An Aboriginal Land Council raises financial abuse concerns over Kimberley cruise operator managed by insolvency firm Hall Chadwick. Stephanie Tran reports.
Only last year, prominent liquidator Richard Albarran rang the bell at the NASDAQ Stock Exchange in New York to mark his firm’s $US207m float as Hall Chadwick realised another chapter in its ambitious dreams of global expansion.
Now it is embroiled in a damaging dispute with indigenous leaders back home in Australia amid accusations of financial skullduggery.
Indigenous elders have intervened in the Federal Court dispute over the Kimberley Pearl charter vessel, accusing the lender and receiver at the centre of the case of conduct that has devastated an Aboriginal-owned tourism business and placed an Aboriginal family’s home at risk.
In a strongly worded letter sent to receiver Richard Albarran of Hall Chadwick, the Amaroo Aboriginal Land Council expressed “grave concern” about the treatment of Daniel Brown, an Aboriginal man and sole director of Kimberley Pearl Tours Pty Ltd.
The intervention comes as proceedings continue in the Federal Court of Australia over attempts by receivers to sell the Kimberley Pearl, the vessel at the centre of a dispute involving private lender Blackbird and a loan that Brown says has grown from $470,000 to more than $1.2m in 18 months.
Grave concern
“The Council writes to record, in the strongest terms, its grave concern at the conduct of you and the Blackbird group as lender to, and appointor of receiver over, Kimberly Pearl Tours Pty Ltd,” the letter states.
“The Council is gravely concerned that [Mr Brown] was lent to, and has been dealt with, in a manner that has taken advantage of his position and failed to deal with him fairly.”
The Council further stated that the pursuit of security over the home of Brown’s mother-in-law, who is Aboriginal and whose family resides in the property, was “deeply wrong”.
“Conduct of that kind is the kind of conduct the law has long condemned as unconscionable,” the letter states.
Blackbird Capital Group is under investigation ($) by class action law firm Adero Law over allegations of unfair lending practices, charging interest on commercial loans of up to 60%.
For Brown, the dispute is about more than a tourism business.
The Kimberley Pearl
The Kimberley Pearl operates cultural and wilderness cruises through the Kimberley region of Western Australia, taking visitors to ancient Aboriginal rock art sites and nationally significant cultural locations.
Working alongside Aboriginal elders from the Kimberley, Arnhem Land and the Torres Strait, Brown developed the cruises as a platform for sharing Indigenous stories, knowledge and cultural practices with visitors.
Image courtesy kimberleypearl.com.au
“I’m a proud Aboriginal man,” Brown said.
“This vessel takes people into the Kimberley to experience the oldest living culture on earth. That’s what is being sold out from under me.”
The Amaroo Aboriginal Land Council described the business as an important vehicle for preserving and transmitting Indigenous cultural knowledge.
“KPT, operated through Mr Brown, carried passengers through the Kimberley and shared with them the living culture of Aboriginal Australia, the oldest continuous living culture on Earth,” the letter states.
“It did so in partnership with some of the most respected elders of the Kimberley, Arnhem Land and the Torres Strait.”
Federal Court battle
The intervention by Indigenous leaders comes as Federal Court proceedings continue between Brown, Hall Chadwick, Blackbird Private Capital and a number of associated parties.
Brown alleges that the receivership was improperly conducted and has challenged efforts to sell the vessel.
The dispute has escalated after allegations emerged that the Albarran Family Trust No.2 holds a registered general security interest over Blackbird Mortgage Corporation Pty Ltd, the entity that holds the Blackbird subsidiary that appointed him as receiver.
Richard Albarran, Hall Chadwick and Blackbird Private Equity have denied allegations of wrongdoing.
In response to questions from MWM, Blackbird Private Equity alleged that administrators for Kimberley Pearl Tours “had identified in their report some $288,000 worth of uncommercial transactions”.
The substance of the allegations has not yet been determined by the Court, and Daniel Brown told MWM in a statement:
“I deny the allegations in their entirety. They will be strenuously defended on affidavit evidence, which I will file in the proceedings in the ordinary course.”
“My focus throughout has been to recover the vessel, preserve the business, and have these matters determined properly and on the evidence.”
Business destruction
The Land Council estimates that the collapse of Kimberly Pearl Tours has caused losses of between $6m and $8m and destroyed a “viable Aboriginal-led enterprise”.
But elders say the damage extends beyond financial losses. The cruises provided visitors with access to cultural stories and histories that had been entrusted to Brown by senior Aboriginal custodians. According to the Council, those stories and traditions were shared with the aim of preserving them for future generations.
“The loss that has been caused is not merely economic,” the letter states.
“It is the loss of a unique and irreplaceable means by which Aboriginal culture and Country were respected and shared.”
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Stephanie is a journalist with a background in both law and journalism. She has worked at The Guardian and as a paralegal, where she assisted Crikey’s defence team in the high-profile defamation case brought by Lachlan Murdoch. Her reporting has been recognised nationally, earning her the 2021 Democracy’s Watchdogs Award for Student Investigative Reporting and a nomination for the 2021 Walkley Student Journalist of the Year Award.