Former Lake Bennett Resort owner Carolyn Reynolds loses health appeal application

A former NT resort owner has lost her seven-year-long fight with the NT Health department over its food licence.

Carolyn Reynolds outside the Supreme Court in Darwin in August 2020.

The owner of Lake Bennett resort has accused a Territory judge of colluding in a conspiracy against her, saying she was the victim of “incredulous bullying” and “coercive control”, a court has heard.

Landlord and former Lake Bennett Resort business owner Carolyn Reynolds had her application to overturn a Supreme Court appeal dismissed on Friday — seven years after health concerns were raised over the centre’s management of drinking and waste water.

The NT Health department slapped a public health order on the resort in 2018 after discovering the Eagle’s Nest Restaurant was using lake water in its kitchen.

Lake Bennett resort. Picture: Katrina Bridgeford.

The Darwin Local Court heard there was a lengthy history of noncompliance issues, including kitchen taps testing positive for coliform bacteria and E. coli, human and animal food being stored together and wider concerns about the management of water and wastewater.

The local court refused to register the restaurant at the Lake Bennett Resort as a food business in 2019, with Mrs Reynolds also losing her Supreme Court appeal before Chief Justice Michael Grant in 2020.

Five years after she vowed to appeal the ruling, Justice Stephen Southwood was forced to strike out the appeal.

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

Justice Southwood gave Ms Reynolds an “unlimited extension of time” to file her written submissions for the appeal in 2021, telling the businesswoman and former CLP candidate for Goyder: “The ball is in your court.”

“But you need to be aware of this, in the long run, if you do not file an outline of submissions on your behalf, ultimately, this appeal will be struck out for want of prosecution,” Justice Southwood said.

Mrs Reynolds said she understood, yet 1492 days later she had failed to write up her arguments.

Instead Justice Southwood said the Darwin business owner repeatedly tried to delay her own appeal, with 11th hour adjournments for “largely unsubstantiated health issues”, “repetitive, irrelevant and hopeless interlocutory applications”, and repeated attempts to kick him off her case “founded upon numerous, largely amorphous, allegations of apprehended bias”.

Five years after she vowed to appeal the ruling, Justice Stephen Southwood was forced to strike out the appeal. Picture: Patrina Malone

In written submissions to the court Mrs Reynolds accused the Supreme Court judge of “unlawful, corrupt, and biased actions” and said he was colluding with both the NT Chief Justice and the NT Government.

Mrs Reynolds also accused him of “judicial entrapment” by requiring her to attend court, despite Justice Southwood maintaining he had given her “significant leniency” over the years.

He said the court had accommodated numerous extensions, “last-minute requests” for adjournments and repeatedly suggested making written submissions or offering to let her attend via telephone or video link.

“Mrs Reynolds asserts that she has been subjected to incredulous bullying, coercive control which continues to support a prevarication of justice and considerable legal complications,” he said.

Former CLP Candidate Carolyn Reynolds accused a Supreme Court judge of “judicial entrapment”.

Mrs Reynolds made a complaint to the Judicial Commission about Justice Southwood, which was dismissed.

Justice Southwood said she had not provided any evidence to substantiate the “very serious allegations”, and ruled there was no reason to recuse himself from the matter.

Mrs Reynolds said that the stress of this case had resulted in one hearing where she “became so unwell, disoriented, and confused that she lost her eyesight, vomited across the court bench, and eventually lost consciousness, requiring oxygen therapy and transfer to the hospital by ambulance”.

However Justice Southwood said it was unclear if this related to a different court matter, as over the same period Mrs Reynolds had also contested her eviction from her Doctors Gully rock climbing gym by Darwin council, and challenged the declaration of Covid-19 as a public health emergency.

He said her apparent delaying tactics was the “same approach” she took to the rock climbing gym case, in which the local court judge found she had tried to “muddy the waters (with) exaggeration, untruths and red herrings of various types”, and had claimed she had a brain injury, was struck by lightning, and had post traumatic stress disorder.

In striking out the case, Justice Southwood flagged that the operators of the Lake Bennett Resort would suffer “no prejudice” from his decision.

He said at any point they could still make an application for a food and beverage licence to re-register a food business.

Originally published as Former Lake Bennett Resort owner Carolyn Reynolds loses health appeal application