Amid the sea of wealthy shoppers clad in white linen strolling Noosa’s luxury boutiques, former reality television star Sam Wood soaked in the warm weather last week with his daughters.
The towering fitness guru stood out to locals on the idyllic Hastings Street on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
He and his family had joined the hordes of Victorians lapping up Noosa’s pristine sand in the final days of the school holidays. Wood was easily spotted as the face of one of Australia’s most successful online fitness businesses, with a quarter of a million Instagram followers.
“He was just walking, and the girls were eating an ice-cream, walking across,” one worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, recalled to this masthead.
“They seemed to be having a nice time.”
Wood’s stepdaughter was also seen filming content outside La Mer, the $3000-a-night luxury boutique apartment where Wood was reportedly staying.
By Saturday night, the supposedly blissful escape ended in the arrest of the former Bachelor star.
One worker recalled seeing police cars flash past and into Hastings Street in the evening’s final trading hours. The 46-year-old Victorian would spend the next four nights behind bars in Queensland.
National headlines on Sunday night exposed details of Wood’s arrest on domestic violence charges of assault occasioning bodily harm and strangulation. His fitness empire has since unravelled and corporate partners have abandoned him en masse.
The multimillionaire and his wife, Snezana, whom he met on the Bachelor, both released a statement as Wood remained behind bars. “This is a difficult time for all of us, we are working through this as a family and are co-operating with authorities,” it read.
Family returns to Melbourne
On Thursday, Wood will be represented by barrister David Cole and lawyer Mathew Cuskelly in Maroochydore Magistrates Court, where he will make his bid for freedom.
But members of his immediate family have already returned to their home in Melbourne’s Brighton, with the couple’s young children heading back to school as the final term of the 2026 year began.
On Wednesday, there was much activity at the Woods’ home, with friends and supporters visiting the house, where the businessman’s Mercedes-Benz G-wagon with personalised number plates sat idle in the driveway, shielded by a high gate to the street.
Alongside Wood’s dispute with the Australian Tax Office, which was only settled in August after the ATO launched legal proceedings against the former 28 Group owner alleging $7.3 million in unpaid taxes and fees, this masthead can reveal the corporate regulator has also taken action in recent months against the now-alleged domestic violence perpetrator.
One of Wood’s corporate vehicles, The Woodshed Group Pty Ltd, of which he was a director and major shareholder, was struck off the register of Australian companies at the end of August after the group failed to pay fees and meet other renewal requirements for several years running.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission initiated the deregistration in June, including publication of its proposed deregistration, with the entity struck off on August 30.
A company’s annual review includes a declaration of solvency. An ASIC spokesperson declined to comment on the action.
According to the ASIC website, the most common reason the regulator initiates a company’s deregistration “is because it has not paid its annual review fee in full for at least 12 months after the due date”.
According to the 28 by Sam Wood website, The Woodshed is the gym in Brighton owned by Wood, which he founded in 2014.
Personal trainers, who are subcontractors of The Woodshed, were running business-as-usual classes on Tuesday.
Wood remains the front-facing personality of the business on its website. He was also featured in a video on The Woodshed’s Instagram account in late September.
Phone calls to the gym’s public membership line go straight to voicemail, which is a recording from Wood himself. Click-through links to sign up for memberships and deals at the gym appeared to be broken.
Before Wood’s company came under pressure from the corporate cop, the Australian Tax Office sued him personally, claiming the fitness entrepreneur owed $7.3 million in unpaid taxes.
The ATO first issued Wood with three notices that he failed to pay income tax in May 2025.
According to a writ filed in the County Court, Wood owed the tax office $4,037,461 for the year ended June 30, 2022. Wood paid $14,747.12 in income tax that year, the same year he sold his business to Bastas for $71 million.
The ATO alleged Wood owed $102,023.20 in unpaid liabilities in the year to June 30, 2023, and claimed he owed a further $3,189,107 in the year to June 30, 2024.
According to corporate filings, Wood resigned as a director from the company he sold to Bastas – Australian Life Tech, the parent of 28 by Sam Wood – in 2024 as well.
The terms of Wood’s deal with Bastas remain private, including a payment schedule. The Australian Financial Review reported in 2022 the cash and share deal with Australian Life Tech would see Wood become an investor in myDNA – a company linked with Bastas – holding a 5 per cent stake.
But this masthead has confirmed through corporate records that Wood does not have an equity stake in the business.
Abandoned by corporate partners
Corporate groups that previously partnered with Wood’s 28 Group all stressed they no longer had links with the former reality contestant.
A Bupa spokesperson said the private health insurer offered online fitness classes through Wood’s business for a short time during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A spokesperson for Woolworths said the supermarket giant no longer had any commercial arrangements with Wood or his companies, adding that it had not stocked any products related to Wood since 2024.
As well, a spokesperson from vitamin conglomerate Blackmores said their contract with the 28 Group – which included access to the 28 by Sam Wood program in exchange for Blackmores membership – concluded in 2022.
Seek, who partnered with Wood for one “career conversations” video, said they had a one-off project with Wood eight years ago.
Wood’s face and personal brand were swiftly scrubbed from his namesake 28 by Sam Wood website on Wednesday. It came after Bastas’s DBG group revealed it had terminated its contract with him a day earlier.
Images of his wife Snezana remain, while smiling images of Wood, including in the eight-week challenge and in the team members section, have disappeared.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
