logo
Works begin to turn Perth caravan park into luxury resort

Works begin to turn Perth caravan park into luxury resort

Perth Now17-07-2025
Construction is under way on a new luxury coastal retreat in Perth's northern suburbs after the City of Wanneroo officially handed over the Quinns Rocks foreshore site to developers.
Formerly the site of the Quinns Rocks caravan park, the prime coastal land is now being transformed into the Dunes Beach Resort by Eco Tourism Pty Ltd to become a comprehensive 'all-in-one' wedding and event location.
The resort will provide accommodation for up to 86 guests across 38 glamping tents with ensuite bathrooms, alongside a restaurant and cafe capable of hosting functions and events for up to 240 people.
Located just metres from the coast, the retreat promises to offer 'breathtaking ocean views' for guests.
Since the caravan park was demolished in 2014, the site has sat vacant and often been used as an overflow carpark. The resort will also have a function room capable of hosting up to 240 guests. Credit: Supplied
Wanneroo mayor Linda Aitken said the project would boost tourism and looked forward to visiting the resort in the not-too-distant future.
'The development of the Dunes Beach Resort will generate employment opportunities for our residents, boost the local economy and assist with the development of our city as a sustainable tourism destination,' she said.
'It will also provide residents with access to a significant area of lawn space, a sit-down cafe and kiosk area, public bike racks, improved beach access and picnic tables.
'This site is incredibly important to our residents and I can't wait to see this project progress as the site is developed into a space that will benefit both the Quinns community and the wider city.'
The resort's cafe, restaurant, bar areas, lawn areas, function and meeting rooms are set to all be available to the local community.
The resort will also include a reception building and a carpark with 80 parking bays.
Site investigations to determine the future use of the park began in 2012, but it wasn't until 2020 that a business case identified an eco retreat as a viable option for the site.
After community consultation, in August 2023 the Wanneroo council voted to proceed with negotiations for the development of an ecotourism facility, cafe and event space at the location. The resort will provide accommodation for up to 86 guests across 38 glamping tents. Credit: Supplied
Eco Tourism Pty Ltd director Russell Percival said the project would benefit both the local community and visitors and was looking forward to it opening.
'After three-and-a-half years, it is great to see our vision and dream start to evolve and we look forward to providing an amazing resort and facilities for everyone to enjoy,' he said.
'We thank the City of Wanneroo for their help and assistance along the way, and we are very excited that the first version of our Australia-wide concept is starting in Perth.'
The resort is expected to open by mid-April next year. Bookings for weddings and other events are already being accepted. The resort is already taking bookings for weddings. Credit: Supplied
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

How easy is it to trick the Australian Taxation Office?
How easy is it to trick the Australian Taxation Office?

ABC News

time40 minutes ago

  • ABC News

How easy is it to trick the Australian Taxation Office?

