A politician, a developer and a monk walk into a bar...
Of all mad stories I've been told and all the crazy people I've met since starting Spark Shoalhaven, nothing beats the saga of Comberton's Shaolin Temple.
But it's no joke. It's serious business.
by Cat Holloway
(With excerpts of documents provided to ICAC, Ombudsman and the Office of Local Government from Peter Allison and others.)
Even this international tale of bargain basement land sales, Chinese Communist Party corruption claims, mysterious mortgages and millions of tonnes of lost road material, still only scratches the surface of decades of dodgy deals centring on...you guessed it...the Shoalhaven Independents Group (SIG).
The complex twists and turns, the web-like network of 'friends', dense engineering reports, military strategies and irrefutable evidence of toxic waste dumping is worthy of a book - one which might be serialised on this site soon, if there's reader appetite.
But in recent months more people have started asking: "Whatever happened to that Buddhist Temple?" And: "Why are our roads so $h*t?"
The answer to both those questions can be found buried underground at Comberton Grange – and at Tomerong.
Before we start shovelling, here's a summary of the situation, while the people who know this so intimately from years of work, gather their stacks of material and prepare it for public release.
John Hatton's series of videos recently earned him a defamation suit from SIG patriarch, ex-Mayor Greg Watson. Watson withdrew the claim, but Hatton successfully sued Watson for legal costs. A former Shoalhaven Shire Council President and long-standing independent member for South Coast, John Hatton AO instigated the Woods Royal Commission and was on the oversight committee for ICAC. He is well versed regarding matters of corruption.
A Tale of Two Quarries
A small cadre of persistent local researchers have spent more than 16 years uncovering the truth of what really happened at Comberton and Tomerong quarries and how the deals done there 20 years ago still define Shoalhaven.
They are not activists, investors or fame seekers. Their agenda is truth and justice.
But it turns out, investigating was the easy part. Convincing official corruption watchdogs like the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and the Ombudsman to take notice proved much harder.
Nevertheless, the questions we ask daily about why Shoalhaven Council is so broke, why our infrastructure is so run down and why our politics is so conservative are inextricably tied to decisions made long ago, by a select powerful few, to sell-off public land assets.
That legacy is one we are still paying for, dearly.
It's relevance today is felt every time we blow out tyres on potholes, pay rising rates and watch a Council, dominated by SIG and their developer buddies, turn Shoalhaven into a privatise party.
Pasts tend to return to haunt us and so it goes that Shoalhaven Council's CEO, Andrew Constance, actually played a galant cameo role in this epic way back in the early years of his career as a State MP.
In a June 2006 motion to NSW Parliament, Constance called on the Ministers for Planning and Local Government to haul then-Mayor Greg Watson over the coals for his extravagant trip to China with other councillors to secure the sale of Comberton to Shaolin's top Buddhist monk.
Constance moved that the House:
"Records its dissatisfaction with the level of community consultation with respect to this sale and the fact that this contract for sale of council property was not signed in the City of Shoalhaven."
Constance sought for the State to insert themselves into SIG's Shaolin Buddhist Temple project to:
"counsel Mayor Greg Watson about his conduct which flies in the face of the residents of Shoalhaven, left behind to deal with his excessive rate variation proposals."
Alas, that call for government to defend the people made no difference.
Watson and his cronies made arguably the worst deal of the century: they sold Council's 1200ha Comberton Grange land for just $5m to a massive international religious and cultural organisation that the Chinese Communist Party have now stepped in to investigate over a corruption and sex scandal.
Where is the Shaolin Temple project at now?
Let's begin at the end.
Abbot Shi Yongxin, the 'CEO Monk' of the world-renowned Shaolin Temple cultural franchise and purchaser of Shoalhaven Council's Comberton Grange property, is currently is under investigation in China by multiple agencies for long-term embezzlement, misappropriating funds and fathering illegitimate children with multiple mistresses.
The Chinese government (CCP) announced the investigation in July this year and the Chinese Buddhist Association revoked the Abbot's credentials.
The charges remain unresolved and Shi Yongxin has disappeared.
Reportedly, he previously left a message with friends saying, if he was arrested, people should not trust the official information as the allegations of money laundering were orchestrated by the CCP itself.
