Eileen Bond, ex-wife of controversial Perth businessman Alan Bond, dies aged 87
Ms Bond's family has confirmed to the ABC the 87-year-old died on Wednesday night.
Alan and Eileen Bond married in 1955 when they were both 17 and had four children together before divorcing in 1992.
The Perth-based pair became a high-profile couple as Mr Bond's fortunes grew.
They were together when his sailing team won the America's Cup in 1983, prompting massive national celebrations.
But Alan Bond left a mixed legacy, with a very public corporate fall that ended with bankruptcy and a jail term.
He died in 2015 after undergoing heart surgery.
At the time Ms Bond, who had remained on good terms with her former husband, returned to Perth from London.
"We've been in constant contact, but it's a very sad time," she told reporters at the time.
John Bond, Eileen's son with Alan, also said at the time his parents had remained close to his mother after their divorce and described the pair as "great soul mates who never broke their connection".
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
14 minutes ago
- News.com.au
‘My son took his own life – this is what I want every parent to know'
Warning: This article discusses suicide and might be upsetting for some readers I glanced out the window and saw a police car coming down our farm driveway. It was January 2018, the middle of a dry Mallee summer. My husband, Mick, had already done his usual morning rounds – checking sheep and water before calling it a day early, and we'd just finished dinner when the dogs started barking. At first, I figured it was one of those routine firearm checks we'd heard were happening on local farms. That's what I told myself, anyway. But something about it didn't feel right. I stayed inside while Mick went out to meet the officer. He was out there longer than expected. Eventually, I stepped outside to see what was going on. Mick looked pale, like all the colour had drained from his face. The policeman still hadn't gotten out of the car. When he finally did, he didn't head for the shed like I'd assumed. He walked straight toward me. 'Suzi?' he asked. 'Yes.' 'Your son is Murray James Chesser?' 'Yes.' I swallowed hard. He paused. 'Have you been contacted by someone else?' 'No.' Then, the words I'll never forget: 'There's been an incident. Murray has passed away. It appears he took his own life.' In that moment, time froze. My feet turned to concrete. I was numb. Everything around me blurred – it was exactly like they say in the movies: everything in slow motion, like I was outside my body, watching it all unfold. I don't remember much after that. Just fragments: Mick pouring us a scotch. Us drinking most of the bottle. I sat at the kitchen table in silence while Mick made the heartbreaking calls to our family and friends. For most of us, grief is something distant – until it isn't. These scenarios happen to someone else, until they land on your front door and rip your world apart. That night marked the beginning of the most painful experience of my life. To me, grief doesn't end. People say time heals, but I don't know – sometimes I feel like the longer it goes on, the worse it gets. You just learn to function alongside the pain. When I wrote my book Grief, I wrote the book I felt I needed when he died. In Grief, I share some of the tools that helped me keep going, tools that I want every family, every Australian, to know. Asking a confronting question could save a life One of the hardest things about suicide is how often it blindsides families. We assume someone would say something – but often, they don't, or they feel they can't. If you notice signs or have a gut feeling someone's struggling, trust it. It's better to ask and hear 'no' than to stay silent. At the very least, they'll know they can come to you – and that talking about suicide is okay. You can ask directly: 'Are you thinking about suicide?' It's confronting, but research shows it won't plant the idea. For some, it might be the first time they feel safe enough to speak. And if they say yes, it opens the door to connection, support, and next steps. Listen with compassion, not solutions. You don't need to fix it – just be present. Encourage them to seek professional help. You're not expected to have all the answers, but your support could help save a life. Grief never goes away – you just learn to function alongside it Grief is not something you fix. It's not something you solve. Everyone grieves differently. People mean well and want to help but often they don't understand that grief is such a lonely journey. You can't fast-forward through it. You can't erase it – you can't go back and change things. You just have to function alongside it, put one foot in front of the other, and take each day as it comes – easier said than done, a lot of the time. Being strong isn't always the answer Being strong isn't always the answer. Sometimes, I get tired of being strong – I just want to fall apart. Grief forces you to sit with the pain and start to understand how the brain works: it searches for familiar pathways that no longer exist. That's why grief is so confusing – the brain has to slowly build new ones, and that process takes time. Your brain keeps searching for them – that's why grief hurts so deeply My beautiful Muzz was gone, but my brain kept reaching for him – expecting a text, a phone call, a moment of connection. I thought about him every