Island crisis: Brampton Island Resort tipped for change
It was once one of Queensland’s most desired holiday destinations but for 10 years Brampton Island Resort has been left to rot. Now new laws could bring it back to its heyday.
Mackay
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The ruins of an island resort just a short boat ride from mainland Mackay has been an infuriating thorn in the region’s side – and adding insult to injury is a decade of broken promises.
Brampton Island Resort was a jewel in Queensland’s tourism crown until the two brothers behind United Petroleum bought it in 2010 for $5.9 million, under the entity Brampton Island Enterprises.
They shut it down in January, 2011 and in the same year lodged a development application for a luxury seven star resort that would have reduced guest numbers from 210 to 35.
It was a vision that never came to fruition.
But now, more than a decade later, recommendations handed down in an inquiry into the management of Great Barrier Reef islands, could force the brothers to either come through on their pledges, or relinquish their lease on the island.
WHERE IT ALL WENT WRONG
Mackay Regional Council Mayor Greg Williamson has for years publicly blasted Avi Silver and Eddie Hirsch, the co-founders of United Petroleum, for promising to build the new resort and then doing nothing.
Once making for a picture-perfect postcard and tourism brochure, the Brampton Island resort has since fallen into abandoned decay complete with graffiti, a corroded tramway – once a popular tourist attraction, an oceanside pool filled with sand, debris and lifted bricks, and unmaintained walking tracks that “were largely built by Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service”.
Its deplorable condition even prompted former QPWS ranger Elmer Ten-Haken to call for its demolishment as he claimed reviving the resort was commercially unviable.
Whitsunday MP Amanda Camm, in her submission to the inquiry, stated “there (was) no way anyone” would have allowed Brampton to fall into “disarray” if it had been on the mainland.
Herself a former MRC councillor, she further criticised the latest resort development approval extension.
“There should have been a trigger to say (to BIE), ‘Why haven’t you commenced? What are the challenges? Why should we give you another six years?’ … I think it is in the interest of all stakeholders that council and state government agencies have a tool to review that approval extension,” Ms Camm stated.
‘NO OTHER ALTERNATIVE’
MRC Mayor Greg Williamson said he had been anticipating the inquiry report to guide what power they could wield as a council.
He revealed to this publication that not he, nor anyone at Mackay Regional Council, had personally met the owners of United Petroleum in the 12 years they had owned the leases on Brampton Island through their real estate outfit, Brampton Island Enterprises.
“There’s been a couple of renewals of the development approval from council’s perspective because we had no other alternative,” Mr Williamson said.
“We’ve now passed 10 years of no action.
“I’m speaking from a personal perspective here but I think we would (now) have grounds to refuse any further extensions of that development approval.”
That approval will lapse on July 8 this year.
The inquiry’s report states BIE has three leases on Brampton Island which encompass the resort, the resort accommodation area, part of the airstrip and a 50-year lease over the rock pool.
It further stated BIE had discussed with the state government in mid-2016 to amend the boundaries of its lease to include the whole airstrip before it proceeded “with any further major investment”.
“The development would still require further approvals for operational works, tidal works, building and plumbing permits to support development,” the report states.
“The net result is that the development has not progressed.”
In 2017, Brampton Island was listed on the market, with the development approval used to sweeten the sale.
But United Petroleum held onto the land, with Ms Camm claiming the company was land banking.
REVIVAL COSTS WOULD BE ‘ASTRONOMICAL’
In its submission to the inquiry, MRC argued the rent amounts island lessees paid were “not of a high enough value to disincentive land banking”.
However Mr Williamson said land banking could not apply to BIE’s hold over Brampton Island.
“It can’t be land banking for the value of Brampton has just got to have plummeted (since 2011),” he said.
“The cost to rejuvenate the island as a tourist resort would be astronomical.”
In echoing the council’s submission to the inquiry, Mr Williamson was interested in how the UP brothers could be incentivised to follow through on redeveloping the resort.
“We don’t want to lose the tourism lease,” he said, adding any discussions between involved players required sensitivity.
“If they (Brampton Island Enterprises) ask for another extension, that’s our opportunity to actually bring them to their table.”
RECOMMENDATIONS TO FORCE THE BROTHERS’ HANDS
The report made 18 recommendations, many of which could sway the future of Brampton Island.
The first is that the Department of Resources “should take immediate action to cancel tourism leases” where an audit “within the last three years” determines there has been noncompliance with lease conditions.
Non-compliance also triggers Recommendation 2, where “local government(s) should not approve or renew development applications”.
The report reveals DOR audited Brampton Island in May, 2022, to see if the owners had complied with conditions “relating to environmental duty of care and pollution and contamination”.
It states the audit was still being assessed with findings to inform any compliance or remediation actions, with Recommendations 4, 5, and 6 addressing legislative reform that would “provide appropriate enforcement tools” like penalties and fines “suitably proportionate to the gravity of the damage”.
If the lease is cancelled, Recommendation 3 comes into play:
“For cancelled tourism leases, consultations should commence with local residents and stakeholders around new expression of interest processes for remediation and rejuvenation of existing tourism infrastructure, activities authorised under current development approvals, and/or alternative land uses.”
PUTTING THE MONEY WHERE THE MOUTH IS
Other recommendations discuss re-evaluating the value of GBR island tourism leases; rent amounts; what are “equitable” rates paid to councils; how disputes are resolved; and how legislation reform could ensure head lessees provided and maintained common infrastructure like jetties and airstrips.
Island lessees may also have to put up a bond before developments are approved to ensure they happen in an “approved time frame” and they could also have to demonstrate they are capable of removing or repairing damaged infrastructure after disasters.
Finally, the Minister is recommended to “establish a full-service (one-stop shop) provider to co-ordinate all necessary approvals, permits and licences required to develop and operate a tourism lease on GBR island resorts”.
The United Petroleum Group operates more than 450 fuel stations across Australia, according to its own July 2022 report.
But unlike information available about its fuel investments, there is virtually zero information to be found about Brampton Island Enterprises – the frustration of non-transparency echoed for many privately-owned GBR island leases.
In fact, the inquiry report did not once mention Brampton Island Enterprises, and the committee did not receive a submission from the company.
United Petroleum has been contacted for comment.
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