Relief starts to appear
A BIZARRE situation has emerged with Cairns Regional Council trying to slug a business with a 60 per cent rent rise while simultaneously offering a temporary 50 per cent coronavirus discount.
Cairns Botanic Gardens Restaurant and Cafe owner Kimara Timms rents her property from the council, which has tried for months to apply a steep 60 per cent rent increase.
Barely a customer is in sight as the restaurant struggles to make ends meet but the council refuses to budge.
“In the last two weeks, council’s lawyers have written to me twice, putting more pressure on me to accept this rent increase,” Ms Timms said.
“I have tried for months to negotiate with council for a reasonable and realistic rent increase of say, CPI, but have been told by no less than the CEO himself that their rent increase is not negotiable.
“Even if you take coronavirus away, would anyone in their right mind agree to a 60 per cent rent increase?”
EXPERIENCE CO has shed its white water rafting and hot air ballooning operations in Far North Queensland to survive the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Wollongong-based tourism company informed its Raging Thunder Adventures staff yesterday it would be immediately halting white water rafting on the Tully and Barron rivers and hot air ballooning on the Atherton Tableland.
Experience Co identified the tour subsidiary during a strategic review late last year as being “non-core” to the company’s business, giving staff an uncertain future.
Experience Co chief executive John O’Sullivan said the decision to suspend operations was made after the company considered the ongoing economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
About 20 full-time staff have been made redundant and more than 80 casual staff have been stood down.
“Our marine business is still operating on a reduced schedule, but it’s still operating and we’re still fully committed to that, as we are to our skydiving drop zones in Cairns and Mission (Beach),” Mr O’Sullivan said. “But for our white water rafting and ballooning businesses, we’ve made the decision to suspend operations for the time being.”
He said the company had contacted customers with bookings to make other arrangements for them, or in some cases, provide refunds.
Raging Thunder is regarded as having pioneered white water rafting in Queensland in 1984, starting with a humble operation on the Tully River. The business, which later branched out to ballooning at Mareeba, was bought by Experience Co for $15 million in 2016, alongside several other FNQ based tour operations.