Canberra schools have been left shocked and surprised after a travel operator entered liquidation and left parents thousands of dollars out of pocket.
Tamara Chatfield had just paid the last installment for her daughter's trip to the United States when Actura Australia entered liquidation.
She said her daughter Nevaeh was "very disappointed".
"I'm worried about the money but what concerns me more is the experience that my daughter misses out on, it was just such a great opportunity," Ms Chatfield said.
"Letting her see a part of the world and just the opportunity to see that there's so much out there rather than just staying in Canberra."
No warning of business collapse
Actura Australia sent out an email on June 15 telling families their trips were cancelled. The collapse has left many Canberra parents thousands of dollars out of pocket.
The Canberra & Goulburn Catholic Diocese said students at Merici College and St Clare's College had travel booked with Actura Australia.
"The colleges had no indication that Actura Australia was in financial trouble before it went into liquidation. The college principals have advised parents to contact the managers of the company's liquidation about their legal rights," it said.
"The sudden collapse of the company was a shock and a surprise to the college communities."
Ms Chatfield and her daughter participated in an information session for the 2025 "Case Space" tour and paid a deposit for the trip in March 2024.
Ms Chatfield said she paid $11,000 for the trip in installments, the last of which was on June 13 - the day before the company went into liquidation.
She received confirmation from Actura for each of the payments up until May, but was told she would be able to see her payment record online when she'd paid the trip in full.
"I'm a single mum, I work full-time but I have four kids," she said.
"We'll dispute the transaction, but there's no promises because they've gone into liquidation and I paid cash for the rest of my payments."
Parents scrambling for answers
Actura Australia had been in operation since 2014 with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and international bureaus in Auckland, Singapore, Taiwan, and Houston, according to its website.
ASIC documents list the sole shareholder of the company as Actura International Corp, which is based in the Seychelles.
Emails shared in a parents Facebook group suggest that the New Zealand branch of Actura made bookings but never paid for a "space camp" trip in December 2024.
The operator had a trip planned to Cairns in July, as well as a film and arts school expedition.
The company's website states that Actura Australia provides the "leading STEAM learning solution spanning from in-class, out-of-class and at-home environments", including "once in a lifetime, best STEAM experiences" through their international study programs.
The website also cited work from a Harvard professor that claims the "pace of change within human society within the next 30 years, will outpace the change of the last 5000 years", with students needing to master "seven survival skills".