Sam Hawley: How easy is it to trick the Australian Tax Office? Well, for fraudsters it's not hard at all and plenty have done it costing taxpayers billions of dollars that have never been recovered. Today, Angus Grigg on his Four Corners investigation into the biggest GST scam in history and how the ATO dropped the ball. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily. Sam Hawley: Angus, you've been hard at work looking into what's going on at the Australian Tax Office. And you've really been having a deep look into this huge GST scam. Now, this unfolded in no other than Mildura in north-west Victoria. So, take me there and tell me about local resident Sarah. Angus Grigg: Yeah. Mildura is a really beautiful town, an irrigation town on the Murray in North West Victoria. And this GST scam really took off in Mildura. And it really was circulating within a sort of population that you might say is low socioeconomic groups, people on welfare, people with addiction issues. And we went to interview one person called Sarah. She was going through quite a bit of financial hardship at the time. I think she'd separated from her partner who was facing pretty serious charges at the time as well. And she was short of money because she needed to have some dental work done. So one of her friends showed her how to use a business that had been registered and an ABN linked to GST to claim GST refunds fraudulently. 'Sarah': The people that I was associating with at that time, they had done it and told me how easy it was to get a large amount of money quickly. And I just thought at the time it was a good idea because I was in a bit of financial trouble. Angus Grigg: She pretended, if you like, to be a hairdresser, despite the fact that she had no hairdressing qualifications. She'd never worked in a hairdresser, hadn't hired premises, had no equipment. And so she logged into her myGov account and first of all, claimed $15,000 and then did it a second time and got another $15,000. 'Sarah': I don't even really still understand how it went through. I was a single parent and then all of a sudden I'm a hairdresser that's getting this return put into my account with no other payments from clients or anything like that to balance it was needed. Like no proof. Angus Grigg: Now, bear in mind, the money went into the same account as her welfare payments and the money went within about 10 days without any verification, without any checks, without anyone from the tax office ringing and saying, what did you spend this money on? Do you have hairdressing qualifications? Have you hired premises? You know, she just absolutely couldn't believe how easy it was. 'Sarah': Yeah, I just couldn't believe it that it was just sitting there on my everyday access debit bank card. Angus Grigg: Now, the other thing to bear in mind, to receive a GST refund of $30,000, she would have needed to have capital expenditure or bought stock and other items for her hairdressing business of about $300,000. Now, surely a single mother living on welfare, getting family tax benefits, that should have been a red flag for the tax office. Sam Hawley: Wow. Okay. So Sarah, which is not her real name, just by the way, you've changed that for this story to keep her anonymous. She just tells the ATO she's a hairdresser and then the tax office falls for it. That's extraordinary. Angus Grigg: It is. And the fact that you don't need a receipt, you don't need any proof of the line of work you're in is extraordinary. And that's because the tax office basically fired most of the humans in the loop and started relying on algorithms or computers, if you like, to make these payments. They wanted to ensure the timely payment of GST refunds to businesses. But in doing that, they really opened the door up to fraud. Sam Hawley: Right. Sure. So the tax office wants to streamline things. But in the meantime, people like Sarah are all of a sudden dabbling in fraud. And as we've mentioned, she's not the only one. There's a lot of other people doing a very similar thing. Tell me about Linden Phillips. What was he up to? Angus Grigg: Linden Phillips, once again from Mildura, for us, he was like patient zero. It looks like he was the really one of the very, very early people in this scam. So what happens is that Linden Phillips gets out of jail in August 2021. And he already has a company registered. And so he reactivates his GST registration through his ABN and his MyGov account. And then within a couple of weeks of getting out of jail, he does what I'd sort of call a test run. And he claims $13,000 in GST refunds from the tax office. Once again, no documents, no receipts, no verification required. He gets that money within a couple of weeks and clearly then thinks, OK, I'm going to go for the big one. And so what he does is he lodges 46 backdated GST claims for an amount of $821,000 in GST. And the real kicker here is that for most of the period those GST claims are lodged, he's actually in jail. Sam Hawley: Oh my gosh. Angus Grigg: I know. He just couldn't make it up. Sam Hawley: What does he do with all that money? Angus Grigg: Well, of