Barrier Reef Resort Goes Up for Sale—Again

One of Far North Queensland’s most lavish island resorts has come to market again—the third time in seven years.

Fitzroy Island Resort, which is the only resort on the 339-ha island about 30km of the coast of Cairns, is for sale for a reported $35 million.

Colliers is marketing the resort ,which sits on 4.4ha of beachfront land in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Property developer Doug Gamble acquired the island in 2010 for $8 million and has tried to sell it twice before.

It failed to sell for $30 million in 2016 and went on sale again less than three years later.

Colliers Head of Hotels Australia Karen Wales said the property represented the perfect combination of a profitable, income generating business with value add repositioning opportunities in an irreplaceable location.

“Fitzroy Island is one of the most unspoiled islands on the Great Barrier Reef providing any traveller with pristine Australian natural beauty at their doorstep,” Wales said in a statement. “The resort operates a range of sustainability programs and initiatives to engage purposefully in the circular economy.”

The resort boasts 93 studios and suites, as well as 13 beachside cabins. There is a separate staff village with 61 rooms.

It has a beachfront restaurant and bar, two pools, swim up bar and three function rooms. On the island itself there is a general store, games room, kids soft play area and dive shop, as well as anchorage for six boats and a 190-seat catamaran service which operates daily transfers to Cairns.

▲ It is the third time the owner has tried to sell the 106-room resort in seven years.

Colliers said Australia’s accommodation industry has recovered faster in 2022 than was originally anticipated. The leisure markets recorded strong gains as holiday travel underpinned the recovery. Hotels in Cairns recorded a daily rate growth of 44.7 per cent on pre-pandemic levels.

Colliers said Fitzroy Island Resort had occupancies of 79.4 per cent in 2022, compared to 72.6 per cent in 2019.

“The announcement in December that Virgin Australia will commence daily services between Cairns and Tokyo is a massive boost for the region with more international routes and passenger traffic expected as global tourism recovers,” Colliers Cairns managing director Stacey Quaid said.

Queensland island resorts have seen a flurry of sales and acquisitions by the ultra-rich in the past 18 months.

In May last year, Sydney hotelier Glenn Piper bought the Hook Island Lodge leasehold. 

Annie Cannon-Brookes, wife of tech billionaire Mike, bought the abandoned tropical island resort of Dunk Island in July.

And then in November, Lindeman Island was purchased by Queensland property developer Shaun Juniper, with plans to transform the former Club Med site into a six-star luxury health retreat.

A year earlier, Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest and his wife Nicola’s private investment company Tattarang splashed $42 million for Lizard Island.

Fitzroy Island Resort is being offered for sale by an international expressions of interest campaign closing March 14.