A quick read through the website gives me some concerns...
If this is a "one man band", no major issues, but if he gets the seven airplanes that the newspaper write up alludes to - well, there are inherent potential hazards with this that CASA could have anticipated before granting the AOC:
1. The new CP has only 1000 or so hours total, and very little M/E (I believe the intent of buying the C310 was to address this?) - so who is going to monitor the professional standards and provide the technical development for pilot(s) within the organisation? - certainly not CASA as they don't have the resources and although possibly being unfair - I doubt a 1000 hr pilot with little M/E time has much to offer in that department. By way of example (and not Arafura Aviation), one operator whose pilots "take great pride in their aviation competence" advertises "training and ongoing assessment by the in house chief pilot", yet their CAO 20.11 training comprises nothing more than sending pilots home with a life jacket and asking them to take a photo of themselves floating in a pool wearing it;
2. The approval of a Chief Pilot should be subject to some level of prior mentoring / understudy (much like ATOs are supposed to). I believe this gent has been a CP elsewhere (in that first thousand hours...), but I have observed that the appointment of CPs in small GA companies is often a function of "last man standing" - rather than whether or not the candidate is actually capable of doing what CPs are supposed to do - lead, manage and develop personnel, in addition to regulatory compliance;
3. Air Maestro keeping it safe? Wow, that of itself shows a complete lack of understanding of the real issues facing a small operation in GA...;
4. The size of the GA "cake" in Darwin is finite - the more operators that are biting out of it, the less margins there are for each of them to build infrastructure to improve their safety. This is not really CASA's problem, nor do I advocate a monopoly / closed shop for any operator, but there is a relationship between the level of competition (ie undercutting) and the ability of a company to build resources to consolidate their operation (ie build safety). Oh, and pilots that will work for free to knock up those elusive first several hundred hours detracting from the pay and conditions for everyone else (but that is another discussion for another time!). I wonder if CASA ever thinks about this when deliberating on what it allows to populate the industry?
In short - I think there is a real issue with how CP approvals are granted (allowing the creation of such small operations) without some demonstrable level of professional growth and mentoring in the role before being let loose "safe solo"...
Maybe the regulator should explore having smaller operator's CPs (who don't have much experience) being mentored by CPs of larger operators in some way - ie industry regulating itself. That obviously has some potential issues in itself, but might be better than nothing.
Outandabout - you should know that criticising certain things is about as PC as harpooning whales.