Lake Bennett Resort dispute sparked by ‘pumpkin seed misunderstanding’: Reynolds

The long running legal saga that resulted in the mothballing of the Lake Bennett Resort due to public health concerns all started with a misunderstanding over some pumpkin seeds, a court has heard.

Carolyn Reynolds at Lake Bennett in happier times. Picture: Facebook

THE long running legal saga that resulted in the mothballing of the Lake Bennett Resort due to public health concerns all started with a misunderstanding over some pumpkin seeds, a court has heard.

NT chief health officer Hugh Heggie disallowed the resort’s registration as a food business in 2018 following issues with the use of lake water in its kitchen.

Resort owner Carolyn Reynolds then challenged that decision in the Darwin Local Court last year, where judge Tanya Fong Lim ordered the restaurant remain closed.

Ms Reynolds has now appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court where on Monday she told Chief Justice Michael Grant the dispute centred on “two things, water and waste”.

“The whole thing started your honour — there were some pumpkin seeds — because one of the (chief health officer’s) delegates didn’t understand that pumpkin seeds don’t actually go out of date with respect to use by,” she said.

“We even discussed it in the court and they had to change their whole issues to do with use by dates and best before dates.”

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Ms Reynolds said she had since been “subjected to the most horrendous public shame about the resort, about food issues, which are non-issues”.

“Your honour, this is a pretty serious case because of the misfeasance, the nonfeasance and the malfeasance that has continued,” she said.

“The numbers of letters that I have written that have never been responded to, it’s a whole inquiry under the ICAC, and I am here persecuted, your honour, further persecuted but I do have the bravery and the courage to represent what is right.”

Ms Reynolds is appealing Ms Fong Lim’s ruling on the grounds that she was denied natural justice after she says the judge prevented her from calling certain witnesses.

When Chief Justice Grant pointed out Ms Reynolds could have subpoenaed the witnesses, she said she didn’t realise that was the case at the time.

“I should have subpoenaed them your honour but they were too scared of their jobs and too scared of what’s going on in the NT to hurt and harm businesses and they didn’t want to put their business at any further risk than it already is because of the help they provided me,” she said.

Ms Reynolds, who is self-represented, said she had received medical advise that she may be unfit to continue the hearing but wanted to proceed anyway so she could use the facility to assist with the coronavirus crisis.

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“I want my resort to be open as soon as possible so we can help the indigenous people who may need some opportunity to get some support for isolation,” she said.

“I’ve been closed for two-and-a-half years unnecessarily right now, your honour, without people trying to find a way to provide a solution to a non-existing problem.”

The matter returns to court on Tuesday.