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Auckland Council is seeking to liquidate the owner of the Gulf Harbour Country Club for failing to pay over $25,000 in rates.
The club has faced community complaints since its closure in July last year.
Tensions have risen due to squatters at the site, with police investigating threats involving a weapon.
Auckland Council is seeking to put the owner of the once-prestigious Gulf Harbour Country Club into liquidation for failing to pay over $25,000 in rates - adding to an already existing bill of $200,000.
The reputation of the facility, which locals described as a “magnificent icon of Whangaparāoa”, continues to be tarnished by community complaints, court proceedings, and the emergence of a “tent city” at the course’s carpark ever since it suddenly shut down in July last year.
A council spokesperson said it applied to liquidate Long River Investments on June 20th for $18,386.54, which had since risen to $25,804.56.
“Long River has not taken any steps to defend the liquidation proceeding. The hearing of the liquidation application is August 16, 2024.”
The owner of Gulf Harbour Country Club is facing liquidation over nearly $26,000 in unpaid rates.
It will be the second time the company has faced liquidation in recent months, after it narrowly dodged the bullet thanks to an overseas funder covering up to $25,000 in debt to the operators of Ferntinental Cafe at the club.
More than 50 firefighters from across Auckland fought the second blaze at Gulf Harbour Country Club. Photo / Hayden Woodward
The council was forced to demolish the buildings as “a matter of urgency” due to the safety risk and because the company’s directors didn’t initiate demolition when asked.
Auckland Council chief executive Phil Wilson wrote to now-banned company director Greg Olliver and current director Errol Bailey on July 12 demanding the cost be paid back.
“[The] council had to meet costs in excess of $200,000 for engineering, demolition, disposal and security purposes. We will require to be reimbursed in full for these, and an invoice will be with you shortly,” Wilson wrote.
The council said there had not been any communication since the letter was sent, but they were still finalising the cost and were yet to send the invoice.
However, if the company were to be liquidated, it assured the liquidators would be aware of the bill.
Post-fire demolition and disposal of the club’s ruins has come with a $200,000 bill from Auckland Council. Photo / Corey Fleming
Wilson’s letter also addressed the company’s obligations to maintain the property, and the issue of squatters living there, which had attracted many complaints from the public.
“If you need advice as to issues like removal of freedom campers, or any planning and development matters, my staff can assist,” Wilson wrote.
Bailey has been approached for comment.
Tensions between locals and the campers escalated after allegations of two people being threatened with a weapon.
Members of the Facebook page Keep Whangaparāoa’s Green Spaces (KWGS) said they witnessed one camper throwing a machete at someone’s vehicles last month, and another said their husband was threatened by “one of the squatters with a machete” last week.
A police spokesperson said they were looking into two reports, and were aware of a man who had been living in a campervan at the property “for a number of weeks”.
“Given the abandoned site is private property, police have no jurisdiction to forcibly remove this man,” they said.
Images shared on the page showed a makeshift barricade set up at the entrance of course, with caravans in the carpark.
Freedom campers parked behind a makeshift barricade at Gulf Harbour Country Club.
Albany councillor John Watson said the space had naturally transformed into a public space, where locals would walk their dogs and go for runs.
But recent events had left people fearful to enter.
“It’s just gone from bad to worse, and in this case, it’s private land so it’s not as if [the council] can move them on because they really need the owner to be proactive in that and make a complaint to [the] council, but they’re not very easy to contact, if at all,” Watson said.
“They’re just quite happily leaving the whole golf course and club to deteriorate, and that includes just allowing anyone to squat there who feels like it.”
Watson called it the latest in a long, drawn-out saga of events at the formerly “prestigious facility”.
Jordan Dunn is a multimedia reporter based in Auckland with a focus on crime, social issues, policing and local issues. He joined Newstalk ZB in 2024 from Radio New Zealand, where he started as an intern out of the New Zealand Broadcasting School.
