Qld: Skaseville remembers Skase fondly

AAP General News (Australia)
08-06-2001
Qld: Skaseville remembers Skase fondly

By Barbara Adam

BRISBANE, Aug 6 AAP - Christopher Skase will probably be remembered more fondly in
the north Queensland tourist mecca of Port Douglas than anywhere else in Australia.

But even there, in the town where he developed the exclusive Port Douglas Mirage resort,
the public opinion of the fugitive businessman is mixed.

Mr Skase was one of the first entrepreneurs to identify the tourism potential of the
tiny seaside town when national attention focused on the fight to have the nearby Daintree
rainforest declared a World Heritage area.

He hatched a grandiose plan to build an exclusive resort for wealthy tourists, who
would be ferried up from Cairns by hovercraft.

But locals fought some of Mr Skase's development plans just as hard as they'd fought
to save the Daintree, and that resistance curbed some of his vision of turning Port Douglas
into "Skaseville".

Always a controversial figure, Mr Skase spent plenty of time in Port Douglas, attending
public meetings about his resort and throwing lavish parties.

The Qintex chairman left town before he became financially unstuck with his bid to
buy the American movie studio MGM.

Within about a year of leaving Port Douglas, Mr Skase had fled to Majorca.

But despite owing at least $1.5 billion in corporate debts and $172 million in personal
debts when he left the country, Mr Skase had settled all his bills in Port Douglas, even
paying his advertising bill at the local paper.

Douglas Shire mayor Mike Berwick said there was a "taint of rip-off" to everything
Mr Skase did in Port Douglas.

"I think at the time people who lived here either loved him or hated him," Cr Berwick said.

"I think people here wouldn't disagree with the rest of Australia that he stole money off people.

"It's well recognised that what he did was dishonest and he should have been brought to justice.

"(But) Port Douglas is the recipient of what he stole off everybody else.

"I think because of what's left behind he will be remembered very fondly by Port Douglas."

Cr Berwick said most residents of Port Douglas were struggling to decide whether Skase
was a crook or a local benefactor.

"I think people would say that he was a bright fellow with a lot of bright ideas, even
though you couldn't trust him," he said.

"The resort that he left us has been very very successful - it's the centrepiece of
Port Douglas."

AAP bja/sc/vr/br

KEYWORD: SKASE DOUGLAS

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