"We had a natural rainforest until they came along and cut half our trees down without us knowing," Mr Fox said. "I just felt disbelief. It was a horrible feeling inside."

Worse was to come when the company, Freesoul Real Estate, which intended to build a large resort on the site, brought in excavators to rip up the reef off the shoreline from Mr Fox's beach.

"They had no permits to do what they have done to the reef, and no permits to dump the reef onto our beach," he said.

Mr Fox said he was then assaulted by a Chinese Freesoul employee as he tried to access his own land.

The surfer only suffered cuts and bruises but was worried the fight could have escalated.

"I was concerned when he picked up an iron bar and decided to walk over," he said.

Despite the Australians taking legal action and numerous court injunctions, the developer did not stop work, Kenneth Chambers, lawyer for the pair, said.

"They [Mr Fox and Mr Jack] have put their life's savings into this and ended up next to a monster," Dr Chambers said.

The country's environmental laws are adequate, the lawyer said, but enforcement is an issue.

"There have not been many prosecutions in the 14 years since new legislation has been enacted even though it is a very good law," he said.

The lawyer labelled the case a "David and Goliath battle", saying there was enough evidence to link Freesoul to China’s One Belt and Road initiative.

Freesoul's Chinese-language website says it signed an agreement with the state-run Shanghai Media Group in 2017 to explore the "highly promising" Fiji tourism market as part of the Belt and Road policy, New Zealand investigative journalism website Newsroom has reported.

However, China’s ambassador to Fiji, Qian Bo, has distanced the country from the company, saying it was not a Chinese entity.

"Strictly speaking, this has nothing to do with the Chinese embassy or China," Mai TV quoted him as saying.

Last week, after international media attention and the detention of three Newsroom journalists who tried to interview Freesoul representatives, the High Court in Suva issued a stopwork injunction and ordered the company to clean up the area.

The environment department also revoked the company’s environment permit.

"The conduct of Freesoul Real Estate Development has been deeply concerning to me personally for some time," Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said.

"As both a Fijian who treasures our environment and a global advocate for sustainable development, I share in the public’s outrage."

Although the Australians are celebrating a win for the "little guy", Mr Jack said he was sceptical the company would comply with the court order.

"This legal challenge was never about us; you have to do the right thing in regards to the environment no matter where you are," Mr Jack said.

The Sydney Morning Herald has contacted representatives of Freesoul for comment.