Facts About Mount Warning Eco Village Scam

By Gi Linda.

“Truthology” was the deceptive front used as a database by Mark Darwin and Adrian Brennock in 2014, when they first began calling for investors to buy land and form a “Village Community.”

Mark Darwin aka "Dumass Boofhead"

Darwin and Brennock acquired $1.5 million to purchase the land, plus loans and superannuation, and established “Bhula Bhula Village Community”  at 3222 Kyogle Rd, Mt Burrell, NSW, Australia.  

But the “Village Community.” was governed by an improperly executed Trust that enabled Darwin and Brennock to betray the trust of the supposed "unit holders".  

Potential investors were misled by false representations and the silent omission of known restrictions on potential land use.  Investors who paid for the land were then disenfranchised with only a beneficial interest in an empty Trust.

Online “Truthology” marketing material was removed after the land-share scam was exposed in local newspapers in 2016.

Tweed Daily News: "Living in a Nightmare"

Many assurances were given to potential investors that development approval was in process, yet Darwin and Brennock never applied for the required permits, knowing that the land was protected as water catchment for a proposed future drinking water dam.

More than 21 investors who had purchased the communal property at Mt Burrell, were forcibly driven off the land during 2016-17, without return of their funds. 

Despite much pretense, investors have received no restitution as Darwin and Brennock attempt to take private control of the land through a deceptive “phoenix move.”

Adrian Brennock aka "Jimmy the Maggot"

Darwin and Brennock, after fleecing the purchasers of the 640 acre property, are again rattling the can, asking credulous investors to believe their "new promises" and give them money, as they aspire to purchase 3,000 acres and form another “Village Community” on adjoining property, together with landowner Peter van Lieshout.

Landowner Peter van Lieshout

"Mount Warning Eco Village” is again marketed by Darwin and Brennock with assurances that dwelling is permitted, and cabins are offered for sale. Yet the intended "Eco Village", like the failed "Bhula Bhula Village Community", is located on environmentally protected land. Again, there is NO DA in place for multiple occupancy on the land, and no application for development of a "Village Community" has been submitted to Tweed Shire Council, although Darwin and Brennock are, as before, loudly stating their "intention to extend existing permissions".

Mt Warning Eco Village - baiting with "alternative lifestyle" lures

The continual soliciting by Darwin and Brennock, of "mezzanine finance," "loans,” “advances," “ethical investments,” "superannuation funds"   and “pre-DA purchase of home-sites" on environmentally protected land without development approval has been ongoing since 2014. This is a SCAM that has already left investors with trust betrayed and shattered lives, defrauded of over $1.5 million.

Buyer Be Warned!

The Truth about Truthology

Nimbin GoodTimes removed the article, "The Truth about Bhula Bhula" from their online archive, promised a retraction and offered free full-page ads for a year after legal action was initiated by Mark Darwin, claiming over $3 million damages.

Litigation by Darwin is ongoing in Sydney Supreme Court on the Defamation list - "Darwin v Norman". With additional plaintiffs Adrian Brennock (Mr X / AB), Phillip 
Dixon and Steven McSween, Darwin filed a Notice of Motion for an urgent interlocutory injunction demanding that the blogs of the "Association of Investors Defrauded by Darwin" be taken down by court order.

Darwin and Brennock withdrew their request on June 21, recognizing that their evidence was deficient.

Darwin & co  then filed another Notice of Motion to have our blogs taken down as an "injurious falsehood" claim, also linking Mount Warning Eco village Pty Ltd with a complaint that these blogs are causing them to fail to secure loans that would enable them to purchase the property where they are fraudulently advertising home lots for sale on on environmentally protected land without development approval.

Litigation by Darwin & co, is accompanied by threats and attempted intimidation of the author of the article, as well as threats to other blog authors and administrators. 

Judgement by Justice Lucy McCallum is deferred pending compliance by Mt Warning Eco Village Pty Ltd with requests for more information regarding the claims of potential loss to their commercial interests as a supposed consequence of our blogs. 