minute of every day. Every part of me knew he wasn't coming back, but my mind hadn't caught up. That's the thing about loss – your heart breaks all at once, but your brain takes its time. You will feel emotionally naked After Muzz died, I didn't know who I was anymore. I questioned everything. I didn't want to 'move on' because that felt like I was letting go of him. I still struggle with this today. I was angry, broken, and the only way I could describe it is that I felt emotionally naked. The question 'Why Muzz? Why me?' played constantly in my mind. A friend suggested I study Positive Psychology and Wellbeing to help me understand my grief. Who would have guessed that suggestion would help me find myself? I learned what happens to the brain when we are stressed or grieving, I learned how to lean into my emotions, how that plasticity means we can change. I started to put what I had learned into practice, and I noticed the changes in my own thought patterns and behaviours. I began to understand my triggers and the power of my self-talk and how I can manage my behaviour to my emotions more effectively. I'm still a work in progress, but I'm starting to feel the benefits of what I practice. What tools are on your workbench? My son was a carpenter and his favourite place was the workbench. He was always building something, fixing, creating, thinking. It was where he seemed to be most at peace. Just like Muzz had his workbench full of tools, we all need a mental version – a place to lay everything out, make sense of it, and decide what to keep. This notion stayed with me. So, I created Workbench for the Mind, a practical, self-paced accredited program with Suicide Prevention Australia. We should all do this more often – we need to identify the tools we already have and the ones we still need. What tools do you have to support you with life's daily challenges and stress levels? What habits are you practising to reduce stress? How are you breaking unhelpful patterns and what habits do you need to cultivate to support your wellbeing? Choose life for yourself. A nutritionist once told me, 'Suzi, Muzz is gone, but you are still here. You need to look after yourself.' Those words hit something deep inside. In Beautiful Boy, David Sheff wrote, 'Our children live or die with or without us … We cannot choose for our children whether they live or die … I finally chose life for myself.' I've chosen life. And if you're grieving, if you're lost, if you're asking, 'what now?' I hope you choose life too. You are still here. Choose yourself, choose to tell your story, tell your loved one's story to make others not feel so alone and to give some kind of purpose to the tragedy.
News.com.au
17 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Natural disasters threatening hopes of slim budget surplus: McBain
The unpredictability of natural disasters is threatening hopes of Labor delivering a third budget surplus, Anthony Albanese's disasters tsar says. Department of Finance figures released last week showed the Albanese government had shrunk the forecast underlying deficit for 2024-25 to $5.5bn as of May, down from $27.9bn. But with natural disasters happening more often and states needing greater federal support in their responses, factoring in the cost poses a serious challenge for Jim Chalmers as he vies to keep his budget streak. Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain said on Sunday extreme weather events had already cost Commonwealth coffers some $2bn in the first six months of 2025. 'The first six months of the year we've seen a number of events in our communities,' she told Sky News, pointing to ex-tropical cyclone Alfred. Alfred caused havoc by pounding coastal communities in Queensland and New South Wales with violent waves and winds. It also affected when the Prime Minister called the election. 'We've had those southwest Queensland floods, flooding in North Queensland,' Ms McBain said. 'Just last month, we saw the mid-North Coast and Hunter floods and an event, obviously over the past week on the South Coast of NSW in particular, also at a time where we've got drought in Victoria and South Australia.' She said while the states and territories led the disaster responses, the federal government has 'provided over $770m in direct Commonwealth assistance to people in disaster hit areas'. Ms McBain said federal funds also went into economic recovery, such as supporting primary producers and small businesses. 'So for the first six months of this year, we're close to $2bn that we've spent, and we'll continue to work with the states and territories … to make sure that we are dealing with some of those infrastructure impacts,' she said. Asked directly if the costs would ultimately dash the Treasurer's chances of landing another budget surplus, Ms McBain said natural disasters were hard to factor in to planning. 'In a budget, you are looking at a range of things that you can measure and predict,' she said. 'And I think what we have come to see is that natural disasters sometimes are unpredictable, and the impact they have on communities can be long and wide ranging. 'And what we've said from day one since the Albanese government was elected, is that we will walk with communities through the long tail of recovery, because recovery isn't … a few days while cameras and lights are in the area. 'It's … the weeks, the months and potentially years afterwards.'
