Island dreams easy to wreck
ANYONE who watched Gilligan’s Island knows a hapless nincompoop cannot dream of a better deal than being marooned on a tropical isle with a band of misfit castaways.
Life’s a breeze — your wacky companions are a barrel of laughs, your resident professor can fashion any item known to man out of coconuts, and your chief concern will be fielding a barrage of enthusiastic seduction attempts by a lusty movie starlet named Ginger Grant.
For those wealthy folk who make the mad plunge and buy tropical island resorts, the reality is a different kettle of fish.
One key issue makes it just about the riskiest decision imaginable. It is almost impossible to find an insurer willing to touch you.
So when disaster strikes, as it has a habit of doing, you are up the creek without a professor to whip up an outboard motor from coconut husks.
Fitzroy Island owner Doug Gamble is one of the luckier ones.
He is technically retired now, having handed his day-to-day duties to the next generation, but it’s that uncomfortable kind of retirement in which one still winds up working seven days a week.
Mr Gamble said his was one of very few island resorts on the Great Barrier Reef with insurance.
“We’ve always been insured, but you always cover a large share of the risk yourself to do that,” he said.
“It’s almost impossible. “I understand from talking to the insurers that there’s only about two places on the whole of the Barrier Reef that are insured.”
That’s not to say island ownership is a walk in the park for Mr Gamble.
The lack of freehold title, environmental red tape and fluctuating tourism patterns make it a volatile business to be involved in — but at the moment, at least, visitation is right up there despite the pandemic travel bans.
A particularly angry storm surge could still cause significant damage, which would cost Mr Gamble a motza, even with insurance, but it is a calculated risk.
“We still bear a massive cost but I’ve been there since 2010,” he said.
“I know people who have been involved in the island for the past 50 years, and it’s pretty well protected there.
“That’s one of the reasons we can get insurance.”
Others are not so fortunate.
Think about Dunk Island.
It was a jewel in Queensland’s tourism crown until it was smashed by Cyclone Yasi in 2011, then nothing.
It sat for almost a decade in tatters until Mayfair 101 unveiled its plan to transform the island and neighbouring Mission Beach into a $1.6 billion tourism mecca — but how long before a strong wind comes along and history repeats itself?
Islands are the extreme, but tourism operators, other business owners, homeowners and not-for-profits up here all face ridiculously exorbitant fees for insurance cover the rest of the country takes for granted.
Cairns Regional Council Mayor Bob Manning prodded the elephant in the room this week and called for the reintroduction of a state-sponsored insurance scheme to help bridge the gap.
“Our politicians, federal and state, have talked about this for a long time but nothing happens,” he said.
“I’m not somebody who greatly supports government-run instrumentalities.
“I always think they end up costing more than they should.
“(But) there are times for government to step up to the mark and maybe support people, giving them the support that they need to be able to get access to services, because you can’t get them from the marketplace.”
The council voted unanimously to write to the State Government requesting an investigation into the proposal with a particular focus on serving tropical Queensland and other island and coastal communities.
Even the shipwrecked SS Minnow from Gilligan’s Island was covered by insurance, with company Pacific and Western eventually paying out the Skipper and sending him a brand new vessel.
Unfortunately, its replacement, Minnow II, got stuck in a tempest after the dunderheaded Gilligan removed a magnet from the compass while cleaning.
Still, there are worse islands to be stuck on.
Ever heard of Melbourne?