course, he spends it, right? Within a couple of weeks, the money's completely gone. He buys himself a second-hand Porsche. Somewhat endearingly, he buys his mother a house. But the really damning thing here is that the tax office notice it. Finally, someone, there's a human in the loop and they pick up the fact that, hey, maybe something's a bit wrong here. And so they ring him up and he says, oh yeah, no, it's all legitimate. I'll get my accountant to call you. The accountant never calls. They send him some emails. They write him some letters. He ignores them all. And the really damning thing here is the tax office does nothing for four months. And in that four month period, this scam absolutely explodes. So what we did is we went back and we deconstructed, if you like, the tax office's narrative. And the narrative was that this fraud took off on social media. The tax office noticed it. They cracked down really hard, really quickly, and they brought it under control. Now we sort about testing that idea. Sam Hawley: So the ATO says it did this great job. It cracked down on this fraud. But what actually happened? Because you actually had a look at that and discovered, in fact, the ATO didn't do much at all. Angus Grigg: No, exactly. So Linden Phillips does finally get caught, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the ATO. It all comes down to the smarts of a local detective in Mildura named Vanessa Power. Now, she is attending Phillips's house on a drugs and gun charge, and she searches his premises, his house, and she confiscates a phone. And using the sort of smarts that the ATO should be employing, she sees that on his phone there appears to be a pretty elaborate GST scam. And in fact, it looks as though that Linden Phillips had helped 60 other people perpetrate this scam. Linden Phillips is arrested. And then a few weeks later, the ATO finally launch what they call Operation Protego, which is to crack down on this GST scam. Sam Hawley: Wow. Okay. And at that point, of course, Sarah, who we spoke about earlier, she was also arrested back in December 2022. But the thing is, the money, it's sort of gone, right? 'Sarah': I can't pay it back. It's not even an option at the moment. Or it probably never will be. Sam Hawley: Is there any way the tax office can actually get these funds back? Angus Grigg: Well, this is the point, right? In the end, $2 billion was stolen from the tax system by 56,000 people. Now, the ATO tell us that of those 56,000 people who perpetrated this scam, just 120, I think it might be 122 now, have been convicted. Secondly, of the $2 billion stolen, the ATO tells us that only 160 million, or around 8% of that, has been recovered. Sam Hawley: And, Angus, that money, it really is just a drop in the ocean, right? Because you've also looked at all the other funds that the ATO hasn't managed to collect, and you've spoken to Karen Payne. Now, she's a former Inspector General of Taxation. She basically says if the ATO had collected what it was owed, then we would all be paying less tax. Angus Grigg: Yeah. Karen Payne, she really focused on what's called collectible debt. And that is this sort of giant number that the ATO doesn't like to talk about. And when she started looking at it, it was about $30 billion. Then it rose to about $50 billion. The figure is now $53 billion. And that is the amount of money or taxes that the ATO has levied, if you like, but not collected. Karen Payne, Inspector General of Taxation, 2019-24: The large percentage of the debts that were due were in fact owned by a very small number of taxpayers or they're related to a small number of taxpayer accounts. So you'd kind of think it's a small number of people you need to be chasing. Angus Grigg: And the point that Karen Payne was making is that if we collected all that tax, perhaps we would not have to pay as much tax, all of us, but also we'd have more money to spend on really basic things like schools, roads and hospitals. Karen Payne, Inspector General of Taxation, 2019-24: The fact that it keeps rising is troubling. So it's fundamental, I think, that we've got good administration of the tax system because the integrity of the tax system is fundamentally important to all of us. It pays for all of the services that we benefit from. Sam Hawley: Angus, despite everything that you have said, which is frankly really concerning, the ATO itself thinks it's doing a pretty good job, right? Because Chris Jordan, who was the tax commissioner up until 2024, he's been putting a rather positive spin on the ATO's work. Angus Grigg: Yeah. This is the really extraordinary thing. Despite all these scandals, the ATO tells us they are doing a great job. Just before Chris Jordan stepped down as tax commissioner, he did a victory lap, if you like, at the National Press Club, and he pointed out all the great, terrific things that the ATO has done. Chris Jordan, Tax Commissioner, 2013-24: We've successfully charted a massive program of transformation. We've cut red tape and we've modernised our administration of the tax system as part of the digital revolution to make tax just happen.

