Ivory's Rock Foundation Annual September PremFests at Amaroo

from the Courier Mail, 2012: The annual 5-day "extraordinary gathering" of devotees of Prem Rawat's takes place on properties in South-East Queensland worth millions of dollars and owned by companies controlled by local devotees of Prem Rawat aka the "Maharaji" but registered in the tax haven of the Channel Islands. The Courier-Mail can reveal Prem Rawat is also the sole shareholder in Orama Holdings, a company based at Beechmont, in the Gold Coast hinterland, that since 2010 has held separate assets such as unspecified local property. In 2010 the Ivorys Rock Foundation was registered. This is an Australian Public Company registered as a not for profit charity. As of 2023 it has assets valued at $10,000,000.

The ageing guru, who was introduced to Australians as a teenager in the early 1970s and then had followers or "Premies" lining up to kiss his feet and be hosed down, also enjoys access to a riverside Fig Tree Pocket mansion on 1.7ha bequeathed by a devotee and now owned by another Channel Islands company. The five-day conference is run by Ivory's Rock Foundation, an income tax-exempt Australian charity that will receive more than $2 million on ticket sales, ranging from the $400 "early-bird day visitor" package to the $3220 "deluxe" package. Orama Holdings director Jan McGregor said the foundation had "no business dealings, transactions or inter-relationships whatsoever" with Orama, which was "entirely funded directly by Mr Rawat's personal funds from the US". A foundation spokeswoman said the guru's travel costs were "paid by another organisation that handles the global logistics".

Prem Rawat's organisations have always claimed growth in numbers of people actively following his teachings and supporting his activities. Rawat has called them 'premies,' later "People With Knowledge," later again "People who have been taught the techniques of (Self-)Knowledge," whatever. Rawat's organisations do not provide statistical evidence of this growth. One of the indirect ways of determining if this growth is real is by the number attending the most important event in a Rawat follower's year. The September multi-day event held at Amaroo in Australia where his most devoted (and wealthy) followers can mingle with each other and see and hear him for up to 8 consecutive days.

Attending these events is comparatively expensive (especially as they're held in Australia) which assures only dedicated and wealthy followers can enjoy the possibility of peace available there. The profit from these festivals of Knowledge have paid for the establishment of a reasonable holiday infrastructure where there was only degraded cow pastures and forest. The Ivory's Rock Foundation which was created for the purpose of managing this establishment. The land was initially purchased with donated funds by followers of Rawat's and had a debt of approximately $6 million dollars circa 2000. The Convention Centre / Campground is now valued at $12 million and all the profits have come from the annual Rawat worship events. They do very little business otherwise.

During the years 2019 to 2021 there were no annual 5-day September events which have been the highpoint of the year for followers of Prem Rawat. The 2024/2025 numbers show a significant drop in 'premies' attending the annual Amaroo event. At the current rate, numbers attending will soon be half of what they were 10 years ago (2014-16). Number of attendees at this most holiest, most wonderful and most fun Premfest has fallen by 5.5% per year. This tallies with the other indicators that we can use to judge Prem Rawat's success in growing his cult or not. All indicators agree that there is no growth and it appears that the death of the 1970s cohort of premies is becoming significant. If the current rate of decline continues this will become shockingly obvious in just a few years.

As of 2014 there was still a debt of $4,064,096 owing to various creditors. Rawat and his minions borrowed money from his followers, initially about $6 million if I recall correctly, to begin establishing the infrastructure on the purchased property that was country fit only to run cattle or herd humans and one Peak Crossing property was bought for only $50,800 in 2000. By 2021 this debt was down $2,775,703. By 2025 the IRF valued Amaroo at $12,638,907.