Couran Cove residents defy evacuation orders to remain on South Stradbroke Island

A group of 30 residents of a much maligned community on one of the islands on the front line as Cyclone Alfred approaches are defying evacuation warnings and staying put. Now, they’ve been hit with shock legal demands.

Residents staying put at a troubled Queensland island resort to ride out Cyclone Alfred say they’ve been hit with shock legal demands as they prepare for the monster storm.

About 30 residents of Couran Cove on South Stradbroke Island are defying evacuation warnings, remaining in their homes as Alfred bears down on the South East.

The once luxurious eco-resort has been without power, water and sewerage services for about two years amid a bitter body corporate dispute, forcing locals who chose to remain to live off-grid.

Some say they were hit with court papers demanding payment of special levies as they prepped for the cyclone on Tuesday and a Gold Coast City Council barge arrived to evacuate those who wanted to leave ahead of Alfred’s arrival.

Couran Cove resident Ernie Johnson with the legal papers he received.

Residents said the papers were served by former Couran Cove body corporate official turned process server Darren Philp, who they said arrived by boat to the island with resort owner, Sydney businessman Simon Napoli.

Mr Philp controversially swigged from a beer during a heated body corporate meeting in 2023 when angry residents demanded his resignation.

One resident, Ernie Johnson, said he and his wife Barbara were hit with a letter of demand for almost $18,000 in levies claimed to be owed to one of four receiver-controlled Couran Cove body corporates as part of a court-enforced $24m debt.

Couran Cove residents. Picture: Nigel Hallett

“Philip had a folder with a whole bunch of demands,” Mr Johnson said.

“He knew that there was a barge coming over to collect people off the island. He seemed to be hanging around the barge landing area looking for people.

“He lobbed one demand on an 86-year-old resident who’s been one of the main protagonists (in the body corporate battle). Meanwhile, we’re all running around trying to move materials and protect our properties (from the cyclone).

“He walked up to my wife … and said ‘here you are, this one’s for you’. He walked up to me as I was loading tarps onto a (golf) buggy and said the same thing and then drove off looking for the next person.

“I struggle to find words to describe why someone like that, on the cusp of the biggest storm we’ll ever have, has got all the time in the world to deliver these things and picks now.”

Mr Johnson said one of the intended recipients of the letters was suffering from prostate cancer.

He said residents were mounting a legal challenge to the $24m debt, denying they owed it and claiming that Mr Napoli and his associates were responsible for 95 per cent of the outstanding levies.

A spokesman for Mr Napoli said went to the island to deliver supplies to resort staff and was not involved in handing out letters of demand.

In a statement, Mr Philip told The Courier-Mail he was a commercial agent who had been engaged by lawyers acting for receiver-controlled bodies corporate “to facilitate the service of magistrates court documents to four residents on the island”.

“The residents I served were not being evacuated,” he said.

Mr Johnson, who has lived at Couran Cove for three years and was a former body corporate chairman, said he decided to stay put on the island during the cyclone because he “took a very active role” in the Couran Cove community.

He said the main concern was not a threatened tidal surge but falling trees.

“I lived through Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu (in 2015) and that was gusting up to 325km/h and it totally devastated the island,” he said.

“We’re nowhere near that (with Alfred) but there are predicted winds of up to 150km/h and I know what can happen with leaves and branches – they’re like bullets hitting the properties.”

Originally published as Couran Cove residents defy evacuation orders to remain on South Stradbroke Island