With a 5-4 vote in December 2014, councillors  supported the spot rezoning of 15.7 hectares of council land at Warnervale for the Chappypie Australia China Theme Park. The council sought a ‘‘gateway’’  determination from the Planning Department, after a motion from Cr Eaton.

Mrs Eaton’s financial interest in Sydney Chinese Daily Pty Ltd, owned by Australia China Theme Park Pty Ltd, did not appear on  council documents or minutes and was not disclosed at the meeting.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission documents show her 100,000 B-Class shares, valued at $10,000, were listed under her Chinese name, Hongyi Yang, when Chinese Daily Pty Ltd was registered as a company in March 2013. ASIC documents record the sale of the shares on April 27 this year.

Cr Eaton said the couple had no knowledge of the shares until contacted by the Newcastle Herald on Tuesday.

 ‘‘I had absolutely no knowledge of any of this until I searched the company today,’’ Cr Eaton wrote in an email in response to questions about why he did not declare his wife’s financial interest in the company and withdraw from voting on the project.

‘‘My wife has neither paid for any shares in this company nor been paid anything for them.’’

Mrs Eaton was ‘‘nominated as a shareholder without her consent and some time later this situation was rectified again without her knowledge’’, Cr Eaton wrote.

The mayor did not respond to questions about what action he and his wife would take to discover how Mrs Eaton’s Chinese name remained on the theme park-owned company documents as a shareholder for more than two years, during significant negotiations between Australian China Theme Park Pty Ltd director Bruce Zhong and Wyong council.

Mr Zhong did not respond to messages left on his phone.

Serene Accounting’s Yvonne Suen, who registered Sydney Chinese Daily Pty Ltd in March 2013, said she ‘‘got the company minutes’’ to record Hongyi Yang’s details as a shareholder.

Two months after becoming a shareholder, Mrs Eaton travelled to China with Mr Eaton and others on a ‘‘Wyong Shire Council trade, tourism and marketing delegation’’.

In his mayoral minute of the delegation, Cr Eaton included Hongyi Yang and described her as ‘‘president China Australia Friendship Association’’.

The minute did not identify Hongyi Yang as Mr Eaton’s wife.

Sydney Chinese Daily Pty Ltd was registered three months after Wyong Shire Council agreed to sell the Warnervale land to Australia China Theme Park Pty Ltd for $10million in December 2012. The council was later forced to concede the ‘‘sale’’ was secured with $10,000, the company has so far paid only $100,000 and it can walk away from the project without further loss.

In  public statements about the Chappypie theme park, Cr Eaton has described it in expansive terms.

 ‘‘It is incredibly exciting to get to the stage of lodging a development application and to see the sheer scale of the project,’’ Cr Eaton said in a statement in August 2014.

‘‘The developers have long been telling us that this theme park will be up there with the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge in terms of tourist attractions, and I’ve got to hand it to them – it’s absolutely in that category.’’

The council’s spot rezoning plans, which would have seen the Warnervale site’s zoning change from industrial to tourism, with the height limit increased from 12metres to 50metres, stumbled at the first official hurdle when the Department of Planning questioned the rezoning, increased heights and rubbery job estimates.

The project is billed as providing a unique Chinese experience through a series of themed precincts reflecting the key provinces of China, along with an opera theatre, exhibition centre and an operating Buddhist temple.

Wyong MP David Harris said he would formally request the Office of Local Government launch an investigation into Wyong Shire Council, based on concerns about a range of decisions in the past two years and community complaints.

‘‘There are many decisions by this council that have concerned the community, and require answers,’’ Mr Harris said.

Cr Eaton has been a Wyong councillor since 1991. 

He is a solicitor and has been a member of the NSW Parole Authority since 2012.

On Australia Day this year, he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for ‘‘service to local government and to the community of the Central Coast’’.

Originally published as The mayor, his wife and the mystery shares by Newcastle Herald.