Great Barrier Reef’s Hamilton Island to be bought by US private equity firm in reported $1.2bn sale | Queensland
Hamilton Island, a popular tropical resort in the Great Barrier Reef, has reportedly been sold to a US private equity firm for $1.2 billion.
New York-based Blackstone, which owns the casino-hotel chain Crown Resorts, issued a statement Tuesday night announcing that it has reached an agreement to purchase the Hamilton Island resort from the Oatley family, subject to customary regulatory approvals.
The Oatley family released a statement saying they welcomed the new owners of the island, which “holds a special place in the hearts of many Australians” so much so that it has become “Australia’s Tropical Island”.
Hamilton is approximately 900 km north of Brisbane and approximately 500 km south of Cairns on Queensland’s tropical coast.
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The late Robert Oatley, billionaire, sailor and winemaker, bought the resort for $200 million in 2003 after spying the island from the deck of a yacht while sailing in the Whitsundays.
Blackstone said Hamilton spans more than 1,130 hectares across two islands, 30% of which are developed, and consists of “five hotels, more than 20 restaurants and bars, 20 retail stores, an 18-hole championship golf course on neighboring Dent Island, a marina and a commercial airport.”
“Hamilton Island is a major employer in the Whitsundays, supporting a large community and workforce on the island as well as an extensive network of regional partners, suppliers and local businesses,” he said in a statement.
Chris Heady, the company’s regional head of real estate, said Blackstone was “honored to build on the vision and commitment of the Oatley family” “in the heart of the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef”.
“We are committed to investing in the long-term success of Hamilton Island, its people, local businesses and community,” he said.
Blackstone has hotels and luxury resorts in Japan, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka and the United States.
The Whitsundays, the traditional lands and seas of the Ngaro people, are named after Captain James Cook, who on Sunday 3 June 1770 – the day on which Whit Sunday is celebrated in the Christian calendar – sailed the Endeavor through a passage between an archipelago of 74 idyllic islands.
Hamilton’s development boom first began in the 1980s.
For decades before that, it was home to galvanized iron huts and more modest quarters that accommodated local holidaymakers from the countryside and the south.
