Throb Nightclub: Hefty tax liability headlines doomed Darwin club’s alleged debts

Documents filed with the corporate regulator ASIC have revealed the scale of Throb Nightclub’s alleged debts as estimated by the company director – with a hefty tax liability topping the list.

Doomed Darwin nightclub Throb. Picture: File

Documents filed with the corporate regulator ASIC have revealed the scale of Throb Nightclub’s alleged debts as estimated by the company director – with a hefty tax liability topping the list.

Throb, founded in 2000 as Darwin’s first and only gay nightclub, ceased trading on September 6 last year, with Adelaide-based insolvency outfit Tarquin Koch appointed to liquidate the company’s assets on April 17 this year.

According to a report on company assets and property (ROCAP) filed by director Timothy Palmer, who founded and owned the club alongside partner Mark Marcelis and Mr Marcelis’ sister Karen Dunham, the nightclub’s liabilities were estimated to total $723,000.

This primarily consisted of an estimated $700,000 tax liability owed to the Australian Taxation Office, alongside $3000 in outstanding employee superannuation benefits, and $10,000 each to suppliers and government bodies such as ASIC or the City of Darwin.

According to the ROCAP, the company’s assets consist solely of a $7000 vehicle and plant and equipment worth an estimated $30,000.

Tarquin Koch is in the process of preparing its statutory report to creditors, which sets out the company’s financial affairs in more detail.

Mark Marcelis and Tim Palmer enjoying the 2019 Darwin Cup. Picture: GLENN CAMPBELL

Tarquin Koch senior manager James Robertson told this masthead the firm had recovered and sold by way of public auction all the company’s plant and equipment.

“A lot of it had no commercial value, any that had commercial value we have realised,” he said.

“There are no other assets out there we are aware of.

“Now we turn our mind to other investigations, unfair preferential payments, uncommercial transactions, insolvent trading, but we haven’t really commenced that at all.”

Mr Robertson said unsecured creditors such as the ATO were “unlikely” to see a dividend unless there emerged some “significant legal recovery that may be available to the liquidator”.

In circumstances where legal recovery action is an option, it is typically only pursued where it is commercial to do so, such as when directors have the assets to meet any possible court judgment.

The trio of directors were all contacted for comment via Tarquin Koch, while Mr Palmer was also contacted via social media.

The issues facing Throb Nightclub first came to light in August 2023, when Mr Palmer posted a video to social media claiming there was a leasing dispute with the landlord SOLIS Real Estate, a subsidiary of the Halikos Group (now known as DCOH).

DCOH’s Shane Dignan said the dispute related to an insurance claim stemming from water damage sustained to the building earlier in the year.

The 1 Edmund St building housing Throb, Meraki Greek Taverna and a cafe tenancy was slapped with an emergency order by Director of Building Control Mark Meldrum shortly afterwards, after a site inspection revealed “fire safety hazards, noncompliances and unauthorised building works including the removal of walls”.

Meraki has since relocated to the Austin Lane vacancy created by the closure of Little Miss Korea in the wake of a barbecue explosion.

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