Legal and financial headaches for Dunk Island’s owner cast a shadow over redevelopment plans

It was supposed to be part of an ambitious $1.6 billion tourism redevelopment scheme, but now there are growing doubts over whether cyclone-ravaged Dunk Island will be brought back as a premier resort destination.

WILL cyclone-ravaged Dunk Island finally get the much-needed dose of TLC to bring it back as a premier resort destination?

There are growing doubts about whether this will happen any time soon despite a whole lot of hoopla late last year.

James Mawhinney and his Mayfair 101 investment group made a big splash in September when they announced the $31.5 million deal to acquire the island from Peter Bond, the founder and boss of failed Linc Energy.

They claimed it was part of a broader and wildly ambitious $1.6 billion scheme over the next 10 to 15 years to turn the region, including adjacent Mission Beach, into a tourism mecca.

Mayfair 101 founder James Mawhinney at Mission Beach

But since then Mayfair has found itself in a world of hurt, battling a fund trustee and the corporate cop in complex legal struggles.

The trustee of the group’s flagship $80 million IPO Wealth Fund appointed a receiver to the entity last month over concerns about missed payments and investment issues. The receiver now want to be appointed as liquidator.

ASIC has also flagged concerns about Mayfair’s oversight of the fund.

The regulator sued Mayfair in April, alleging that it had made false, misleading or deceptive claims that two of its debenture products were as safe as bank term deposits.

Mawhinney has fought back in court, with Mayfair denying problems with the fund’s operations or that investors may have been misled.

He is also urging his investors to help him in an effort to have the IPO receiver removed.

This week he even took the unusual step of appointing Brisbane-based administrators over IPO Wealth Holdings Pty Ltd (trading as Mayfair 101 Holdings), claiming the move was intended to protect investors and keep assets intact.

Barry Wight, Daryl Kirk and Rachel Burdett, from advisory outfit Cor Cordis, have taken on the job.

The trio said in a statement they were tapped “as a result of concerns held by him (Mawhinney) on the solvency of the company and his view of a risk of a fire sale of assets by the receiver … that could affect investor positions”.

Mawhinney now hopes to schedule a meeting of investors to vote on a proposal to restore monthly distributions and allow redemptions.

As for the Dunk Island scheme, he maintains it continues to be a high priority and “an investment of national importance”. The one-time tropical oasis remains closed, stagnating in mothballs since it was obliterated by Cyclone Yasi in 2011.

STRESS RELIEF

Ever fancy taking a bat and giving an old TV a mighty therapeutic whack?

How about grabbing a crowbar and demolishing a stack of plates?

Tempted to vent a bit of fury at an ex by destroying some dated wedding gifts with a sledge hammer?

All of this is now possible at Brisbane’s first so-called “smash room”, a joint called Rage Cage in Highgate Hill.

Entrepreneur Matt Pendragon, who describes himself as a “destruction services provider,’ launched the venue in a former nursery after spying the concept in a TV drama.

“It was just kind of an inspiration thing,’’ Pendragon told us yesterday.

“I had this unused facility and I’d already been a part of the axe throwing at West End and done paintball and laser skirmish with my daughter.

“So we put together a couple of cages and a heap of stuff to smash and we just started putting out posts and people started turning up.’’

Clients, who pay $45 for a half-hour solo session, are kitted up in protective gear and then given a few weapons and a milk crate full of plates, saucers, cups and the like.

They can also bring their own objects to annihilate and, afterwards, buy a video of themselves going nuts.

Microwaves have proved surprisingly popular and, rather oddly, so too are garden gnomes. “They obliterate really nicely,’’ Pendragon noted.