The contested article,"The Truth about Bhula Bhula", is archived below:

The Truth about Bhula Bhula 
By Gi Linda -- Nimbin GoodTimes  --  October 2016, p.4

"Buyer beware, before your investment takes a one-way trip into the back pocket of a stranger’s snakeskin pants!" 

Legal action is in process by disillusioned investors in a community at Mt Burrell, near Nimbin. The community was founded by Mark Darwin through his organisation, ‘Truthology’. Investors warn that ‘Truthology’ presents a matrix of lies, using misleading marketing to facilitate acquisition of multi-million-dollar properties. Litigating investors attempting to recover losses and damages totaling more than $1.5 million also filed a police fraud report, sought protection against harassment and are pressing charges of defamation.

 Investors paid up to $120,000 for fake shares in the 640 acre property and some also transferred their superannuation, falsely assured by Mark Darwin that development applications were in process. Tweed Council’s warnings that no community would be permitted on the property were kept hidden. Only an inner circle knew that the advertised lots were protected for water catchment to a proposed dam at Byrrill Creek. An independent town planning report advising that multiple occupancy would not be allowed was hidden from investors, who began building dream-homes with exotic mountain views.

When Mark Darwin contemptuously called Mt Burrell ‘Hicksville’ boasting he would build the ‘village’ in defiance of council regulations, locals began investigating his past activities. Finding a long trail of murky footprints, they opposed him with a ‘Hicksville Party’ and activated a ‘Committee to Stop Mark Darwin’ that complained to Tweed Council about the emerging shanty-town in an environmentally protected area.

Bhula-Bhula Community

The community ‘Bhula-Bhula’ was advertised as an opportunity for ‘living in harmony,’ but soon after it began, the harmony was shattered by conflict. Those who sniffed a scam and called for accountability were menaced and driven out of the community. 

When an accidental fire in a camper almost set the forest ablaze, Tweed Council ordered everyone to leave. Investors were driven off the property without return of their funds and without share titles. Loans were not repaid. Despite calls for transparency, all books were hidden. The cattle were sold and abandoned paddocks overgrown with weeds.  A sign bolted to the broken front gate warned ‘ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!’

With Tweed Council and departing investors initiating litigation, Mark Darwin gifted free shares in the property to Aboriginal Sovereignty activist Gunham / Mark McMurtry, who moved his family into the abandoned homestead. Scorning ethics and government regulation as irrelevant, Mark Darwin’s clique continued marketing fake shares in property where no habitation is permitted. They cleared more forest, built new access roads and expanded their hot offer to include sale of unapproved lots with cabins on 3,000 acres of adjoining property in Nightcap Forest.

“Is the bubble about to burst?” The Truthology website provokes fears of immanent financial collapse as the community ‘village’ is promoted as an “ethical investment opportunity” at public meetings and ‘Freedom Summits’ in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne Perth, the Gold Coast and Byron Bay.

“What drives us is the opportunity to offer everyday Australians the option of investing their hard earned digits into ethical, eco-friendly, community driven projects. Many of our clients are also inspired by being able to vote with their superannuation by directing it into ethical, tangible and socially responsible areas.” 

Land-share Fraud

Adrian Brennock controlled the Mt Burrell property holding a single share of value $1 in Wollumbin Horizons Pty Ltd. This shell links to a web of other companies managed by Rainmaker Eco Investments.

In contrast to the losses of investors, the directors of Rainmaker Eco, did quite well last year. Living in beachfront luxury with holidays in Bali, Adrian Brennock and Philip Dixon bid on various million-dollar properties and successfully acquired the commercial precinct at Mt Burrell, including Sphinx Rock Cafe, shops, service station and caravan park.

Ignoring the debris of financial carnage, conflict and grief, Rainmaker Eco, with marketing manager Kelly McSween, brazenly continues advertising opportunities to invest in Mt Burrell ‘village,’ as Mark Darwin boldly calls for new cashed-up believers to finance his expanding dystopia: “This is a unique opportunity to buy into an entire village!!” 