Labor to introduce Bill to cap PBS-listed scripts at $25, PM dodges questions on super tax
Labor to introduce Bill to cap PBS-listed scripts at $25, PM dodges questions on super tax

News.com.au

time4 hours ago

  • News.com.au

Labor to introduce Bill to cap PBS-listed scripts at $25, PM dodges questions on super tax

Labor will begin its first steps to legislate its election promise to cap the cost of scripts listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to $25 from January 1 of next year. Once passed, eligible medicines will be lowered from $31.60 to $25. The government estimates the change will save Australians $200m a year, while costing the budget $690m over four years. This is in addition to previous reforms which allowed patients to acquire 60-day prescriptions, and freezing the cost of medicine for pension and concession card holders at $7.70 until the end of 2029. The election pledge was also matched by the Coalition, suggesting the Bill will likely have a swift passage through parliament. Anthony Albanese said it was a promise delivered. 'This is another example of cost of living relief that helps every Australian,' Mr Albanese said. 'The size of your bank balance shouldn't determine the quality of your healthcare. My government will continue to deliver cost of living relief for all Australians.' Health Minister Mark Bulter also welcomed the incoming Bill. 'Cheaper medicines are good for the hip pocket and good for your health,' Mr Butler said. 'For general patients medicines haven't been this cheap since 2004. 'For pension and concession card holders we've frozen your medicine prices at a maximum price of $7.70 until the end of the decade.' The Bill comes as the United States lashed Australia's PBS as 'discriminatory' amid tariff negotiations to remove the general 10 per cent levy, as well as fees on Australian steel and aluminium US imports. Concerningly, US President Donald Trump has also flagged a 200 per cent tariff on pharmaceutical imports, which could have a major impact on $2bn of Australian exports. However the Albanese government said it is unwilling to use the PBS as a bargaining chip. On Sunday, Mr Albanese also faced a grilling over when Labor would introduce its proposed plan to double the tax on superannuation accounts over $3m up to 30 per cent. He said the Bill 'will come in time' and that the priority in the first fortnight was policies 'that make a difference to people's money in their pocket'. Perth MP and assistant minister to the Prime Minister Patrick Gorman said the government had been 'clear about our priorities' for the Bill and said he was 'confident it will pass'. 'I think we have seen in this building, time and time again, that when it comes to getting things through parliament, you have got to also let the parliamentary processes do their piece,' he said.

Balwyn North home sells for $2.975m after auction showdown
Balwyn North home sells for $2.975m after auction showdown

News.com.au

time10 hours ago

  • News.com.au

Balwyn North home sells for $2.975m after auction showdown

A six-way auction showdown has seen a single-level Balwyn North home sell for $2.975m, topping Melbourne's PropTrack weekend auction results. The impeccably maintained home at 9 Macedon Ave drew a crowd of about 60 onlookers and sparked fierce competition from families and downsizers alike, with six bidders pushing well beyond expectations. The campaign attracted nearly 100 groups through the door, many drawn by its rare blend of low-maintenance luxury, flexible living, and proximity to both North Balwyn Village and the Balwyn High School Zone, one of the city's most coveted catchments. Revealed: The Block's priciest mistakes Fletchers Balwyn director Daiman Kane said the home was 'as move-in ready as it gets' and hadn't changed hands in more than 20 years. 'It was very competitive, the moment bidding opened it was game on,' Mr Kane said. 'It's a beautifully kept, one-owner home, walking distance to shops, cafes, trams and one of Melbourne's best public schools. That kind of package just doesn't come up often.' The single-level floorplan was another major drawcard, particularly for buyers seeking downsizer-friendly living without sacrificing space or lifestyle. The home includes four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and multiple indoor-outdoor living zones, including an alfresco terrace surrounded by lush gardens, a water feature and a mini putting green. Inside, parquetry floors frame the open-plan family zone, anchored by a granite kitchen with Smeg and Miele appliances, a walk-in pantry, and abundant storage. Mr Kane said there wasn't a cent to spend on the home. 'The buyers loved that they could move straight in and enjoy everything, no renos, no compromises,' he said. The winning bidder, a single woman downsizing from a larger home, had been searching for the right property in the area and 'acted quickly' once she found it. 'She was absolutely ecstatic — and rightfully so,' Mr Kane said. 'For a downsizer who still wants space, garden, and walkability, this was the perfect match.' The Fletchers Balwyn director said the result was a clear signal that quality listings is in short supply, and buyers are willing to stretch for the right property. 'Winter's actually proving to be a great time to sell,' Mr Kane said. 'There's less on the market, but the buyer pool is still strong, and good homes are being snapped up fast.' With a potential interest rate cut tipped by the Reserve Bank next month, Mr Kane said momentum was building across Melbourne's established suburbs. 'If you're a buyer waiting for the perfect conditions, this might be your window,' he said. 'Confidence is definitely returning, and we're already seeing that reflected in competition and results.' PropTrack data shows Melbourne home values rose 1 per cent in June, with buyer urgency and low stock levels combining to drive strong winter clearance rates, a trend expected to accelerate in spring. 'You can really feel the energy starting to shift,' Mr Kane said. 'We're on the upswing, and there's still time to catch the wave.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store