Wednesday 21 May 2003, Media Release

NSWALC SELLS "KESTRAL" BUILDING

The NSW Aboriginal Land Council has sold the beleaguered "Kestral Building" in Market Street in Wollongong for $7 million at auction today.

The unfinished apartment building was inherited in 2002 by the NSW Aboriginal Land Council as the first mortgagee of THE failed development company, Kestral Properties. Loans made to Kestral by the NSW Aboriginal Land Council were part of a now-discontinued investment policy pursued by the Council in the late nineties and strongly criticised in reports by the Auditor General.

"It has been a long process from inheriting this unfinished building in April 2002, to finally selling it today," Chairperson, Les Trindall said.

"When we inherited this building, we inherited a lot of problems and the results of some very bad investment decisions made by the previous Council.

"The mortgage scheme has been a thorn in this Council's side for our entire term in office but we are hoping that this sale, coupled with some resolutions on other properties which are currently in the hands of our lawyers, will mean a resolution to the mortgage loan debacle and a clean slate for the new Council to be elected sometime at the end of the year."

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