In 2003 Align Funds Management, half owned by each family, used $26 million of equity from 60 unit holders to start up two property investment vehicles - one was Timbercorp Orchard Trust and the other was Timbercorp Primary Infrastructure Fund.

About $57 million worth of fixed interest debentures in the Orchard Trust were sold on the ASX under the code TODHA, at $100 each, to 1900 investors.

The debentures received regular income from Timbercorp's generous rental payments, and unit holders received annual dividends of about 10 per cent. But the managed investment scheme collapsed in April when it was unable to refinance and went into liquidation on June 29.

The trust had been selling the citrus fruit from the orchards to pay the property manager, said the chairman of the Orchard Trust, Trevor Moyle, but the fruit is nearly all gone.

The debentures have been suspended since April, when they were trading at $30, and the value of the properties has declined now that Timbercorp's rent is no longer forthcoming.

"For [unit holders] to get anything at all would require the trust to keep going," Mr Moyle said yesterday.

"But if the receiver decides it is in the best interest of the debenture holders to sell the assets to the best bidder, then the trust will just get wound up and the unit holders will get nothing."

A partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Stephen Longley, said they would start selling the two properties - Bella Vista near Euston and Kangara near Renmark - but it was too early to speculate about how much debenture holders would receive.