The Australian Floating Hotel That Ended Up in North Korea

For little more than a year in the late 1980s, a seven-story five-star hotel floated over John Brewer Reef, about 70 km off the coast of Townsville, in Queensland, Australia. It had two hundred rooms, discos, bars, a gym, a sauna, and two excellent restaurants, specializing in seafood. Outside the hotel, a tennis court floated. It was such a novel enterprise that many Townsville residents old enough to remember the hotel still have fond memories of it. The Four Seasons Barrier Reef Resort was the brainchild of Townsville developer Doug Tarca, who wanted to put a hotel on the Great Barrier Reef so that tourists could have immediate access to it. The original plan was to permanently moor three cruise ships around the reef, but this was deemed impractical. A chance encounter with a Swedish company who specialized in building floating dorms for oil rigs transformed that idea into a floating resort instead. The hotel was constructed by a Singapore-based firm, and because it was to be placed at an environmentally sensitive location, the hotel had to incorporate many features that measure up to the strict standards of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. No toxic paint was used on the hull. No waste was discharged into the surrounding waters. Sewage and all liquid waste were treated and the resulting sterilized water was dumped several miles outside the reef. Trash was incinerated and garbage was taken to the mainland. The hotel was completed in 1987 at the cost of USD 40 million. But a contract dispute with the Singapore shipbuilder delayed delivery until January the next year. Then it was struck by a cyclone, which delayed opening of the hotel by another two months. When it finally opened in March, the hotel had missed the lucrative Northern Hemisphere winter tourist market. The delays had cost millions of dollars in lost revenue. The most difficult part, for the tourists, was the 70-kilometer-ride on water taxis to the hotel in the middle of the ocean.