Warren Mead built a high-profile restaurant career in Perth, then saw his restaurant group collapse into receivership in 2008. In a 2009 interview, he attributed the failure to overexpansion, borrowings, rent and wage costs—not to a single event. Reporting later placed him working in Bali and, by 2021, back in Western Australia. His marital history is less definite: Mead himself said he could not remember whether he had been married five or six times.
From sales work to Perth’s restaurant scene
Before becoming a restaurateur, Mead worked in sales and at a Toyota dealership. A milestone in his hospitality career came in 1984, when he opened Jessica’s at the Hyatt. Gail Williams’s 2009 interview describes the growth of a prominent Perth career, with venues including JoJos, Milligan’s, The Surf Club, Coco’s, The Oyster Bar, Black Tom’s Bar and Mead’s Mosman Bay. The feature, originally published in STM on 23 August 2009 and republished by PerthNow on 29 August 2014, presents Mead as a flamboyant figure whose business life included conspicuous luxuries as well as restaurants.
Those reported assets included a 27-metre charter boat, named Moonlight Lady and later Moonlight Express, and a part-owned racehorse. The boat became one of the assets sold after the business troubles began.
What happened in the 2008 collapse?
The 2009 feature reports that receivers were appointed over three restaurants in August 2008. It also says Mead’s charter boat was sold to recover bank debt and that he had to leave his Mosman Park home. In the interview, Mead described being left without money and in debt, and said he slept in his office. These are details reported in the interview; it does not provide a complete set of accounts or a legal finding about the full extent of his personal liabilities.
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Mead’s explanation for the financial failure
Mead’s own explanation was that he had taken on too much. In Williams’s 2009 interview, he said: “I was trying to do too much. The borrowings were too high. Rent was too high.” He pointed to overexpansion, high borrowing, rent and wage costs. He also recalled trying to build a corporate structure that included charter boats and a vineyard, ventures he felt he was not equipped to manage.
He said he had focused on delivering a good product more than on making a profit. That is his retrospective account, not an independently tested explanation or an audit of the businesses. The interview also quotes him saying, “I have no money in the bank. I have debt.” His words convey the personal shock of the collapse, but do not establish a precise balance sheet.
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Marriage and family: why the number of wives is uncertain
The “many wives” framing comes from Mead’s own comments in the 2009 feature, but the precise count is unsettled. Asked about it, he said he could not remember exactly and answered, “Five or six, whatever.” The same feature refers to Kim Boyd as his sixth wife and discusses children with several partners. Without a more reliable account resolving the discrepancy, it would be misleading to state a definitive number.
A later profile by Gail Williams in Have a Go News reported in 2021 that Mead had an Indonesian wife, Rani, and that she was the mother of his tenth child. Those are details attributed to that interview, not confirmation of his present family circumstances.
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From Bali to Northam: what later reporting says
When Williams interviewed Mead in 2009, he was working at a restaurant at Karma Resort in Jimbaran Bay, Bali. The feature reported that he was paid $500 a week there. That figure describes his reported pay at that time, not his income in any later period.
A Have a Go News profile published on 11 August 2021 reported that Mead had returned to Western Australia during the Covid period and was living in Northam. It described a quieter domestic life and reported that he was 76 and had ten children. Mead also said, “I’m writing a book.” The interview records his stated plan at that date; it does not establish that a book was subsequently completed or published.
The available profiles provide a dated account through 2021. They do not establish where Mead lives or what he is doing in 2026.
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How to read the story without overstating it
- Reported events: The 2009 feature reports the restaurant receivership in August 2008, the sale of the boat and Mead’s departure from his home.
- Mead’s interpretation: His accounts of overexpansion, debt, rent, wages and his focus on product over profit are personal recollections, not independent findings.
- Unresolved details: Mead gave an uncertain count of five or six marriages, while the 2021 profile adds later family details.
- Dated status: The Bali account comes from 2009 and the Northam account from 2021; neither should be treated as a current update.
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