Accountant Lachlan McIntosh has long complex history with Couran Cove on South Stradbroke Island

A man at the centre of a dispute, which culminated in hundreds of Couran Cove residents losing basic services, is an accountant with a long and complex history with the troubled island. So who is Lachlan McIntosh?

A man at the centre of a years-long dispute, which culminated in hundreds of Couran Cove residents losing basic services, is an accountant with a long history with the troubled island.

Brisbane-born Lachlan McIntosh is a director of 25 companies, six of which own 94 South Stradbroke properties on the Gold Coast.

A drawn-out court saga over hefty body corporate debts this month revealed Mr McIntosh’s directorships give him effective control of the Couran Cove Island Resort Community Body Corporate (CBC) and its finances.

Those finances are at the centre of a stoush which has seen hundreds of residents lose power, water and gas, with dozens recently forced to leave.

The relationship between Mr McIntosh, 58, and the island goes at least as far back as 2015, when wealthy Gold Coast investor Glenn Molloy bought control of Couran Cove Resort from Craig Dowling.

The buy was made through Island Resorts Group, jointly directed by Mr Molloy and Mr McIntosh.

Glenn Molloy.

Lachlan McIntosh.

Less than a year later, ASX-listed retirement village operator Eureka Group Holdings - Mr McIntosh was a former chairman and director at the time - announced its purchase of the resort, spruiking a $100m revamp which never eventuated.

By 2017, Eureka Group – still with Mr McIntosh on its board – was acting to reduce its interests in Couran Cove. ASX documents show those interests included 29 cabins and a web of loans and options worth almost $6m.

The group abandoned plans to acquire the management rights, and sold much of its interests to another ASX-listed company, Onterran. Mr McIntosh was the Onterran executive chairman.

In 2019, Onterran went into administration with $40m in debts and, in February 2020, it was delisted from the ASX.

The Onterran administrator was appointed on the same day Sydney group EDG Capital, headed by Simon Napoli, announced it had agreed to buy the bulk of Onterran’s assets at Couran Cove in a $17 million-plus deal.

Simon Napoli

Companies directed by Mr Napoli, Island Resorts (Infrastructure) and Island Resorts (Facilities and Equipment), wrote to Couran Cove residents warning they would be cut off from essential services earlier this month.

The sale deal with EDG Capital took in all the resort’s infrastructure, including restaurant and other buildings, 200 serviced lots, lagoon-front villa land, and a parcel on the point at the entrance to the resort.

It also included leasehold land home to a surf club and Sunset Beach bar.

Onterran was a parent company of Bloomer Constructions, which went into administration with debts of $14 million to 600 creditors in 2017.

Former construction boss Wayne Bloomer is a former director of Island Resorts (Developments), a subsidiary of Onterran, currently directed by Mr McIntosh and owns six properties on the island.

A photo of Couran Cove in 2011.

Onterran is not the only company to fall into administration with Mr McIntosh as a director.

Onterran subsidiary CCH Developments No 1, which owns seven Couran Cove properties, has been in external administration since 2016.

South Stradbroke Island is also an important part of to Mr McIntosh’s portfolio of disability services companies, including Wellness Australia Group, Better Living in South Stradbroke, Honeybee Properties and Bliss Island Life.

He’s also director of similarly-named companies Better Living Australia Group and Liberating Lives.

Companies directed by Mr McIntosh own seven properties at Esk which are also used for disability services.

Couran Cove resort.

Mr McIntosh has made a career in corporate advisory services, and is director of KMQ Insolvency and Capital 22, businesses which were rolled into global firm FTI Consulting in 2012.

During his role as senior executive at FTI, ASIC records show Mr McIntosh took the call from Clive Palmer in 2016 when the billionaire sought to place his Queensland Nickel companies into administration.