Hundreds more residents living on the troubled Couran Cove Island Resort off the Gold Coast are facing mounting uncertainty, with their essential services set to be axed tomorrow.
Police are on high alert amid fears tensions will boil over, as electricity, water and gas services are cut from all 360 dwellings from 10am.
The residents at Couran Cove, a development on South Stradbroke Island, in Queensland have been battling in an ongoing legal dispute with service providers over claims millions are owed.
It has been nine weeks since some residents had their gas, power and water switched off over claims of unpaid levies.
The remaining residents now fear they’ll be locked out of the community, with many claiming they’ve been offered almost no help.
Queensland Police officers say they’re on standby to travel to the island if things become hostile amid the shut down.
Some locals say they plan to stand their ground using portaloos and batteries to get them through, though many have already fled to the mainland.
Many families have returned to the Gold Coast.
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They say the situation is now “desperate”.
“It’s pretty empty,” property owner Eva Bentley said.
“So there’s a few people that are probably going to leave soon, so that’ll be last minute.
“People are uncertain, they don’t know what’s going to happen.
“There’s not much information.”
Calls for the Queensland Government to appoint an independent manager to resolve the feud have begun to mount.
The government says it’s monitoring the situation, though said it’s an “incredibly complex, private dispute”.
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