JWM Contracting goes under owing $4 million to creditors

A major Queensland civil construction company that had worked as a contractor on the Wellcamp Airport and Kingsford Smith Drive upgrade has gone to the wall owing creditors almost $3m.

A major Queensland civil construction company that had worked on the Wellcamp Airport and Kingsford Smith Drive upgrade has gone to the wall owing creditors almost $4m.

Administrators have been appointed to Toowoomba-based JWM Contracting after the firm racked up million of dollars in trading losses in the past two years.

JWM Contracting was founded in 2014 by Jason Mott, who had helped the firm win major contracts across southeast Queensland including civil drainage works for the Wellcamp Airport near Toowoomba and the installation of screw piles for the widening of Kingsford Smith Drive in Brisbane. An associated company of JWM Contracting called Mottley Crew Investments, also has been placed into administration.

Building strife

SV Partners director Anne Meagher, who has been appointed administrator of the company, said in a report to creditors that Mr Mott had blamed the failure of the business on a customer terminating a contract. “In addition, there were increasing liabilities that were unable to be satisfied … and a number of creditors had issued statutory demands,” Ms Meagher told creditors.

She said she had stopped the company from continuing to trade because it was not viable to complete projects already underway.

The company had about 20 full and part-time staff who had been stood down. JWM had received financial assistance from the Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority in March last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. JWM owes trade creditors about $2.56m and the Australian Taxation Office about $725,000.

According to the company’s website, Mr Mott had grown up on a remote rural property where repairs and maintenance had to be done without outside assistance, a background that had helped him develop skills for his business.

Comment has been sought from Mr Mott and Ms Meagher.

FULL FLIGHT

John Wagner and his brothers are helping to supercharge Queensland’s exports as we emerge from the Covid-19 doldrums. The family’s Wellcamp Airport just west of Toowoomba has just dispatched one its biggest ever cargoes, a fully-loaded Cathay Pacific 747-8F packed with local beef, pork, dairy and mangoes bound for Hong Kong. The 92.5 tonne load even included an aircraft engine. The uptick in exports from Wellcamp comes as a new report by Infrastructure Partnerships Australia detailed the hardship faced by exporters and importers due to the dramatic decrease in international flying during the pandemic. Although more than 730,000 tonnes of goods were carried by airfreight in 2020, the equivalent of 15 fully loaded Boeing 747 freighters leaving and arriving in Australia every day, volumes were down by almost a third on the previous year.

The cargo ready for loading at Wellcamp Airport. Picture Instagram @wagner_corporation

PAM’S LAST STAND

Pam Betts is hanging up her spurs after more than 40 years as one of the most influential educators in the state. Betts has been executive director of Brisbane Catholic Education for the last nine years, making her ultimately responsible for 146 Catholic schools, more than 12,500 staff and more than 75,000 students in an area stretching from the Gold Coast north to Hervey Bay and west to Kingaroy and Gatton. That will end 42 years in Catholic education for Betts, a former teacher at the likes of St Mary’s College, Ipswich, and All Hallows’. The Betts family has been well-known in Brisbane for many years. Pam’s late father Neil “Tiny” Betts was a Wallaby prop, Queensland captain and Queensland Rugby Union life member. He played in the Wallaby front row with his great mate Nev Cottrell. Pam recalls the story that her father and Nev grew up in tough times and once shared a pair of footy boots as junior players for St Laurence’s College - one would wear them in the first half and the other in the second half.