Doomsday cult Agape Ministries' Kuitpo compound to be auctioned
News.com, Australia/July 29, 2014
A Kuitpo compound owned by the notorious Agape Ministries doomsday cult will be auctioned next Friday.
The property, known as Kuitpo Colony Retreat, is located at 737 Blackfellows Creek Rd and is being sold off by the controversial cult at the order of the District Court to liquidate its assets.
The cult owes the Australian Taxation Office $3 million in unpaid taxes and must also satisfy a compensation award to a former parishioner.
The doomsday cult’s leader, Rocco Leo, allegedly duped parishioners out of millions of dollars by convincing them that the Earth’s population would be impregnated with microchips containing their personal information.
Mr Leo allegedly said those who refused the chips would be gassed or beheaded in government-run concentration camps.
Mr Leo also allegedly promised to keep profoundly disabled parishioner Silvia Melchiorre safe on ‘The Island’ in the South Pacific where he would heal her.
The property, being sold by Ray White Mount Barker real estate agents Murray Story and Ian McSkimming, includes several buildings and is set on a 15.3ha allotment.
It features a manager’s residence with four bedrooms and two bathrooms, a main hall with a raised stage, projection room and various adjoining meeting rooms; four separate dormitory complexes, each with 12 bedrooms, and a communal camp-style dining/mess area with an upgraded kitchen.
It also features a dam and the fenced paddocks which Mr Story says could be used for small-scale grazing, horse agistment or hay production.
“It is quite a unique offering, and something quite out of the ordinary,” Mr Story says.
“It has been run like a church campsite originally and it would open itself up to a whole range of things, but we’re trying not to earmark it in any sort of direction because it has got such a wide scope of uses.
“Subject to consent I would think this may be run as a commercial venture.
“It’s out of the way a bit and we could see a group turn it into a rural retreat or a rural youth camp.”
Mr Story said he was hopeful the property would sell under the hammer but would not speculate on its potential value.
“There’s been fairly reasonable interest and we had an open day on the weekend and we had a handful of reasonably keen people show up, so we’re reasonably confident it will get sold,” Mr Story says.
“It needs to be sold but because of the nature of the sale we’re not quoting any price in any way, shape or form.
The property, known as Kuitpo Colony Retreat, is located at 737 Blackfellows Creek Rd and is being sold off by the controversial cult at the order of the District Court to liquidate its assets.
The cult owes the Australian Taxation Office $3 million in unpaid taxes and must also satisfy a compensation award to a former parishioner.
The doomsday cult’s leader, Rocco Leo, allegedly duped parishioners out of millions of dollars by convincing them that the Earth’s population would be impregnated with microchips containing their personal information.
Mr Leo allegedly said those who refused the chips would be gassed or beheaded in government-run concentration camps.
Mr Leo also allegedly promised to keep profoundly disabled parishioner Silvia Melchiorre safe on ‘The Island’ in the South Pacific where he would heal her.
The property, being sold by Ray White Mount Barker real estate agents Murray Story and Ian McSkimming, includes several buildings and is set on a 15.3ha allotment.
It features a manager’s residence with four bedrooms and two bathrooms, a main hall with a raised stage, projection room and various adjoining meeting rooms; four separate dormitory complexes, each with 12 bedrooms, and a communal camp-style dining/mess area with an upgraded kitchen.
It also features a dam and the fenced paddocks which Mr Story says could be used for small-scale grazing, horse agistment or hay production.
“It is quite a unique offering, and something quite out of the ordinary,” Mr Story says.
“It has been run like a church campsite originally and it would open itself up to a whole range of things, but we’re trying not to earmark it in any sort of direction because it has got such a wide scope of uses.
“Subject to consent I would think this may be run as a commercial venture.
“It’s out of the way a bit and we could see a group turn it into a rural retreat or a rural youth camp.”
Mr Story said he was hopeful the property would sell under the hammer but would not speculate on its potential value.
“There’s been fairly reasonable interest and we had an open day on the weekend and we had a handful of reasonably keen people show up, so we’re reasonably confident it will get sold,” Mr Story says.
“It needs to be sold but because of the nature of the sale we’re not quoting any price in any way, shape or form.
Police searched the property in 2010 and seized batons, fuses, detonators, detonator cords and about 20,000 rounds of high-powered ammunition.
A police spokesman at the time said ammunition was hidden inside the steel frames of bedheads and also in shipping containers.
For a while the property sported a sign reading “Exclusion Notice — by order of the High Court of Australia” at the its front gate and trespassers risked a $500,000 fine.
If the property does not sell at auction, Judge David Lovell said he would appoint insolvency firm BRI Ferrier to do it.
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