Lloyds Bank has called in loans associated with the A$1bn Salt Village residential project on the northern NSW coast, sending four project management and marketing companies of Queensland developer Ray Group into receivership.

The giant Salt project, south of Kingscliff on the Tweed coast, was the brainchild of developer Brian Ray, who died in a light plane crash with his wife Kathy in 2005.

The appointment of receivers Bentleys to the Ray companies, which have debts of A$33m, has put the rest of the huge coastal development under a cloud. The project was about 90% complete, sources said.

The Ray companies do not own the property but were responsible for marketing blocks of land and for managing the project. The land is understood to be owned by Lloyds subsidiary Capital Finance Australia.

The Australian