Kangaroo Island shack at the centre of controversial Paladin government contract
On an unsealed road on Kangaroo Island sits the unassuming beach shack at the centre of the controversial $423 million Paladin government contract on Manus Island. We paid a visit.
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This is the beach shack at the centre of a controversial $423 million government contract.
About a kilometre down an unsealed road sits what has become known as the headquarters of Paladin — the little-known company that was awarded a $423 million Manus Island security contract.
The Department of Home Affairs has come under fire for the contract. Paladin has since changed the address of its headquarters to an office in Canberra.
When The Advertiser visited the beach shack on Wednesday — a 10-minute drive from the Kangaroo Island airport — it was easy to see why question marks were raised over the suitability of the company to undertake the multimillion-dollar contract.
The property is at 134 Nepean Esplanade, at Western Cove, Kangaroo Island.
Property records show the shack was transferred to the ownership of Only Sunshine Pty Ltd for $0 on September 17 last year. It is valued at $245,000. Company records show the directors of Only Sunshine Pty Ltd are Ian Duncan Stewart and Talei Anne Stewart.
Mr Stewart runs Paladin with business partner Craig Thrupp. When The Advertiser visited a CBD office address for Only Sunshine this week, requests for comment were declined.
A Google Maps search will direct you to the wrong KI shack.
The property in question is not the single-storey rectangle place with the Combi van on bricks out the front.
A local tells us that property belongs to ‘Ron’, who is none too pleased his place has been associated with this story.
Ron is not home when The Advertiser visits.
The property in question is further east down the unsealed road.
It is a cream-rendered, double-story property best described as a beach shack from the 1980s.
The front yard boasts a couple of local melaleuca trees that are coping well in the sandy soil and salty windblown conditions.
But the introduced iris are struggling beside a crushed blue metal driveway and what looks to be a half-started vegetable garden constructed using metal poles and chicken wire.
The backyard includes a silver shed adorned with solar panels.
Below the home — where there is space for two cars to park — is full of building materials.
A tradesman is doing some concreting out the back.
He knows why The Advertiser is interested in the property.
But he says he knows nothing about the owners of the property — he is subcontracting to another builder.
The tradie does say work has been going on at the property since before Christmas.
Wooden steps that lead to a veranda overlooking a bay have been recently tiled.
A well-worn sign hanging off some coat hooks reads ‘Welcome to our Beach House’.
For a global company with security expertise there are very few measures to keep intruders away.
The front door includes a postcode lock not unlike those found on many short-term rental properties.
The property is clearly being renovated.
It is the type of property a home renovation show might describe as a “doer-upper”.
But the company that has now put the property on the map is still a mystery to the locals that live in the small township, about 15 minutes from the island’s largest town of Kingscote.
One camera-shy local, who did not want to be named, recalls being in the house before and thought the owner was a good bloke.
But that was as much as he was going to say.
He did, however, welcome the scrutiny, suggesting despite living in a beautiful part of the world that he would prefer be kept secret, the beachside location seemed far from the most appropriate place to be headquarters for a global company securing multimillion-dollar contracts.