Buyer beware, before your investment takes a one-way trip into the back pocket of a stranger’s snakeskin pants!

http://nimbingoodtimes.com/archive/pages2016/oct/NGT-1016-2-7.pdf See page 3 of pdf

Mt Warning Ecovillage - Dreamweavers of Deception

Truth On Trial - Part 3
By Gi Linda

I am Gillian Linda Norman, a self-representing co-defendant with the Nimbin GoodTimes in case #2017/00081825, Darwin v Norman, on the Defamation List. The matter is scheduled for second listing on September 15 at NSW Supreme Court before Justice Lucy McCallum. 

The plaintiffs bringing defamation charges are Mark Darwin, Adrian Brennock, Phillip Dixon and Steven McSween, who have now added Mount Warning Eco Village Pty Ltd with a new complaint of “injurious falsehood” requesting orders that this Blog, “Mount Warning Eco Village Scam” be suppressed for causing “possible loss of commercial opportunity”. 

 
Even before the hearings commenced, Mark Darwin, using his pseudonym “Dummass Boofhead”, had announced victory in advance in a gloating email. “Boofhead”, with characteristic “Ba-ha-ha-ha-ha” signature tune mingled with scoffing, menacing threats, wrote that Mark Darwin wished to inform me that he was wetting himself with delight because he had arranged for me to be bankrupted and sectioned for psychiatric examination, then intended to grab for himself my Mercedes 4wd.

On August 24, a Notice of Motion by the plaintiffs, made without reasonable notice to me, the respondent, and relying upon “confidential evidence” that I am not permitted to see, requested a Duty Judge to make a summary judgement for removal of this Blog without providing opportunity for defence.

The plaintiffs had kindly filled out for the Judge the appropriate form listing the expected orders, all ready to sign. Unfortunately for Darwin & co, with the matter listed for a 5 minute “directions hearing”, Justice Button did not make a summary judgement, as requested. Instead, he referred the matter to be heard the following day by Justice McCallum, who manages the defamation list.

This hearing on 25/8/17 was scheduled to last one hour, yet the plaintiffs’ representative, barrister Dauid Sibtain, spent three hours arguing that “injurious falsehood” had occurred with malicious intent, causing the plaintiffs financial distress, therefore the Blogs must be removed. To permit my response to the charges, Justice McCallum scheduled another hearing, the fourth for this case, listed for Friday, September 1st at NSW Supreme Court.

Context to the Claim

I am one of 27 defrauded victims who collectively paid the purchase price for a property at 3222 Kyogle Rd, Mt Burrell, NSW 2484, that has been kept under control of delinquent directors through a Trust improperly executed  by the plaintiffs. 

Investors in the property were defrauded as a result of misleading marketing by the same aspiring “developers” now involved in “Mt Warning Eco Village”. Our story has been reported in several newspapers and is extensively documented in our own online Blogs: 

mountwarningecovillagescam.blogspot.com.au and 

thetruthabouttruthology.blogspot.com.au

Most investors in the failed land-share “Community” were not informed that the advertised “home-sites” were located on water catchment land. A report by town planner Darryll Anderson warning that multiple occupancy would not be permitted on that property was hidden from investors in 2015 by project managers Mark Darwin and Adrian Brennock.

In 2016, when we discovered the deception, the “Community” split. Those who demanded accountability were driven off the land without return of investment. Others constructed dwellings and camps, and remained residing on the land in defiance of Council’s demands, until, a year later in 2017, they were forced to comply with Court orders of eviction.

Marketing Lures by Dreamweavers of Deception

After flagrantly betraying the trust of investors who provided the finance for purchase of the Mt Burrell property, Darwin and Brennock expanded their vision to an even bigger “Community”. 

