By Lucy Carroll and Colin Kruger
More than 600 Australian families are owed a total of $7 million that is unlikely to be repaid after the collapse of a school excursion company that may have traded while insolvent for almost four years.
Actura Australia, an educational tour group that offered high school students “once in a lifetime” study tour trips to NASA headquarters and “ocean exploration” camps, went into liquidation in June.
In a scathing report, liquidators said the company may have engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct. This included accepting money from parents just weeks before its collapse.
Jacqui Jago has lost more than $3000 after booking a space camp trip for her daughter through Actura. Credit: Steven Siewert
The reports from Westburn Advisory confirm Actura owes an estimated $17 million to creditors, including $7 million to parents who booked trips for their children to attend international study trips.
About 100 schools nationally were affected by the collapse, with parents at Reddam House, Marist Sisters College Woolwich, The King’s School and The Forest High left thousands of dollars out of pocket.
Parents at Merici College and St Clare’s College in Canberra and Mentone Girls’ Secondary College and Firbank Grammar School in Melbourne were also affected.
Charles Chung, the director of failed school excursion company Actura.
The liquidator’s report, lodged with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, said Actura’s director Charles Chung may have engaged in multiple breaches of the Corporations Act that could see him banned from running companies.
It also found Chung may have misled parents by accepting their money when the company was on the verge of collapse and the overseas excursions were unlikely to go ahead. Breaches of Australian Consumer Law carry fines for individuals of up to $2.5 million.
The company offered two-week overseas study trips that promised to deliver “unforgettable” STEAM education, including tours of NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, and astronaut training that included simulated and “immersive space missions”. It also offered ocean school expeditions to the Great Barrier Reef.
Actura immediately cancelled all its international space and ocean camp school expeditions when the company went into liquidation.
Parents paid up to $12,000 for the trips. Those who transferred payments via direct deposit are unlikely to have their money returned, while families who paid via credit card could claim a chargeback for the payment.
Space camp organiser Actura Australia provided space and ocean camps for school students.Credit: SMH
Shumit Banerjee, the appointed liquidator, said his investigations “indicated the director should have been aware of the company’s poor financial position for an extended period of time”.
“At this stage the identifiable claims against the director are significant,” he said. Banerjee said he had received reports Actura was actively pursuing payments from parents in the weeks before it went into liquidation.
‘We deeply apologise’
When the company collapsed, Chung told schools Actura had “no financial resources to provide customer refunds. We deeply apologise for this very devastating outcome,” he said.
The company was set up in 2014 and ran a range of trips including CASE Space School, CASE Ocean School and CASE Film and Arts School expeditions.
The NSW Education Department said 10 students at The Forest High were affected by the company’s collapse and that “impacted families had been reimbursed by the department in full to ensure no one is out of pocket,” a spokesperson said.
Parent Jacqui Jago, whose daughter is in year 8 at Marist Sisters College, said she paid deposits to Actura of $3100 in April for a NASA space camp at the end of 2025.
But at the end of that month, the company emailed parents offering a 10 per cent discount for upfront payments. “As soon as they asked for the money upfront that was when alarm bells started ringing. For those extra payments I paid by credit just in case,” she said.
Jago said Actura had hosted an online information evening in March and the company asked for parents to pay deposits of $1000 within a few days.
A spokesperson from Sydney Catholic Schools said although the college “distributed a flyer to parents and hosted an information evening facilitated by Actura, it is important to note that the experience is not an excursion organised by Sydney Catholic Schools”.
Jago said her daughter was “extremely disappointed”. “I’m also disappointed in the school that they could have supported us more,” she said.
The King’s School, which had about 60 families affected by the company’s collapse, engaged lawyers to advise parents on options and the liquidation process. Reddam also retained lawyers to assist two dozen families who were out of pocket after booking space camps.
Merici College principal Anna Masters said the school offered “financial support to families who needed it via our normal channels”. “At no point were we in a position to refund money that was never paid to the college but to Actura,” she said.
Hiren Wong, a parent at King’s, said she paid about $12,000 upfront for her son to attend the space camp, but does not expect it to be recovered.
Who is Charles Chung?
Just a week after Actura’s collapse, Chung appointed a trustee to arrange a personal insolvency agreement with his creditors and offer them a better return than bankruptcy.
According to his controlling trustee, the Tax Office has made a claim the main creditors are Actura’s liquidators in Australia and New Zealand who have made insolvent trading claims totalling more than $17 million.
Chung’s trustee had only one significant asset to offer creditors – a half share of the mortgaged family home in West Pennant Hills, which was sold for $3.45 million last month. The trustee has also sold a golf membership he possessed.
Charles Chung’s house sold for $3.45 million.
Chung had been negotiating with an investor for funding this year, but was forced to wind up the company on Friday, June 14, when the money did not arrive ahead of scheduled expedition departures that month. The report says one of the biggest creditors is the Australian Tax Office, which is owed $623,000.
Before setting up Actura, Chung was the Australian boss of Taiwan-based computer giant Acer, but left that company in 2014 due to health concerns. He started Actura later that year.
Westburn Advisory said the company had started the overseas trips for students in 2015, but during the pandemic 600 families cancelled, equating to a liability of $5 million.
Before November 2020, Actura was accredited by the NSW Education Standards Authority as a provider for teacher professional development. Teachers could take Actura’s space school professional development courses and a “FlipRobot” course which put “robotic STEAM learning solution” in classrooms.
NESA said the group no longer met requirements to provide professional development when the accreditation was made more rigorous several years ago. NESA scrapped the accreditation process for thousands of training courses last month.
Banerjee said initial investigations indicate the company may have traded while insolvent since about July 1, 2020. Chung was approached for comment.
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