An Indigenous-owned Boorloo/Perth company has asked the WA Supreme Court to wind up Professor Michael Wear's Tidal Moon.
Tidal Moon is Australia's first Indigenous-owned and led sea cucumber fishery and marine restoration enterprise, based in Gathaagudu / Shark Bay, Western Australia.
In November last year, Professor Wear was the inaugural winner of the Prime Minister's Prize for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledge Systems.
The notice for the application for a wind up order appeared on the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) website three days before WA names its Australian of the Year, with Professor Wear among the finalists.
"This notice does not mean that the company was wound up," the notice states.
The application for the wind up order was commenced by the plaintiff, DK Kaartdijin Pty Ltd, on October 15 and the matter is due to be heard in the Supreme Court on November 26.
National Indigenous Times understands the action comes as the culmination of a long-running dispute between the parties, at the centre of which is financial support DK Kaartdijin allegedly provided to Tidal Moon.
This publication does not suggest any wrongdoing by Tidal Moon has been confirmed.
Under the federal Corporations Act a creditor can ask a court to wind up a company on the grounds it is insolvent, commonly after the company has failed to comply with a statutory demand. The court can make a winding-up order, dismiss the application or adjourn it, and the company can oppose it.
The application is the only notice ASIC has published against the company.
Tidal Moon Pty Ltd was registered on 17 October 2017, the year Professor Wear, a Malgana man, won an Aboriginal fishing licence to harvest sea cucumbers in Gathaagudu / Shark Bay. A current ASIC extract shows him as the company's sole director and secretary, holding 900 of its 1,000 shares.
ABN records show four related companies registered in December 2022: Tidal Moon Holdings, Tidal Moon Aquaculture, Tidal Moon Biomedical and Tidal Moon Climate and Nature, none of which are named in the application for a wind up order notice.
"The whole purpose of Tidal Moon is about equality of access," Professor Wear told National Indigenous Times in August 2023.
"We want to be in the mainstream industry and have the ability to set up a business that's not reliant on grants."
Professor Wear said government policy was "slowing our growth" after the company's five-year licence, granted under a ministerial exemption, expired in July 2023 and disrupted a potential export contract with a Singapore company.
"We're this small little Indigenous business, on its own back, trying to change the world," he told SBS in July 2025.
On October 16, Professor Wear was among the finalists announced by Auspire for West Australian of the Year. The WA recipients will be announced in Boorloo / Perth on Friday 30 October, and the national awards on 25 January next year.
DK Kaartdijin describes itself as a proudly Aboriginal-owned and operated company that provides services to the civil infrastructure industry and builds Aboriginal employment and training into projects in remote Australia.
Registered in September 2017, it trades as DK Projects Management, DK Labour Services and DK Plant Hire.
National Indigenous Times contacted Professor Wear and DK Kaartdijin for comment late on Wednesday.
More to come.