Amy Hawkins
What's significant about this to the Shoalhaven project is that the Chinese government has now moved to 'de-commercialise' Shaolin Temples around the world to save the global martial arts and Buddhism brand from further disrepute.
But Shoalhaven's Shaolin vision at Comberton was approved on the basis that the first building project must be the temple tourism attraction.
The other proposed works (golf course, convention centre, hotel, Kung-Fu academy, medicinal herb farm) were to come only after that temple was built.
So, what is happening at Comberton Grange now? Nothing.
Here's a snapshot:
- Some of the land is currently leased by a neighbouring farm to agist cattle.
- No employees work at the site
- No mining of the quarry contents has happened (more on this below)
- The land was sold for $5M in 2006 but not paid for until 2015.
- A dubious mortgage arrangement allowed Shaolin those nine years to pay up.
- Two development applications were rejected by the NSW Government.
- The original agreement was, if the development didn't proceed, Shoalhaven Council could buy back the land at the sale price. But this clause was mysteriously reversed under Mayor Joanna Gash. Why, is anyone's guess.
No government oversight bodies have, thus far, agreed to investigate Shoalhaven Council's Shaolin/Comberton deal that saw 1200ha of prime public land – partly forested, feeding into Currumbene Creek and the Jervis Bay Marine Park and situated between two significant nearby military bases – sold cheaply to a Chinese Communist Party-linked foreign investment entity which is now being investigated for fraud and has not progressed any works on the site.
Who benefited from this bizarre deal - and how?
Was there interest paid on the 9-year mortgage? What rates apply now? So many unanswered questions for a Council whose shocking financial circumstances could have been avoided and our regions' neglected facilities and communities could be improved - if only that remarkable asset had remained in public hands.
The Council’s representative in the Comberton/Shaolin transaction was Shoalhaven Council's then Director of Citywide Services, John Wells, who became a member of Team Gash and a Shoalhaven Independent Group (SIG) councillor.
Then SIG Mayor, Greg Watson, was also involved and developed a friendship (according to their social media) with Shaolin's local agent, Patrick Pang.
Representing the buyer was Mr. Phil Balding, accountant for the Shoalhaven Independent Group and the party's current Returning Officer.
Notably, until 2016, the registered office of the Shaolin Temple Foundation Australia Ltd was Mr. Phil Balding’s accountant’s office in Nowra.
The same local political party, the Shoalhaven Independents Group, whose leaders enthusiastically pursued this sale and bent over backwards to keep the dying deal alive, were voted back in 2024 as the Council majority and are right now champing at the bit to sell off more Shoalhaven land to outside investors.
As Mayor Patricia White likes to say: "Shoalhaven is open for business."
From community submissions to ICAC and the NSW Ombudsman
The “buy back” clause incorporated into the contract for sale was instituted as a safeguard for the residents and ratepayers of the Shoalhaven by then-Mayor Paul Green. This stipulated that, should the contract not be executed and the funds remitted, or if the proposal for the Temple failed to materialise, Council had authority to reclaim the land at the purchase price.
The initial cheque payments were returned due to insufficient funds; why was the contract not rendered void in light of this breach? Mayor Watson publicly declared that the proposal was "dead in the water" prior to the final payments being made. Why did the Council not resume ownership of the land at that juncture?
It is of utmost importance that ... concerns and issues be thoroughly investigated for potential corrupt or criminal conduct and maladministration. The most favorable outcome would be for the community and Council to reclaim the quarry for use in the local road network, which is currently in a state of disrepair and deteriorating at an alarming rate.
Reports from the Council indicate that 51% of the local road network is suffering from failing pavement beneath the bitumen. The current valuation of the materials within the quarry and 'Currumbene Dome' is estimated at $936 million today, a stark contrast to the paltry sum of $500,000 for which it was sold in 2006.
The residents of Shoalhaven are entitled to the truth and a comprehensive understanding of the ramifications stemming from historical actions and inactions that have culminated in the precarious state of their Council.
What's the temple got to do with all the potholes?
According to local engineers and researchers who have spent 16 years analysing this case, the real estate development controversy is nothing compared to what they now estimate is more than $1 billion worth of high quality road building material sold off for 'peanuts' to overseas interests as part of the Comberton/Shaolin deal.
