“We release 57,000 turtle hatchlings into the wild each year, and locals from neighbouring atolls are trained and paid to protect these endangered species instead of hunting them”
beach clubs, overwater bungalows and a 3km-long causeway linking the two largest islands. Essentially, a paradise for the super-rich. But only one investor, acclaimed Australian landscape photographer Anthony Horth, agreed to buy a plot and the proposal was nixed. Gowrie-Smith did, however, come up with a far more feasible plan B in the following year: a deal with Carnival Cruise Lines to include Panasesa Island as a stop on its popular PNG and South Pacific island cruises. Between 2016 and 2020, 12 to 18 cruise ships visited each year, each one bringing up to 1600 day-trippers. And as these cruise ships took all the inorganic rubbish they created with them, the atoll’s environment remained pristine. “There won’t be as much as a loose cigarette butt left on the island,” Gowrie-Smith told me – a claim I validated when I revisited in 2018 and scoured the beach on Panasesa Island for trash the day after a cruise ship called in. The deal with Carnival Cruise Lines generated AU$500,000 to
AU$1.5 million in revenue per year – most of which the owner sunk back into costly infrastructure that included a cyclone-proof floating jetty, restaurants, a 9m liveaboard vessel, glass- bottom boats, kayaks,
Green turtle hatchlings are
released as part of conservation work at the Conflicts that has been ongoing over the past 20 years
outrigger catamarans and a dive centre. He also employed around 100 Milne Bay locals – “many more than what was necessary because my aim was not to make money but provide employment as a way to direct income that led to positive conservation outcomes,” Gowrie-Smith said at the time. Jump forward to today and the revenue stream is back, but it will take some time to build to pre-pandemic levels. So is $25 million a fair asking price? A retired private-island broker in Australia said on condition of anonymity he does
not believe the Conflict Group will fetch that much in today’s volatile global economy. “I think the owner is desperate to sell them because we’re about to enter a recessionary period. And the first thing the super-rich do at times like this is to sell off their islands and yachts. How much are they really worth? The cruise ship business certainly adds value but is very difficult to quantify and the market is now flooded with similar options. $25 million? There’s no way he’ll get that much.” Farhad Vladi of Vladi Private Islands, a private-island broker
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