Page 40 - Port Douglas Magazine 47

The Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort Port Douglas

THE ENDGAME
Christopher Skase sold 49% of the Mirage Port Douglas (and its Gold Coast Meanwhile, back in Port Douglas, Skase’s beloved Mirage has changed hands
counterpart) to Japanese investors in March 1989 for $433 million. His empire several times in the intervening years and has been owned by the Chinese
collapsed, and he fled abroad with personal debts of $170 million. Major multinational conglomerate and investment holding company Fullshare Group
creditors included those who had put up personal guarantees for bank loans, for the past decade.
including Australian merchant bank Tricontinental Corporation (approximately Today, the resort hosts about 700 guests, rising to 900 at peak times. Famous
$70 million); Japanese credit card company Nippon Shinpan ($37 million) and travellers to have stayed there include former President of the United States Bill
the State Bank of NSW ($11 million). He owed more than $1 million to the Clinton and his wife, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Hollywood
ATO and $32 million to his own collapsed company, Qintex. stars Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks
The focus of the nation’s contempt, however, was fixed on the thousands of small and John Travolta; opera singer Luciano Pavarotti; supermodel Claudia Schiffer;
shareholders, employees and creditors — the so-called ‘little people’ — who musicians Katy Perry with her then partner Orlando Bloom, and Mick Jagger
never saw a cent of their hard-earned money again. and his ex-wife, model Jerry Hall; and reality TV star Kim Kardashian.
And what became of Australia’s most wanted fugitive? A journalist working for
the Sydney Morning Herald tracked him down to a wealthy enclave of Mallorca,
about 50 miles off the east coast of Spain, in 1991. He was hiding out in a $3 Famous travellers to have stayed there include former President of the United
million villa in the picturesque harbour town of Port Andratx, where he was States Bill Clinton and his wife, former US Secretary of State Hillary
often spotted dining out, swimming, socialising and playing tennis. In 1994, he Clinton; Hollywood stars Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey, Leonardo
avoided extradition back to Australia on the grounds of ill health, appearing in
public using a wheelchair and wearing an oxygen mask. (When asked about his DiCaprio, Tom Hanks and John Travolta
time in hospital detention, Skase reportedly quipped, “I mean, it was no Mirage
resort.”)
Gone is the Pixie pink, courtesy of a multi-million refurbishment in 2016. On-
To his creditors, his claimed lung disease was widely regarded as a fabrication. site dining is headlined by the hatted restaurant Harrisons, operated by chef-
After multiple subsequent attempts at extradition by Canberra failed, he was owner Spencer Patrick, and the property remains Port Douglas’s leading five-star
finally granted ‘unconditional freedom’ by the Spanish courts, and told the beachside resort.
attendant media that he was planning to write a tell-all memoir.
Skase may be long gone, but his turquoise lagoons, his international standard golf
Skase died on August 5, 2001, at the age of 52, from stomach cancer. He was course, and his majestic avenue of palms live on.
cremated in his adopted home, after which a half-decent life insurance policy
allowed Pixie to quietly return to a small house in Melbourne’s Toorak, where she
passed in 2024 at the age of 83.

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