REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Wednesday Feb 26, 1964

A CANVAS of opinions showed that at least 80 per cent of Gold Coast residents were “vehemently” opposed to the proposed closure of the railway between Southport and Beenleigh.

The bombshell announcement of Transport Minister Gordon Chalk reverberated through southeast Queensland and the reaction was a mixture of shock and recrimination.

The Bulletin’s editorial argued it was not too late for the Country Party Government “to show some measure of sense” in the matter of the railway cut.

“When the flood of protests, both oral and by letter to the Bulletin are gauged, it will be obvious even to Mr Chalk that the people are stirred up and demand that sanity take over from stupidity,” the editor Jack Harvey wrote.

Despite these protests, the railway was closed later that year.

The railway was finally extended again by the Goss, Borbidge and Beattie Governments which brought the heavy rail back to the Gold Coast through the 1990s.

Meanwhile, Cec Carey, the state Member for Albert, joined Eric Gaven, the Member for South Coast, in giving his personal blessing to the new nonparty group formed to contest the forthcoming Gold Coast elections.

In a letter to the secretary of the group — the United Gold Coast Civic Committee — Mr Carey said nothing but good would come from it.

The aim of the committee was to elect 10 Aldermen to the city council, all of whom had an agreed common policy of developing the area.

But Gold Coast Mayor Ern Harley slammed the group.