Comberton quarry was an extremely valuable community owned asset and the NSW and Commonwealth Surveys stated the quarry was a significant hard rock quarry that must be protected from future development.
In 1990, a task force committee articulated the necessity for quarry materials, predicated on a current and projected roadworks expenditure program spanning a 20-year period. It specified that the “most desirable for maximum pavement longevity is a sandstone sub-base with a dolerite base.”
A 1990 report from the then deputy city engineer Barry Russell pointed to the important role Comberton quarry could play - and the savings it could offer Shoalhaven City Council.
“Based upon council’s current and projected roadworks expenditure programs – over a 20-year period, council has a road pavement material demand for new works, network upgrading, and road rehabilitation of over six million cubic metres,” Mr Russell said”.
“ The sandstone and dolerite deposit under the ground at Comberton Grange was noted in the Jervis Bay Settlement Strategy of 2003 as being significant to the entire South Coast, and in need of protection from impact by development”.
The 200-hectare quarry was initially excluded from the sale of the land due to its significance and importance to the residents of the South Coast and Shoalhaven, as referenced in the Council minutes from August 2004.
However, during an inconspicuous Policy and Planning Committee meeting on 5th October 2004, a resolution was passed: “The General Manager expedite the marketing strategy for the proposed sale of Part Lot 1. Council advise that this obscure reference rescinds the plain English resolution of the August 31st Council meeting which had resolved to “excise the land required for quarry operations and access road”.
The quarry is now included in the property to be marketed by Council.”
Losing access to Comberton quarry meant that Shoalhaven's (and beyond) road building was dependent on the Tomerong Quarry which not only contained much lower quality materials, but also became a repository for 300,000 tonnes of potentially toxic waste, including carcinogenic asbestos, which now sits under our crumbling roads and near Jervis Bay waterways.
Council documents obtained under a GIPA request, revealed that dangerous material was illegally transported to Tomerong quarry to be mixed with the quarry's existing earth and resold as road base.
According to Peter Allison, who has scrutinised this tale of two quarries for years, the motives and beneficiaries behind Comberton's sale and Tomerong's operations warrant deep forensic investigation - especially because of the potential public health risk.
But it is Shoalhaven's roads, drivers and ratepayers that could gain most.
"There remains an ample supply of material in the quarry and Comberton Grange, sufficient to entirely reconstruct the Shoalhaven local road network nearly twice over, " Allison said.
"Astonishingly, the Council divested this valuable asset in 2006 for a mere $500,000 — yes, five hundred thousand dollars—yet it is now valued at potentially over a billion dollars.
"It certainly was not in the public interest to divest such a valuable community-owned asset without any community input or consultation, ultimately to the detriment of the public coffers."
The cost of road base from private suppliers escalated significantly following Council's Comberton Grange quarry being sold to Shaolin Temple.
Back then, Mayor Greg Watson, reportedly shared a close association with a number of private quarry operators, including Greg Todd, the proprietor of Tomerong Quarry, who was a donor to the Shoalhaven Independents party
Ex-Shoalhaven Council engineer, Peter Jirgens said, before the sale, he was under political pressure and internal Council pressure to stop mixing clay with Comberton rock to create a high quality roadbase.
“Once you mixed the dolerite with the clay, there’s no better road building material,” Mr Jirgens said in the South Coast Register.
Jirgens told SCR reporter Glenn Ellard that opposition to this method was "driven by other business operators who were faced with losing valuable contracts lobbying councillors, who put pressure on staff."
It's not known who or how the sale of the public-owned Comberton Grange Quarry was ultimately influenced. But the exorbitant cost to roads and vehicle owners of Shoalhaven's sub-par, shale-based roads is an enduring legacy.
It's nearly 20 years since Comberton Grange was sold to the Chinese Shaolin Temple to build a tourism attraction.
If we have learned anything, it's that councillors are not real estate agents.
How wrong Mayor Greg Watson turned out to be in that fateful 2006 conversation with Kiama MP Matt Brown whose Chinese contacts were looking for land.
"Have I got a deal for you," Mayor Watson said.
