A 3 million Aus$ tuna fishing boat at the center of ATSIC's ambitious foreign trade agenda has been impounded in the West Australian port of Geraldton after defaulting on a taxpayer-funded loan. The boat is a 30-metre catamaran.
The new federal Australian agency, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Services, has hired private security guards to protect the boat after sending in a receiver-manager last week.
The Australian press revealed in August that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission had issued a $3million loan to the indigenous fishing company, which was part-owned by an ATSIC regional council chairman – Barry Taylor – and the son of ATSIC commissioner Terry Whitby. ATSCI admitted it had loaned "too much" to the start-up venture because a proposed joint venture partner had pulled out.
"The whole construction of the deal was so unrealistic it was never going to work," one source said. "On the basis of their earning capacity, I don't think they ever could have (met the repayments)."
The 30-metre catamaran, named Titchtjarla ("a fishing place"), had been docked at Geraldton Fisherman's Wharf since last week, when the catch was unloaded and the crew were asked to leave, local sources said. The boat is under 24-hour surveillance by Midwestern Security.
Whitby, whose son Corey is a director of the failed fishing company, said the venture was "going great" and had suffered only because of a market slump driven by high levels of mercury in some fish species.
He said the decision to call in an administrator was taken not by ATSIS but by the company's directors, who wanted to develop a new business plan to keep the enterprise going.
Whitby said the company had missed only a couple of the monthly $36,000 installments on the $3 million loan. "The boys called it on themselves to organize a restructure of the loan and to look at converting to snapper," he said. "They were maybe two months behind, but nothing like 12 months."