ABC News
20 minutes ago
- ABC News
Rockliff promise of 'world's tallest chocolate fountain' came out of nowhere, but documents show years of grants and lobbying
When it comes to eye-catching election promises, it's hard to look past "the world's tallest chocolate fountain". It was midway through the Tasmanian election campaign last year when Premier Jeremy Rockliff strode into the Cadbury factory in Hobart to make the announcement, alongside tourism developer Simon Currant. And it wasn't just a chocolate fountain; it was pitched as an entire "chocolate experience". There would be a "bespoke chocolate studio", a chocolate lounge, an "immersion into chocolate making" and even an arboretum. "This will be MONA-esque," Mr Rockliff told the media. Then came the public funding. Mr Rockliff promised $2 million for planning, designs and approvals, then another $2 million for public site works and a further $8 million for the precinct. It seemed to come out of the blue. But it turns out, it had been bouncing around with Tasmanian public servants for over two years. Internal communications and reports — obtained under right to information — show undisclosed grants to help the developer gauge demand and no available detailed business case or economic impact study when Mr Rockliff promised the funds. And before he made the promise, documents show public servants were under the impression that the developer was already funding the first $2 million themselves. They also wrote advice that the developers would ultimately seek one-third funding for the entire construction cost, but this has since been ruled out. Mr Currant has a list of successful tourism ventures across Tasmania, from Strahan Village on the west coast, to Pumphouse Point in the wilderness world heritage area. His next venture — the "chocolate experience" proposal — made its way through the doors at the Department of State Growth in February 2022, when Mr Currant asked for funds for a demand study. The department was happy to oblige, it just needed a bit more information about what the project actually was. "As discussed please see attached as a very quickly put together overview," Mr Currant wrote to the department's deputy secretary. Having looked over the 15-page project summary, the department recommended providing a $79,800 grant to Simon Currant and Associates (SCA) for the study, matched by Cadbury parent company, Mondelez International. A funding pathway for the grant was "identified" — it would come from a tourism hospitality stream. It was not publicly disclosed and was one of the only grants in the stream to go to a private tourism developer outside of established grant programs. The demand study was created, based on an online survey of 827 people to gauge interest in the chocolate experience. Only 12 out of 44 pages of the publicly funded document were released to the ABC showing generic information like population and tourism visitor data, the rest was redacted as commercial in confidence. A month later, the developers asked for more funds from State Growth for a feasibility study, using the demand study to show the project's "potential contributions to the Tasmanian visitor economy". A letter from Mondelez backing the idea was also provided. The department approved this funding request, so another $70,000 grant was provided to help the developers update financial figures and develop a public relations strategy and a corporate strategy. This second grant was also placed under the tourism hospitality funding stream, and not publicly disclosed. State Growth's tourism and hospitality team seemed a little uncertain on some of the details, well before Mr Rockliff made his funding promise. With ministers set to face questioning in budget estimates, they sent part of the minister's brief to Mr Currant for his feedback, in case it came up. An internal departmental email noted that some details in the funding agreement were "unclear". "The paperwork we have access to does lack some context given that we came to the administration of the (grant) deeds later," it reads. Mr Currant and business partner David Inches were pleased with progress, with Mondelez "excited by and supportive of" the project. Mr Currant took the project to the Office of the Co-ordinator General, and it started to appear in the office's fortnightly briefings with Mr Rockliff. State Growth deputy secretary Mark Bowles also kept the premier up to date. "I've verbally updated the premier and he's keen to show what support he can for the project," Mr Bowles told Mr Currant in an email. The department started preparing a brief for Mr Rockliff in mid-2023 and asked for updated information from Mr Currant, who sent a document intended for investors, requesting state servants sign non-disclosure agreements. A brief was completed in November, saying the demand study had "ambitiously" projected the project would bring 34,000 additional visitors to Tasmania, and