him to pay $217,000 to the berth owners’ for court expenses.

In their letter to Mr Pangallo, berth holders Trevor Gadd, Sally Wiadrowski, Angus Forbes and Greg Schulz want a review of DIT’s supervision of the head lease.

“Despite our many attempts to bring matters regarding Mr Marks/NWA’s poor business practices to DIT’s attention we believe they were either not taken seriously or put in the ‘too hard basket’,” they write in the 13-page letter, a copy supplied to The Advertiser.

“As no help was forthcoming berth holders had to resort to bringing Mr Marks/NWA to account through a costly and protracted legal action in order to prove he was in default of the headlease.

“Any real supervision of the marina or an application of the head lease would have revealed issues of noncompliance, saving a group of private berth owners almost $500K in court fees and associated costs.”

They say it appeared there had never been a “serious inspection” of the marina’s condition and “assert” that DIT’s “poor supervision” of NWA left berth holders open to “financial abuse”.

The Marina St Vincent, Wirrina Cove

They also note that NWA liquidator Hugh Martin’s preliminary investigations determined that NWA may have been trading insolvent from as early as July 2016.

“And DIT saw none of this coming?” they say.

“There seems something seriously wrong when a government department such as DIT allows a state asset such as Wirrina marina to be subject to such neglect and wrongdoings.

“The marina should be a showcase for South Australians, not a monument to the incompetence and failure of a government department.”

NWA, which took over the marina in 2014, is the fifth operator to go broke since the marina opened in 1993.

DIT terminated NWA head lease in November 2019 and evicted Mr Marks and NWA - following court appeals - in April 2020 for failure to pay a dredging bill in breach of the headlease.

A DIT spokesman said the government is “continuing to undertake all its responsibilities as property owner diligently and in accordance with all legal requirements”.

He said the government was considering its options for future management of the marina.

Mr Pangallo is on parliament’s budget and finance committee and said he was considering the submission from the berth holders.

But described state of the marina a “disgrace” and that Infrastructure Minister Corey Wingard needed to fix the matter urgently.