They are now advertising “Mt Warning Eco Village”, on adjoining property owned by Peter Van Lieshout, disavowing their roles and responsibilities as founders of the failed “Bhula Bhula Village Community”.

When my statutory demand for for $120,000 on the company Wollumbin Horizons Pty Ltd, was upheld in Brisbane Federal Court, Adrian Brennock, being self-appointed delinquent director, signed a “contract” with Mt Warning Eco Village Pty Ltd to buy our land for $2.25m, about $1m over market value. 

Brennock then put the company into Voluntary Administration with Vincents Accountants, who are currently assisting the plaintiffs in a "phoenix move" to burn the company, disenfranchise investors and transfer the land asset to their private control.

Disenfranchised purchase money creditors with only an empty beneficial interest in a fraudulent Trust, were informed by Vincents that in order to enable transfer of our property to Mt Warning Eco Village, a deposit was secured by the plaintiffs with “vendor finance” consisting of a $1m mortgage over our land by  Adrian Brennock, delinquent director of the “insolvent” company.  

Mark Darwin, "Creator" at Mt Warning Eco Village

Mt Warning Ecovillage - Misleading Marketing

 

Mt Warning Eco Village response to a Facebook inquiry:

“Hi Craig,
We are expecting for share holders to be able to start building in around august as that’s roughly when DA will be coming through. Shares start at $189k and go up to $325k for 2.5 acres (I acre you can clearable and build on and then you will have a 1.5 acre surrounding that). Pre DA sale price is 20% off so a $300k lot is $240 at the moment, a saving of $60k)”

 

The plaintiffs claim that appropriate development approval is in place for an existing ecovillage located on property owned by Peter van Lieshout between Mt Burrell and Kungar, NSW, formerly known as “Nightcap Forest”, and that this supposed development consent also extends to several other lots comprising their proposed “Mt Warning Eco Village”, thus validating solicitation of loans and sales of land-share parcels by the plaintiffs.

The claims are misleading: Modified Development Consent DA06/1054.01 was issued in 2011 in association with a 2009 DA06/1054 for a concept plan for Nightcap Village. Annexure A is a submission to Tweed Shire Council dated Jan 2017, from Darrell Anderson, Director, DAC Planning, [formerly Darryl Anderson Consulting], on behalf of Rainmaker Eco Investments Pty Ltd, [one of the companies operated by the plaintiffs]. The submission was intended to obtain Council’s acknowledgement that development was “physically commenced”, and that development approval for “Nightcap Village” did not lapse in 2014. 

The response from Tweed Council does not provide the solicited acknowledgement of active development consent, although it is presented as supporting evidence of “existing development approval” for the proposed “Village”.

In relation to MDA06/1054.01, a carriageway survey was done in 2012. On June 16 2014, several dumpy pegs were placed in the ground to indicate where proposed access road might be situated in a concept plan for Nightcap Village proposed in DA06/1054. The DA was due to lapse on June 29, 2014 for failure of commencement.

In relation to the minimum acceptable activity for an inactive development to be considered “commenced”, s95(4) of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act establishes that “Development consent… does not lapse if building, engineering or construction work relating to building, subdivision or work is physically commenced on the land to which the consent applies before the date on which the consent would otherwise have lapsed under this Section.”

Anderson argues that placement of stakes as surveyors’ markers, constitutes commencement of development, even though no actual physical building, engineering or construction work subsequently took place.

According to Tweed Council’s response in Annexure C, Lindsay McGavin, Manager for Development Assessment and Compliance with Tweed Council, says the prospective developers have not satisfied two preconditions, required for initiation of works, and so have failed to comply with necessary conditions for development commencement. Mr McGavin also notes that the supposed work relied upon does not form part of the development consent as amended, and also advises that “Council has no statutory role in confirmation of physical commencement of development.” 

Council has confirmed in direct consultation that a decision as to whether the placing of surveyors’ dumpy pegs in the ground validly constitutes physical commencement is a judgement that can only be made by the Land and Environment Court subsequent to lodgement of a Development Application for Mt Warning Eco Village.

