Olympian Peter Montgomery owns golf course Kerri-Anne Kennerley is suing over husband’s fall
The owner of the golf resort being sued for negligence over the tragic fall of Kerri-Anne Kennerley’s husband from a veranda three years ago is a four-time Olympian and personal friend of the Kennerleys.
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The owner of the golf resort being sued for negligence over the tragic fall of Kerri-Anne Kennerley’s husband from a veranda three years ago is a four-time Olympian and personal friend of the Kennerleys.
Peter Montgomery represented Australia at water polo in four Olympic campaigns from 1972 to 1984 before serving as chairman of the Australian Olympic Committee Athletes’ Commission and vice-president of the AOC from 2001 until 2016.
He also was deputy chef de mission for the Australian Olympic team on four tours from 1996 to 2008.
The 69-year-old, who is also a successful lawyer in Rose Bay, owns a portfolio of prestigious real estate investments, the jewels of which are the Bonville Golf Resort outside Coffs Harbour — a par-72 championship course carved into rainforest, consistently voted by golf guides as one of the most beautiful golf courses on the Australian mainland — and the landmark Whale Beach restaurant Jonah’s.
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Bonville, owned by Mr Montgomery’s Ironhill Services, is now the subject of a Supreme Court lawsuit for unspecified damages, interest and costs filed in John Kennerley’s name five months before his death in February.
Mr Kennerley died three years after losing his footing on a ground-floor veranda of the Bonville clubhouse’s restaurant, Flooded Gums, on March 6, 2016.
According to the statement of claim, Mr Kennerley fell 57cm from a low veranda to the ground while posing for a photograph with his famous wife at, according to news reports, about 9pm.
Ironhill has denied the fall was its fault and said Mr Kennerley’s accident occurred after he “failed to look where he was walking, stepping into a garden bed (and) failing to take care not to step onto an object, prize, on the floor”.
Last week sources said the fall had tested the friendship of Ms Kennerley and Mr Montgomery. The Kennerleys had been his invited guests at Bonville when the accident occurred.
Photographs showing the couple enjoying Mr Montgomery’s hospitality at Jonah’s last year — two years after Mr Kennerley’s accident — indicate the three were on good terms despite the accident.
Mr Montgomery declined to comment on the lawsuit before the court.
John Eales, an ambassador of Bonville Golf Resort and one of many high-profile identities who count themselves a friend of Mr Montgomery, expressed the sentiments of many who hold the ex-Olympian in high regard.
“He’s a man of the highest integrity,” Mr Eales said.
Ms Kennerley, who sold interviews to current affairs show Sunday Night and The Australian Women’s Weekly in the aftermath of the accident to help pay for her husband’s treatment and care, is holidaying in Europe and could not be reached for comment last week.
The Daily Telegraph reported her saying the lawsuit was part of a long struggle with insurance companies.
Originally published as Olympian Peter Montgomery owns golf course Kerri-Anne Kennerley is suing over husband’s fall
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