Coolum vacancy: a resort all to yourself

THE paying guests at Clive Palmer’s Coolum resort are often so thin on the ground that it has ­become a local sport to spot them.

THERE are dozens of dinosaurs in the parklands of Clive Palmer’s resort and lots of vintage cars in a big shed. There are bars and restaurants, wines and hefty steaks. And there are nervous staff trying to stay busy at his Palmer Coolum Resort with its rooms and villas for several hundred people.

But there is one fundamental element conspicuously missing from the resort in the heart of the electorate represented for the past year by the federal member for Fairfax — paying guests.

As Mr Palmer gives economic and business ­advice to Tony ­Abbott, Joe Hockey, Campbell Newman and the Chinese government, his once highly regarded five-star ­resort boasted just one paying guest yesterday.

Its paying guests are often so thin on the ground that it has ­become a local sport to spot them.

When the resort’s only guest checks out of his room today after paying a little more than $200 for his one-night stay, the occupancy at this resort — once the pride of Coolum, the venue for the Australian PGA golf tournament, and a jewel in Hyatt’s crown — will return to zero.

At Mr Palmer’s resort, with its framed photographs in the foyer of its owner meeting dignitaries, and a special channel in the rooms for those interested in seeing gentle profiles of him on the ABC’s Australian Story and Nine Network’s 60 Minutes, there is an eerie quiet most days.

It is not always this bad — next month, a conference will briefly draw a crowd. But Mr Palmer’s purchase of the resort three years ago marked the start of a remarkable decline in its revenues, staff, guests and reputation. The forecast is worse next year as bookings have all but dried up, while Federal Court action that has been going against Mr Palmer casts a cloud over the resort’s future.

In June last year as Mr Palmer promoted his bid to become prime minister, The Australian reported on the wane of the resort, revealing details about his rows with his Chinese business partners. In response, he instructed his lawyers to sue us for about $1 million in damages for alleged defamation.

Mr Palmer claimed The Australian’s reports were understood to infer he was “directly linked to businesses which had made broken promises, job cuts, false claims and poor operational decisions”; and that he “was a businessman who makes statements about his business investments and activities which are misleading and unreliable”.

The legal action brought by Mr Palmer was dropped yesterday. The meanings that he took from The Australian’s articles will not be tested in a Supreme Court trial. But for anyone seeking to understand how Mr Palmer does business, the resort at Coolum would be a good place to start.