‘Toxic and very dysfunctional’: Sydney adults-only resort slides into chaos

An adults-only ecotourism resort in Sydney’s north has descended into chaos and closed its doors amid claims of wage theft, bullying and a battle over who actually owns the isolated site.

The exclusive Marramarra Lodge, which is only accessible by boat, offered glamping, luxury cabin stays and fine dining with expansive views over Berowra Waters from $2200 a night.

Marramarra Lodge at Berowra Waters.

Now customers are chasing refunds and unpaid workers want the company that was running the lodge, P & F Hurley Pty Ltd, to come up with their missing money.

The lodge’s manager, failed property developer Greg Walker, said only some staff were not paid, and alleged serious misconduct by workers.

“It quickly became toxic and very dysfunctional,” said Lucia Del Prete, an experienced Italian chef who was hired by Walker just before the lodge opened for business in early December.

“People were working and not being paid – all they got was excuses and promises.”

Greg Walker and his wife Karen worked at the lodge in management roles.Credit: Facebook

The resort, nestled on a peninsula surrounded by water and a national park, has been a destination for wealthy visitors for decades. The now-King Charles stayed there in the 1960s, and in recent years it was marketed as a romantic getaway offering couples massages and an adults-only policy that offered “guaranteed maximum relaxation without interruption”.

Staff invited to work there mostly jumped at the opportunity.

“When I started it was like a dream job,” said Alysson Mossay, a Belgian traveller hired for a front-of-house role at the lodge in December. “Greg said, ‘I don’t know how we managed without you, you are wonderful’. He was very thankful at first.”

Mossay and her partner, Matthieu Arthuis, said they both continued working at the lodge despite delays in their pay, but within weeks of the resort’s opening the pay cheques dried up. By late January, the atmosphere of bonhomie was evaporating.

Travellers Matthieu Arthuis and Alysson Mossay were promised they would be paid on time.Credit: Nick Moir

A group of Spanish backpackers working at the resort refused to leave until they were paid. Another foreign worker secretly called a water taxi – the only way off the peninsula apart from lodge-owned boats – and left by night to escape the increasingly tense situation.

Service also began to suffer. A pregnant customer complained of being served alcohol and raw fish by staff. An online review posted by a guest likened the resort to Fawlty Towers, the BBC comedy about an incompetent hotelier.

Bizarrely, it turned out that P & F Hurley Pty Ltd had not finalised purchase of the site.

Staff were baffled to learn that while the company had paid a deposit to the lodge’s owners last year, the sale had never been settled, despite P & F Hurley opening the lodge for business in the meantime.

Walker had stepped down from a role as a director of P & F Hurley before the company moved to buy the lodge, when bankruptcy disqualified him from holding company office.

He declared himself bankrupt after unrelated business dealings last year with debts of $53,926,500 and a bank balance of $61.

Most of the money he owed was the result of personal guarantees of company debts, along with about $1.3 million in unpaid personal loans from family and friends.

Walker said he was awaiting a $37 million payment after one of his companies sued a building company and a lender, the Bank of China.

The owners obtained a court order to regain access to the isolated site.

Walker said he was simply acting as a manager for the lodge and directed questions about outstanding wages to P & F Hurley. This masthead is not suggesting he is personally responsible for unpaid wages, although he is the manager to whom most staff made pay requests.

A director of P & F Hurley is understood to have arranged payment of wages to some staff when they complained directly to him.

The nature and extent of staff underpayment, and where responsibility for the mess lies, are unclear. Several workers said they had received their wages months late, only after the Herald began asking questions. Others have yet to see their money.

The site’s owners, a group of investors operating under the name Marramarra Pty Ltd, also declined to comment. They were granted a court order last month to regain access to the site.

But the Herald understands they thought they had sold the property and were astonished to learn the venue had been opened for business even though the sale never went through.

Liquor and Gaming NSW is reviewing the venue’s licence after it emerged that P & F Hurley had been operating the lodge with a liquor licence that had been issued to the previous operators. The manager listed on the licence had not worked at the lodge since August.

