Barry Calverley appeared to have it all – a successful career, country estate and loving family… until he was promised $11million to fly home to Australia with a ‘little gift’ in a camping bag

EXCLUSIVE 

Barry Calverley appeared to have it all – a beautiful wife, country estate, three successful daughters and a career spanning decades in the mining industry.

He had worked in India, Singapore and West Africa on gas and oil projects for resources giants including Shell, Exxon Mobil, BHP and Santos.

He also worked from the Bass Strait to the Pilbara in his home state of Western Australia, and earned up to $2,000 a day. 

Mr Calverley was well-respected and ‘impressive’ according to a friend who also works in the business of safety consultancy for high-risk mining sites.

His friend was ‘flabbergasted’ to learn this week that Mr Calverley, 68, is now sitting in a jail cell accused of drug trafficking after being arrested three months ago for allegedly smuggling 5kg of heroin from South East Asia through Customs in a camping bag.

On Wednesday, Mr Calverley’s eldest daughter Harriet was at his court hearing after making a mercy dash from Perth to Sydney to see her father.

In a failed bail application, the court was told that Harriet would be prepared to live with her father, who is in the maximum security Macquarie Correctional Centre at Wuuluman 350km northwest of Sydney, in NSW should the magistrate release him from custody as he awaits further hearings.

‘He is at great risk in the prison system,’ his lawyer told the court, and if not granted bail ‘at his age risks a very early demise’.

THE ARREST 

Mr Calverley was arrested at Sydney International Airport after it is believed he flew back from Laos via Hanoi, Vietnam on the afternoon of January 24.

Australian Border Force officers examined a green bag containing a camping chair as part of Mr Calverley’s baggage and allegedly found 5kg of heroin.

The Australian Federal Police said the ‘large quantity of heroin… would have been enough for 25,000 street deals with an estimated street value of $2.25 million.’

The court heard that via WhatsApp communications with a man name ‘Privham’, Mr Calverley had been promised US$7.2million (AUD$11million) ‘to pick up documents’ and that he had travelled to Laos and met up in a hotel to do so.

At the hotel he was asked ‘to take a little gift’ in a camping bag as well as the documents back to Australia. Mr Calverley admitted it was suspicious and that he would not have agreed to take anything illegal.

The WA grandfather is believed to have flown from Perth to South East Asia in or around the third week of January. 

On Wednesday Magistrate Mark Whelan was told that Calverley had ‘a very arguable case in relation to his innocence’ and that there were ‘telling materials that support believing he had a reason to be going to Laos thinking he was going to get this very large sum of money’. 

 LIFE BEFORE PRISON CELL 

After his decades working on mining sites ensuring safety standards for 14 different companies in almost 20 years, Mr Calverley started his own company Redcoastal in 2022. 

He posted photos of ambulances, fire trucks and emergency response vehicles he delivered to mining sites, joking they were his his ‘big boys’ toys’.

The same year he put up his wine collection for sale on Facebook, including vintage Grange Hermitage and Wolf Blass reds and bottles of port dating back to the 1960s, asking friends ‘Wine people, any ideas on price for these?’

Mr Calverley had started selling items on his Facebook page three years earlier, including the family home and a 2004 Holden Rodeo ute for $12,500

Owned by Mr Calverley and his wife Jocelyn since 2006, the 20hectare estate at Glen Mervyn, 200km south of Perth, was in a picturesque valley of old-growth forests, orchards and vineyards ‘in proximity to Bunbury, the beaches of Geographe Bay, and the Margaret River wine region’.

The Calverley’s five bedroom homestead had a saltwater swimming pool, dressage and show jump arenas and a cross-country jumping course.

It appears the couple’s daughters grew up horse riding in the idyllic setting with its own stables  and tack room, 15 paddocks for sheep and horses and hay cropping.

Advertised for almost $1million in 2019, the property sold in 2021 for for $965,000 to corporate trust company, Perpetual Trustee. 

Meanwhile, the Calverley’s had become grandparents and one of their privately educated daughters had graduated from university and become an events manager.

After being charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, Mr Calverley was refused bail and remanded in custody until his bail application on Wednesday when he was again refused bail.

After being charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, Mr Calverley was refused bail and remanded in custody until his bail application on Wednesday when he was again refused bail. 

Magistrate Whelan noted that the alleged offence carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, although he acknowledged there would be delay in Mr Calverley’s case before the courts.

He also noted Mr Calverley’s stated cardiac issues, and skin complaints of dermatitis and psoriasis, but was not satisfied his lawyer had shown cause to be released on bail. 

In refusing bail, Mr Whelan remanded Mr Calverley in custody until a next appearance on January 29, 2025.