that the department was reviewing all the information. "It is felt that further questions may emerge from this review, and these will need to be resolved by the developer prior to any further advice being provided to government," it reads. While State Growth appeared to have some questions, it was full steam ahead with the Office of the Co-ordinator General — an office that works to attract investment in Tasmania. It started to prepare a case for the developers to apply for government funds through the Tasmanian Development Board, with Tourism Tasmania supporting it as filling a gap for the 'young families' tourism market. A meeting was arranged between Mr Currant, Mr Inches and Mr Rockliff on February 9, 2024, during which the developers brought a paper to update him on. It's unclear what was in this paper. However, a meeting brief by State Growth appeared to advise some caution. "While the project is innovative and could deliver good outcomes for the Tasmanian economy … the request is very significant and will require a detailed commercial review," it reads. "(Simon Currant and Associates) will need to provide a detailed proposal and make all project information available for verification and analysis to feed into a business case for government support. "Given the scale of the request, State Growth may consider funding an independent analysis of the proposal to verify its economic and social benefit to Tasmania." A few days later, more State Growth advice was written for the premier. It stated that the developers had requested one-third of the total construction cost for project, on top of the planning costs — a government contribution that, at that stage, could be a further $25 million to $30 million. A month later — on March 10, 2024 — Mr Rockliff walked into the Cadbury factory with Mr Currant to make a funding promise. The first $2 million of the promise was for "planning, designs, approvals", which Simon Currant and Associates describe as phase two. But advice to the premier a month earlier stated that the developers were already funding this. "SCA has indicated it is independently funding Phase 2 … costing $2 million," it reads. A spokesperson for SCA said the total cost of the planning and design phase is "significantly higher" than what was known at that time, and the remaining costs were privately funded. The project also involved two electric ferries to transport visitors to and from the Chocolate Experience site, requiring upgrades to the Brooke Street pier on the Hobart waterfront — originally described as an extension. But the SCA spokesperson said the pier would not be extended. SCA is yet to access the second $2 million in funding, which is largely for public site works. It plans to submit a development application with Glenorchy council later this year. A spokesperson says it has provided a business case to the government. The government is yet to formalise the process for the final $8 million — or determine what the funding will be spent on. SCA says the total project cost is now $155 million. "SCA will not be seeking any further grant funding from the government," a spokesperson said. When asked if Mr Currant will be an equity partner in the project, giving him a stake in its profits and losses — as noted in a government document, seen by the ABC — SCA responded that "the community will benefit through increased investment, more jobs through construction". SCA said Mondelez International — one of the world's largest confectionary companies — has "no financial stake in the project", but is providing land lease and access to Cadbury branding. The last Cadbury factory tours in Hobart closed in 2010. Tours also ended at the Cadbury factory in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 2017, and Mr Currant told the department he had "brought back together" the team from that venture. Part of the feasibility study involved a "study tour" to the Lindt experience in Switzerland, which could be similar to the scale of the tour planned in Hobart. An SCA spokesperson said the new Chocolate Experience in Hobart would target more modern tourism demands. "What SCA is proposing is not comparable to the previous tours," they said. The partly government-funded demand analysis estimated it could add $104 million to the annual spending by tourists. This week, Mr Rockliff said it would be a major contributor to the state's tourism economy. "One in six Tasmanians are employed in the tourism and hospitality sector," he said. "We have backed this project with a $12 million investment to get the project shovel-ready and commence initial site works, including public walkways, cycleways and headworks, subject to agreed milestones." The ABC asked Mr Rockliff what level of detailed business case and economic analysis he had access to when he made the $12 million funding promise, and if the $2 million was already privately funded, but this was not clear in the response.
