Dreamy Australian holiday resorts now resemble ‘crack houses’ after they were hit by cyclones and left to rot
MANY Australian holiday resorts that were once popular with tourists have been left abandoned after they were destroyed by cyclones.
One luxury hotel was described by a local as looking like a "crack house", with debris and filth everywhere.
More than a dozen of the once lovely resorts have been left abandoned after the region’s most fierce cyclones — Yasi and Debbie — tore through in 2011 and 2017.
Other factors, including climate change and cheap overseas travel, conspired to leave these places in disarray.
Pictures and video captured for the first time exactly how far removed the resort islands are from their former glory days.
The program spoke with tour operators and resort owners, who lamented the old days.
South Molle Island was bought by Chinese company China Capital Investment Group in 2017, although the damage has yet to be repaired.
Cyclone Yasi crossed the coast on February 3, 2011 as a Category 5 severe tropical cyclone, before smashing into Mission Beach and Dunk Island carrying winds upwards of 285kmph (177mph).
It was the biggest storm in Queensland’s history.
Cyclone Debbie made landfall on March 28, 2017 at the Whitsunday Islands carrying winds upwards of 263kmph (163mph).
The popular Capricorn International Resort in Yeppoon in Australia is also laying abandoned, having been left for three years to rot.
The Queensland hotel was closed in 2016 after it fell into disrepair, causing it to shut down and be left without guests since then.
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