Queensland’s Hamilton Island is being shopped around by the Oatley family for a reported price of $1 billion. There will never be another resort like it in the state.

Hamilton was initially built by Keith Williams, one of the original white-shoe brigade, when he and Bryan Byrt bought out a grazing lease on the island.

It’s probably reasonable to say we will never get another developer quite like Williams, either. He and the white-shoe brigade belong to another era.

When Byrt died 1978, Williams took over the lease and began planning a tourism development. He eventually gained a perpetual lease, as well as a lease over the seabed, which allowed him to build the harbour.

Hopefully, a deal like that would never happen again.

So much of what Hamilton has become is out of reach today. Building an airport, like the one at Hamilton, which distinguishes it from other island resorts, would be impossible today just because of the environmental issues that would be thrown in its path.

Queensland’s National Party government of the late 1970s and early 1980s that gave the green light to Williams is also gone, probably never to return in that form again.

So it’s reasonable to assume the Queensland of the 1970s and ’80s is also gone and with it the likelihood of that style of development.

But what Hamilton and the other islands reveal is that Queensland doesn’t know where it is going in terms of the islands. The Queensland public has to figure out what it wants the islands to be.

At the moment, they are a mess. Many have also been devastated by cyclones. Hamilton itself was once devastated by fire, and a handful are on the market, while the Queensland government has seized the leases of others after owners failed to meet their obligations.

Further south, Great Keppel’s (Woppa) history shows that Queensland is not in the mood to allow another Hamilton.

Earlier this year, the state government released a draft master plan for Great Keppel. But that followed 15 years of failure in trying to get development going on the island, including one ambitious idea by Gina Rinehart to turn it into some sort of replica of Puerto Banus. That seemed … visionary.

There are two questions about the Queensland islands: Should we allow tourism development and is it even feasible, anymore?

For those who have never been to the Whitsundays and the other Queensland islands, they are an absolute gift of nature. Even Hamilton, with all its development, is a remarkable location.

Hamilton Island took a beating from Cyclone Debbie in 2017. Photo: Getty

Before COVID, it was estimated that Great Barrier Reef tourism contributed about $6 billion to the economy and 60,000 jobs with more than two million visitors a year.

But the costs of running an island resort are extraordinary. Insurance is a nightmare and “attracting capital investments in regional tourism is challenging”.

A parliamentary inquiry recently admitted that the tenure arrangements on Great Barrier Reef islands were complex and the development application processes are onerous. Only a few were on freehold. Marine infrastructure, such as jetties, is limited or completely missing.

It said infrastructure was outdated and dilapidated, labour shortages were also an issue, even before COVID, operating costs were high, energy costs prohibitive. And then there’s transport.

The Oatleys apparently spend about $16 million a year running Hamilton Island.

Construction costs are estimated by the state government at three times that of the mainland and the islands don’t get the same level of council services that their counterparts on the mainland receive.

And you can’t just decide to build a resort. Legislation requires an applicant go through a rigorous financial assessment, which is where some recent deals have fallen over.

The Oatley family have probably provided a good example of what the islands need – and that’s a massive amount of money. It has been estimated that about $450 million was spent on Hamilton after the family bought it for a reported $200 million.

In a statement, the family said it had been a proud steward of Hamilton Island for 20 years and had invested significant time, affection and resources to deliver its vision for a world class tourism destination on the Great Barrier Reef.

“As it looks to the future the family has put in place a new leadership and approach and is conducting a review with the assistance of its advisors, to explore opportunities for growth and future prosperity,” the family said.

“At this stage this review is ongoing and no decisions have been made.

“We do not intend to comment further until any recommendations have been considered.”

South Molle island resort has been closed since 2016, when it was bought by the Shanghai-based China Capital Investment Group

This article first appeared in InQueensland and is republished here with permission