Kimberley Pearl Tours in receivership, customers lose deposits

Customers who booked luxury cruises with Kimberley Pearl Tours are out of pocket after the company entered receivership in January and its sole vessel, the Kimberley Pearl, was seized. The company entered receivership in January, and its vessel was seized. Cruises for late 2025 and 2027 remain advertised on the website, and some customers received invoices for outstanding payments months after receivers were appointed.

Bob Shawyer booked a trip last year and is out $8,500. He discovered the cruise was cancelled only after an online search. Ian Grant paid a “hefty” deposit for a family private tour. He said he was fortunate to learn of the receivership before receiving an invoice for $140,000 for the remainder of the booking. Noel Blackmur, a Queensland holiday-maker registered as an unsecured creditor, said he was not confident his deposit would be returned.

Receivers from Hall Chadwick were appointed after sole director Daniel Brown fell behind on a $395,000 loan from non-bank lender Blackbird Private Equity, taken out in 2024 to finalise his ownership of the Kimberley Pearl. Within 19 months, his loan debt exceeded $1 million. The matter is before the Federal Court, where Brown claims he was drawn into a predatory arrangement involving brokers, lenders and insolvency practitioners.

Federal Court Justice Michael Feutrill last month imposed an order banning receivers from selling the Kimberley Pearl pending further mediation. He found it “reasonably arguable” on available affidavit evidence that Hall Chadwick managing partner Richard Albarran was appointed to KPT property in bad faith and not for a proper purpose. Albarran denied the allegation. He said any suggestion he had used his position to gain advantage was “completely false”.

Brown alleged Albarran was a “shadow director” of Blackbird, giving him motive to place “undue pressure” on KPT to refinance. The judge said evidence for that was “quite thin”, but a family trust link between Albarran and Blackbird might infer he had an indirect interest in the lender’s financial success.

Hall Chadwick partner Brent Kijurina, also appointed as receiver, said customer notification was delayed because Brown withheld the company’s books and records, requiring intervention from ASIC to obtain them. He said invoices for outstanding payments were sent by Brown, not Hall Chadwick. Customers who made payments after the receivers’ appointment had been refunded, though some funds are held due to an active court injunction.

Brown denied sending invoices after the receivers’ appointment or withholding records. He said he lived and operated the business aboard the Kimberley Pearl, which was seized in January with his personal belongings and company assets. “It was therefore the receivers’ own refusal of access that placed the books and records beyond reach,” he said in a statement. He said it was his “firm intention” to get the Kimberley Pearl back in the water and refund customers. “You trusted us with your holiday of a lifetime … that trust was broken by people who were never entitled to your money,” he said.

Blackbird managing director Stewart Wilkinson said the company had not acted in bad faith. He said Brown had failed to make loan repayments for over 12 months and was “relying on future cruise deposits to pay creditors for cruises it had not undertaken”. Wilkinson said Blackbird had offered to settle Brown’s loan for less than the amount borrowed.

University of Sydney corporate law professor Jason Harris called the alleged silence to customers “very unusual”. He said the case would “shine a light on the murky world of private credit”. The parties will next meet for mediation on August 31.