Great Barrier Reef’s Hamilton Island to be bought by US private equity firm in reported $1.2bn sale | Queensland

Hamilton Island, a popular tropical holiday destination on the Great Barrier Reef, has been sold to a US private equity firm, reportedly for $1.2bn.

New York-headquartered Blackstone – which owns the casino-hotel chain Crown Resorts – released a statement on Tuesday night announcing it had entered into an agreement to acquire the Hamilton Island resort from the Oatley family, subject to customary regulatory approvals.

The Oatley family released a statement saying they welcomed the new owners of an island that has a such a “special place in the hearts of many Australians” that it has become “Australia’s Tropical Island”.

Hamilton is almost 900km north of Brisbane and about 500km south of Cairns on Queensland’s tropical coast.

_{Sign up: AU Breaking News email}

The late Robert Oatley, a billionaire, sailor and winemaker, bought the resort for $200m after spying the island from the deck of a yacht while sailing through the Whitsundays in 2003.

Blackstone said Hamilton spanned more than 1,130 hectares across two islands, 30% of which is developed, consisting of “five hotels, more than 20 restaurants and bars, 20 retail outlets, an 18-hole championship golf course on neighboring Dent Island, a marina and a commercial airport”.

“Hamilton Island is a significant employer in the Whitsundays, supporting a large on-island community and workforce as well as a broad network of regional partners, suppliers, and local businesses,” it said in a statement.

The company’s regional head of real estate, Chris Heady, said Blackstone was “honored to build on the vision and dedication that the Oatley family” in the “heart of the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef”.

“We are committed to investing in the long-term success of Hamilton Island, its people, and its local businesses and community,” he said.

Blackstone owns hotels and luxury resorts in Japan, India, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and the United States.

The traditional lands and seas of the Ngaro people, the Whitsundays derive their name from Captain James Cook, who sailed the Endeavour through a passage between the archipelago of 74 idyllic islands on Sunday 3 June 1770 – the day Whit Sunday is celebrated on the Christian calendar.

Hamilton’s development boom first began in the 1980s.

For decades prior to that, it was home to galvanised iron huts and more humble quarters that housed domestic holidaymakers who came in from the outback and from the south.