Surf Lakes puts dormant Yeppoon wave pool site up for sale

It was invitation-only, and plans to open it to the public never happened, according to the ABC. Surfing champion Mark Occhilupo helped design a wave called Occy’s Peak, and actor Chris Hemsworth is among those who visited.

Surf Lakes Queensland managing director and global chief operating officer Lewis Glynn issued the company statement. He said the Yeppoon site was “established as a research, development and demonstration facility.”

The ABC reports that founder Aaron Trevis, who grew up on the Capricorn Coast and chose the site, left the company as it shifted away from Queensland toward a development in Austin, Texas.

The numbers

• Price: the site is understood to be on the market for about $4 million, per the ABC. The outlet does not name the sale agency or give a land size.
• Wave output: more than 2,000 waves an hour across five wave types, as described by the ABC.
• Approvals: the sale includes council approvals from 2022 for a tourism development. The ABC lists a tourist park with 150 accommodation rooms and 100 caravan sites.
• Stage one: glamping and camping sites, cabins, restaurants, a scuba pool, a skate park, a learn-to-surf lagoon and a solar farm.
• Stage two: a boutique hotel, an aqua park and a village green, estimated by the ABC to draw up to 300,000 visitors a year.

What’s next

Sale agents are seeking interest from surf lake developers or buyers with other uses, the ABC reports.

Capricorn Enterprise chief executive Mary Carroll told the outlet the rural location would make the site hard to market because it was built specifically as a surf park, and that the market would decide whether the price is justified. She also said local shareholders who invested in Surf Lakes would still want a good return from the sale.

The ABC adds that only two wave pool surf parks in Australia are open to the public. Dozens have been proposed by developers over the past decade, but many have struggled to raise capital.

The Australian Developer will follow any listing detail or buyer announcement. For other Queensland sites changing hands, see the Graya Coral approval at Palm Beach.