Millionaire buyer forfeits $1 million deposit on failed Newrybar land deal

Glamourous resort town Byron Bay is abuzz with talk of an off-market real estate deal gone bad.

Amid a declining property market after four interest rate increases, CBD hears that a millionaire buyer has had a change of heart on their $9.5 million purchase of an expansive, 35 hectare-plus holding in the hinterland village of Newrybar.

The land in question, on which sits an unremarkable home, is about 15 minutes’ drive from Byron and near the slices of paradise owned by actors Liam and Chris Hemsworth.

Word is that the original buyer, who already has significant business and real estate interests in the area, has forfeited the almost $1 million deposit lodged last year.

Local real estate agents estimate the hefty walkaway fee may not even fully offset a significant drop in the market since the deal was first struck.

The failure to settle on the land in question has had a ripple effect. The Newrybar vendor had gone on to negotiate the purchase of another luxury property in Byron Bay. That deal has now also fallen through, with the house back up for sale with a reduced $4.5 million asking price.

The rural holding sits on what is considered to be an exclusive ridgeline offering panoramic ocean and hinterland views. The current owners had sought to develop the property but had multiple applications rejected by Ballina Shire Council.

Three local snoops, who asked not to be identified to speak freely about the property deal, report that local real estate baron and media proprietor Antony Catalano, who’s had success gaining approval for multimillion-dollar developments on sensitive sites in the area, may have been the buyer of the Old Byron Bay Road property.

Repeated attempts by CBD to confirm this with the man himself, the owner of the property and the sales agent have gone unanswered.

Catalano is before the courts in Melbourne on eight charges relating to an alleged domestic assault on his wife, Stefanie Catalano, in their St Kilda penthouse apartment in March.

In August last year, Catalano set up a new corporate vehicle – Old Byron Bay Farm Pty Ltd – with his eldest son, Jordan Catalano, as a director. In July this year, Jordan was replaced as director by Antony and Stefanie, who have reconciled since the alleged assault.

Pauline, please explain

Pauline Hanson said this week that she’d take a closer look at future videos in her Please Explain cartoons, a step towards taking responsibility for content made in her name.

That was after the One Nation leader apologised for mocking independent Tasmanian senator and army veteran Jacqui Lambie’s vaginal prolapse in an episode of what Hanson describes as her satirical take on politics.

When Lambie first objected to the cartoon, Hanson told her Senate colleague to “lighten up” and “get over it”. “It’s actually satirical,” she said.

But as well as looking forward, Hanson might do well to take a deep dive into her back catalogue.

A Please Explain episode from 2024 is re-emerging as the nation processes the devastating attack on federal MP Helen Haines.

The animation in question features Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, ex-premier Daniel Andrews, national treasure Bluey and zookeeper-turned-TV-host Robert Irwin.

First, the former premier drives an SUV into Irwin and Bluey in an apparent reference to the road accident involving Andrews; his wife, Catherine Andrews; and a then 15-year-old “Bike Boy”, Ryan Meuleman. In the cartoon Albo is the front-seat passenger.

The pollies dump the bodies in the Yarra. Bluey resurfaces and is next seen slamming the speeding SUV straight into Andrews.

“Oh Bluey, thank goodness, he was completely out of control right?” Albo says.

The angry blue heeler then reverses the car, turns it around and eyeballs the PM before driving it straight into him.

Roll credits, with Hanson and her national director, James Ashby, among the work’s producers.

We called One Nation to check on its definition of satire. We’re still waiting to hear back.

Guerra bounces back, for now

Sacked Demons boss Paul Guerra has scored a new job, six months after he was dumped from the club.

But how long he’ll be in this role looks set to swing on the outcome of the November state election.

Premier Ben Carroll on Thursday named Guerra, who was at Melbourne for a mere seven months, new chair of the authority that runs the Melbourne Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable Market in Epping.

The issue for Guerra is that the announcement comes a mere 24 hours after Opposition Leader Jess Wilson pledged to flog off the market if she wins government, using what she says would be a $578 million windfall from the privitisation to help pay down the state’s debt.

Guerra, who before the Dees was CEO of the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and is still on the board of Racing Victoria, landed the market gig after what the government said was a competitive recruitment process.

We just hope he negotiated a golden parachute.

Fintech firm brings in former Trump A-G

Airwallex co-founder and chief executive Jack Zhang would have it that concerns aired by a Republican-controlled congressional committee in the US over the company’s links to China are a conspiratorial political campaign seeded by competitors.

So it’s little wonder the Melbourne-founded fintech firm has brought in big-name reinforcements, led by Donald Trump’s former attorney-general Bill Barr, to try to suck the oxygen out of the China talk.

Fresh lobbying disclosures, released this week, show Barr’s firm was retained by Airwallex to lobby members of the US House of Representatives, the Department of Justice and the Treasury Department on the heels of the mounting Republican backlash.

Barr, who served as attorney-general under Trump for about two years from early 2019, has worked as an adviser to Airwallex since at least September, when he signed a letter defending the company against accusations by Republican John Moolenaar that Airwallex’s links to China have the potential to compromise sensitive US financial data and present “significant national security risk exposure”.

Zhang argues the allegations-cum-concerns don’t originate from a security breach, regulatory findings or concerns raised by national security agencies.

Instead, he blames high-profile Silicon Valley venture capitalist Keith Rabois – a member of the so-called PayPal Mafia whose Khosla Ventures backs the company Ramp, another payments business.

“Airwallex is confronting a competitor-driven smear campaign in the United States over data security and sovereignty. Former US attorney-general William Barr is one of the most respected voices in Washington and is supporting the company against this baseless campaign,” an Airwallex spokesman told CBD.

Airwallex, of course, isn’t only under fire in the US. In January, Australia’s financial crimes agency AUSTRAC ordered the appointment of an external audit of the company to assess whether it was meeting its obligations, with the regulator suspecting “serious non-compliance”.

From where we’re sitting, Barr might need some help.

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