In minutes of a Tweed Shire Council Development Assessment Panel held on May 31, 2017, it is noted that the site has an historic Development Application, DA06/1054, for “Nightcap Village” but “commencement needs to be demonstrated.” The proposed site is also affected by restrictions relating to “drinking water catchment, existing and future water storage facilities.”
 

It is clear, therefore, that it cannot correctly be said by the plaintiffs that development approval for “Mt Warning Eco Village” or “Nightcap Village” is active, since preconditions to commencement of works have not been fulfilled, and adjudication of the validity of the claimed development has not occurred, and cannot occur prior to submission of a DA application for Mt Warning Eco Village, which has also not occurred.
 

Response to the Affidavit of Phillip Dixon, Third Plaintiff

 
My response to Phillip Dixon' s claim that the following allegations are false:

(a) That Mt Warning Eco Village is a scam — It is factually true and demonstrable with evidence that Dixon, Darwin, Brennock and others have been operating an "intentional" land-share fraud from 2014 until the present.

(b) That no habitation is allowed on the land located at 2924 and 2954 Kyogle Road, Kunghur, NSW. 

The Blogs correctly state that no habitation is allowed on the home-sites currently being advertised and offered for sale. Although under normal circumstances dwelling could be permitted in these areas zoned RU2, in fact, habitation is prohibited on the advertised lots since they are located in environmentally sensitive areas reserved for rainwater catchment.

(c) That there is no development approval granted for Mount Warning Eco Village by Tweed Shire Council — True

(d) That Mount Warning Eco Village’s governance is the same as Wollumbin Horizons Pty Ltd 
Mount Warning Eco Village is run by Mark Darwin, Adrian Brennock, Phillip Dixon, Cherrie Stokes, Martin Maddran and formely Steven and Kelly McSween, who were all involved in  the land-share scam at 3222 Kyogle Rd. Mount Warning Eco Village’s governance also includes landowner Peter van Lieshout, who was not involved in the plaintiffs’ failed Community on the property adjoining his estate.
 

As co-director of Mount Warning Eco Village with landowner Peter van Lieshaupt and Cherrie Stokes, Phillip Dixon claims that because of the Blogs, four possible loan agreements have fallen through, totaling a commercial loss of $600,000 and putting at risk the plaintiffs’ ability to proceed with a Prospectus and Development Approval for the Land with a further potential commercial loss of over $46,000. This represents feared future loss, but does not prove actual damage.

Phillip Dixon claims Mount Warning Eco Village Pty Ltd is relying on Loan Agreements to purchase our land at 3222 Kyogle Rd, for $1m over market value and complains that the Blogs may jeopardize this attempted phoenix move. His complaint represents feared future loss of commercial opportunity, but does not prove actual damage caused by the Blogs.

Phillip Dixon cites his plans as director of “Cannabis Industries Australia”, (CIA) to establish a cannabis farm and claims he will suffer potential financial loss of $650,000 because of a Blog post which exposes details of the plaintiffs’ fraudulent venture involving sale of shares in a non-existent “Cannabis University” offering to dispense “medical cannabis”.

Phillip Dixon provides no evidence that information conveyed in the Blogs has caused or will cause his possible failure to procure loans, or any other loss of future commercial opportunity.
 

Response to the Affidavit of Adrian Brennock, Second Plaintiff
 

The Second Plaintiff, Adrian Brennock, is the self-appointed director and sole shareholder of the company Wollumbin Horizons that owns the land paid for by defrauded investors.
Imputations complained of are significantly true and have been answered in detail in previous defence.
 

Allegations made against me by Adrian Brennock are false and maliciously defamatory.
 

The affidavit contains many perjured statements including:
    (a) False accounts of legal proceedings I have brought against the plaintiffs.
    (b) False accounts of the plaintiffs’ dealings with Tweed Council.
    (c) A false account of my Genuine Steps initiative of settlement in the Federal Court.