Couran Cove: Inside story of exclusive Gold Coast resort’s troubled years

The sad state of the once-exclusive Couran Cove resort is again on show for the world to see. This is the inside story of what went wrong.

THE sad state of the once-exclusive Couran Cove resort is again on show for the world to see.

Residents of the South Stradbroke enclave this week went public with concerns about the “dilapidated” state of their home, highlighting collapsed and broken boardwalks as well as large piles of debris.

They have called on the Gold Coast City Council to upgrade the precinct, despite it being private land.

Aerial view of the Couran Cove Island Resort.

It’s a far cry from the bright future it was predicted to have 25 years ago when construction began in early 1997.

The resort was unveiled in 1996 by champion runner and future Gold Coast mayor Ron Clarke who envisaged it becoming the crown jewel of the city and a “high-water mark of eco-tourism’’.

Couran Cove today. Picture Mike Batterham

The $70m project was to be a 151ha resort including a 4ha harbour, 6ha lagoon on the Broadwater and a surf club on a 2km ocean frontage.

Under the original plan, Couran Cove would be home to more than 1500 permanent residents.

Despite opposition from green groups, construction began unimpeded in 1997 and the resort opened in 1998.

Its state-of-the-art athletics training facility was christened by US Olympics sprinting legend Carl Lewis.

Couran Cove resort in its early days.

It was an immediate hit and drew in sporting stars and celebrities as guests.

For 13 years, it appeared that Mr Clarke’s vision for the island would come true.

But the wheels came off in January 2011 when things started to go wrong, starting with resort bosses having to send hundreds of its guests to the mainland after its gas supplies ran low.

General manager Scott Hayden told the Bulletin at the time: “We could not run out of gas and have them sitting in the dark on the weekend. Hopefully we will be able to get gas on Monday.’’

Couran Cove Resort was once considered a world-class location.

Couran Cove closed its doors just five months later, when liquidators were appointed amid revelations its owner, American philanthropist Chuck Feeney, had lost almost $283m on it since its 1998 opening.

Mr Feeney’s company, InterPacific Group, announced it was putting the resort up for sale after a `”sustained period of low occupancy” and years of operating at a “considerable loss’”.

Staff were immediately laid off, with the downturn of the global financial crisis blamed for bringing the resort’s fate to a head.

Families at the island in its early 2000s heyday.

Its exclusivity was blamed for its demise, with leading tourism industry figures claiming it cost too much and kept locals out.

Tourism consultant Mike Jones, who has managed Gold Coast hotels and island resorts, said people had been turned off Couran Cove by the approach of the operators.

Photo gallery: What Couran Cove Island Resort looks like today

``Local boaties could not tie up there and were turned away as day trippers,’’ he said.

Amid attempts to sell it, the resort was identified as an ideal location for the Gold Coast’s first official nude beach by one of Australia’s leading nudist advocates - Runaway Bay’s Les Rootsey.

The idea failed to gain support.

The broken boardwalk. Picture Mike Batterham

Couran Cove finally sold for $10m to Brisbane-based businessman Craig Dowling in October 2012, nearly 18 months after its closure.

A major revamp was proposed and there were high hopes of a return to the resort’s heyday, particularly in 2013 when the international Ramada brand was signed on.

But this too proved short-lived, with Ramada exiting the resort within two years and retirement provider Eureka moving in to take control and promising a $100m revamp which also failed to take off.

Debris at the resort. Picture Mike Batterham

This latest false dawn also lasted just two years before Eureka walked away in 2018 after failing to get the expected returns from the project.

It sold Couran Cove to EDG capital for $17m.

A year later, tests by Gold Coast Health and the Gold Coast City Council in late 2019 found a “high level of iron and arsenic is right on the line” at the Couran Cove water treatment plant and recommended the resort implement a water risk management plan.

Subsequent investigations found the water safe to drink.

Trouble continued into 2020 when a power supplier threatened to cut the electricity, water and sewerage to more than 350 units at the resort unless $5.5m in debts were paid to two ­infrastructure companies.

More than a decade after the original gas crisis, many of Couran Cove’s eco cabins were left without gas for more than two months after the supply was turned off over safety concerns.

Couran Cove’s founder, Mr Clarke, did not live to see its downward spiral resolved. He died in mid-2015, many years after selling out his interest in the project and retiring from politics.

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Originally published as Couran Cove: Inside story of exclusive Gold Coast resort’s troubled years