Up to 19 giant olive harvesting machines, each referred to as "The Colossus", were switched off at 7pm on Monday on two Victorian olive plantations by an entity that is 19.4 per cent owned by the failed Timbercorp Securities.
According to The Australian Financial Review Boundary Bend, an entity that harvests and processes olives on behalf of Timbercorp, stopped the harvest on Monday night because of fears that it wouldn't be paid.
Boundary Bend is 19.4 per cent owned by Timbercorp but the Timbercorp administrators don't have control of it because it is majority owned by businessmen Rob McGavin and Paul Riordan.
Timbercorp administrator KordaMentha yesterday made an application in the Federal Court seeking a legal opinion on whether it had the right to use some of the proceeds of the sale of olive oil from the 2008 Timbercorp crop to help fund the harvesting and processing of the 2009 crop.
The court was told that if the 2009 crop at two plantations at Boort in north central Victoria and Boundary Bend near Swan Hill was not harvested, the $26 million from future olive oil sales would be lost.
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