A fond farewell for Catalina’s McMahon

Cartoon: Rod Clement.

The funeral of the generous Sydney restaurateur Michael McMahon, who came from the era of the professional waiter, was held yesterday. Amid the current pandemic gathering restrictions, it was attended by the tight-knit family led by his widow Judy at Matraville’s South Chapel, with The Thrill is Gone by BB King accompanying the slide show.

There was a tribute from grand luncher Graham Richardson read to the family gathering, which was streamed to some 170 or so viewers from the Walter Carter funeral parlour.

“He was one of Sydney’s real characters,” Richo advised. Fellow restaurateur Barry McDonald recalled his diners’ throw-out stories. Kevin Weldon wrote McMahon was “a bloody good bloke”.

McMahon, who died last month aged 66 after a decade of heart issues, had held court at Catalina’s table 36 since 1994, although in recent times the day-to-day running was assumed by his son James and daughter Kate.

Whenever Michael pulled up a chair to join an anointed table of diners they knew they’d be in for an afternoon of great entertainment.

One luncheon tale that will no doubt come up at the memorial celebration was the day radio broadcaster John Laws threw his fellow diner’s phone into the harbour, mistakenly thinking it was his. Laws then threw his own phone into the water. And in camaraderie McMahon did likewise with his!

Online attendee acceptances were taken from a who’s who of Sydney: Lang Walker, Jilly Hampshire, Richard Norgard, Marcella Zemanek, Neville Crichton, John and Fadi Ibrahim, Leo Schofield and Skye Leckie.

Some viewers were temporarily taken aback when they recognised the emotional celebrant as none other than Glen-Marie Frost, who has pursued a career as a marriage celebrant in recent years.

It seems she has diversified since the pandemic has caused the postponement of all the weddings on her books, including that planned for last month by the acclaimed hair stylist Joh Bailey and his partner, Michael Christie.

The loss has reportedly hit her hard.

“I’m back to scrambled eggs and baked beans,” the lipsticked publicist told one magazine last weekend in mock despair.

Gina’s shipshape

Could the contrast be any sharper?

On one hand we have Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his Foreign Minister Marise Payne rankling Chinese authorities with their calls for an independent inquiry into the genesis of the new coronavirus.

But our West Australian billionaires, who know what side their bread is buttered on, are doing their best to keep Australia’s biggest trading partner close.

Seven Group chair Kerry Stokes and Fortescue chief Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest have recently done their bit to preserve relations.

And now we have iron ore billionaire Gina Rinehart revealing and revelling in just how strong relations are between her empire and the Middle Kingdom.

In what might be the ultimate compliment, the 66-year-old has had a Chinese-owned bulk carrier named after her, with the vessel sliding into Port Hedland on the weekend in all its freshly-painted pink glory.

The 10-year-old vessel, which sails under the Hong Kong flag, is owned by North China Shipping Holdings Co, which is controlled by Chinese billionaire Gao Yanming’s Hosco Group.

Before its facelift in Rinehart’s signature pink, reflecting her ongoing support for breast cancer research, the ship was named Great Dynasty, but has now been named Georgina Hope, reflecting the Aussie businesswoman’s given names.

The generic cargo ship left Port Hedland and is now on its way to the major seaport of Qingdao China.

Very flattering, indeed.

No boys’ club

Anne Fulwood has become a director of the Royal Sydney Golf Club. She comes in as the youngest of the four woman now on the board of the 127-year-old institution.

It’s no longer the stuffy anachronistic boys club and has a much stronger female presence. The former journalist and keen golfer took her place along with the club’s new women’s captain, Marnie Westgarth.

They replaced Lucy Regan and David Tregoning who did not seek re-election.

Longtime lawyer David O’Donnell also joined, being the second-oldest on the board at 71, behind another lawyer, and deputy marshall, Richard Michaels, aged 74.

The president, Chris Chapman, has Joan Dale as his vice-president.

Fulwood is best known for her stints as a news presenter with Network Ten, then Seven. She was a former media director at Ogilvy PR.

Fullwood was born in South Australia’s Waikerie, in the Riverland region, where Loxton Golf Club is ranked in the top 100 country courses in Australia.

The Royal Sydney Golf Club’s latest financials showed some $20m being collected in annual membership fees, some $8m in advance, although that’s likely taken a small hit arising from the COVID-19 pandemic resignations.

The Rose Bay club has $10.5m in the bank plus $16m on term deposit, before its major renovation plans get under way. Margin Call gleans Fulwood will take a special interest in the club’s art collection acquisitions.

Meat in the sandwich

Creditors are getting nervous.

And when it comes to the latest coronavirus hot spot in Dan Andrews’ Victoria, processing facility Cedar Meats, you can’t really blame lenders to the now closed operations.

On Tuesday an outfit called Bridge Street Capital No 2 Pty Ltd registered itself as a secured creditor of Cedar Meats, which is owned by Melbourne’s Kairouz family. This came as scrutiny of the operations and Victorian health officials’ handling of a virus outbreak at the business intensified.

It turns out that Cedar very recently went shopping in the finance market for some fresh capital to sustain its now closed operations, which was provided by a crowd called MegaLoans Finance, run by Jason Sammut.

As part of that deal, Sammut had obtained seed funding from Bridge Street Capital No. 2, which is run by Sydney eastern suburbs solicitor and property developer Graham Werry.

Werry’s been around for a while; he’s even been the subject of an enforceable undertaking to the corporate regulator ASIC back in 2011 over his operation of a managed investment scheme.

So to cover any potential losses as the crisis at the meat business continues to unfold, Werry’s now lodged its status as a secured creditor to Cedar, so that the group would rank before any Kairouz family interests as shareholders should things ever go from bad to worse.

We tried to get on to Werry to talk about his latest gamble, but didn’t hear back by deadline.

As an aside, Margin Call hears that along with the fresh borrowings, there were also recent soundings for a potential float of the company.

The Kairouz brothers, we hear, had been fielding inbound calls from potential buyers of the business.

Not any more.

Court dispute

Property developer Warren Anderson is suing the mortgage fund Angas Securities, claiming they acted inappropriately in selling up his assets. The case heads to court tomorrow. No attendance required as the claim by the family trust MCDS is listed for in-chambers directions before Supreme Court judge David Hammerschlag in Sydney.

His honour will get an update on recent orders for MCDS to provide security in respect of the defendants’ costs in the proceedings. Margin Call gleans in the event that the security amount has not been paid the proceedings will be stayed.

The proceedings began in 2016, some seven years after Angas appointed receivers to the trust in the wake of the breakdown of Anderson’s marriage to wife, Cheryl.

Angas took control of the Fernhill mansion at Mulgoa in western Sydney. The homestead lot was sold off to the NSW government in 2018 for $27m.