Text message chains between Greg Walker and unpaid staff, seen by the Herald, showed the manager becoming increasingly personal and abusive when workers asked to be paid. One unpaid worker was accused of being a “pedo” by Walker.

Mossay and Arthuis were threatened by Walker with being reported to police for allegedly not paying income tax and were scolded about their sex life after texting him to ask for their money.

Experienced Italian chef Lucia Del Prete.Credit: Nikki Short

“I doubt you have any intention of declaring your income, which in this country is a criminal offence,” Walker texted. “Paying such wages late is not such a crime.”

Mossay said she paid her income tax in the normal way.

“I found it intimidating and threatening when all I was doing was asking to be paid money I’d already worked for,” Mossay said.

Not all former staff blamed Walker. Chef Chris Hayward said: “Yes, paying wages late is always bad and you can’t defend that, but I’ve personally seen Greg working really hard to keep the lodge afloat. He doesn’t deserve to be in this situation, and from what I’ve seen he has been let down by others.”

A statement from lawyers representing Walker, sent in response to questions from the Herald, said most staff had now been paid and claimed those who had not were guilty of misconduct at work.

“These staff members were let go because of multiple incidents including theft, abuse, breach of contract, deceptive and insightful [sic] behaviour during and after work hours, consumption of illegal substances and alcohol while on duty and while on the property, using the guest accommodation to wine and dine and a person our client suspects was underage (who stayed overnight), sexual advances to others staff members that was brought to our client’s attention,” the statement said.

Mossay, Arthuis and other staff members who received angry messages from Walker deny any such behaviour took place. Walker had generally been complimentary of their work, they said.

“It was a case of ‘[you’ll be paid] by close-of-business Monday’, then close-of-business Tuesday, then by the end of the week,” said Del Prete. “Then they’d be begging you to come in next week. It became very clear we were dealing with unreliable people.”

The ‘Walker House’ in Bayview.

It is not the first time businesses linked to Walker have grappled with cash flow problems.

Walker, who worked as a journalist at SBS in the early 1990s, funded a lavish lifestyle over two decades with a series of property development and real estate deals.

In 2007, he and his wife Karen built the Walker House, a five-level mansion in Bayview that boasted an infinity lap pool, private cinema and steam room.

“The house is probably one of the best in the world,” gushed Richard Gu, a Chinese property developer who later purchased the mansion.

But there were setbacks, such as when a contractor at a St Ives apartment complex developed by one of Walker’s companies was found to have left a string of defects and forged 15 building certification documents.

An artist’s impression of the Gosford apartment towers that were initially developed by Greg Walker’s Macarthur Projects. The project has since been bought by another developer.

A separate deal to build a 28-storey apartment complex in Gosford saw Walker’s development company Macarthur Projects placed into receivership in 2022.

When Walker petitioned for bankruptcy shortly after Macarthur Projects was wound up, he cited “excessive borrowing/credit” and “legal action or potential legal action” as the cause of his troubles.

“Previous history of business is just that and has no bearing on Marramarra Lodge,” Walker’s lawyers said in a statement. “Our client submits that their previous dealings are a matter of public record, and has nothing further to add to that … Our client was bankrupted as a result of GFC and as a result of COVID, both due to business downturn.”

The lodge fronts the Hawkesbury River.

Even as Marramarra Lodge spiralled down towards closure, some workers stepped forward to support Walker.

Cindy Sheen, a family friend who also worked at the lodge, claimed Walker was blameless and that unprofessional staff were responsible for the lodge’s demise.

“In particular, I was disgusted in their total lack of respect and disobedience in regard to the fact that they were living in an eco-lodge and the sustainability and recycling instructions were continually ignored,” Sheen said. “They did not care about being energy efficient, recycling or respecting our country and this actually infuriated me.”

Executive chef Gerald Touchard was also inclined to give Walker the benefit of the doubt at first.

But, after working for weeks without pay, Touchard was asked to come back to work and told the lodge would pay for a babysitter for his children while he travelled to the remote site.

Afterwards, he asked for his money. Receipts indicate Touchard is owed more than $40,000.

“They never responded to my email and [P & F Hurley] still owe me the money,” he said.

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