Bankruptcy drama for theatre entrepreneur Michael Edgley
Michael Edgley, the theatre entrepreneur who hit the big time in the 1980s with the Moscow Circus and, more recently with Cirque du Soleil, has been bankrupted owing about $7 million to his creditors.
His financial troubles stem from a $4.5 million Challenger loan in 2007 on a Gold Coast hinterland holding.
Edgley likened the hinterland Lower Beechmont district to Beverly Hills or Bel Air in Los Angeles, but repeated attempts to sell the holding failed until its recent mortgagee listing.
Edgley filed his statement of affairs with his trustees Nick Combis and Peter Dinoris on July 13.
He now gives his address as a five-bedroom house on three hinterland hectares that was sold for $1.3 million in 2009 at Tallai to a company directed by his wife, Justine Summers.
It was 2005 when Edgley first tried to sell the 26-hectare hinterland estate with ambitious $12 million expectations. In 2008 it was relisted with $8 million hopes. Offers over $5 million were sought in 2009. It sold earlier this year for $2.35 million through Ray White Broadbeach, which marketed it as a potentially luxurious, partially renovated home in need of TLC.
The property, with views from Stradbroke Island to the Tweed Coast, was bought in 2001. Sitting 350 metres above sea level, the property has three separate dwellings plus resort-style facilities including an authentic Japanese bath house, tennis court, swimming pool and mediation area.
Challenger sued Edgley in the Queensland Supreme Court last month in an attempt to force him to repay the loan.
Edgley has not yet filed a defence to the claim but offered $500,000 to settle the debt, according to the Daily Telegraph report by Vanda Carson. The offer has not been accepted, and negotiations are continuing.
Edgley says he took up property development in retirement following his successful career in entertainment.
"I felt that I had enough of that life [in showbiz]. It was a wonderful time, and I was looking to do other things.
"This development became my passion, but property development was obviously not my area of expertise," he says. "I'm not turning my back on my creditors, I'm endeavouring to work through the situation."
In 2002 the family company sold its nearby 100-hectare Guanaba holding, which was sold for $1.7 million and had cost $20,500 in 1973.
During his heyday Edgley variously had homes on Wolseley Road, Point Piper, the Hunters Hill Riverfront, the Gold Coast's prestigious Hedges Avenue and Jutland Parade, Dalkeith in Perth.
In March he married his partner of 12 years, the former principal ballerina for the Australian ballet Justine Summers. They have two children.
Michael Edgley's involvement in his family's theatrical management business began at the age of 19. In 1967 at the age of 23 Edgley took over management of the family company.
It was in 1920 when Eric Edgley and his brother Clem Dawe, born Eric and Clem White, were invited to Australia by J. C. Williamson Ltd. in 1920 to star in the pantomime Sinbad the Sailor at the King's Theatre, Melbourne. The subsequent success of this production encouraged their families join them in Australia and the establishment of the production company Edgley and Dawe in the mid-1920s.
