MORE LIVING, LESS CAMERA PHONES
All Saints Anglican School headmaster Patrick Wallas believes we could all benefit from a gift of more time
A Gold Coast headmaster gives his thoughts on the city
WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT THE GOLD COAST?
“I love the people, I love the diversity – the cultural diversity but also the varied landscape – the fact that we have ocean, mountain, rainforest is just fantastic.
“And I love the sense of possibility about the Gold Coast. It’s not a backwardlooking place; you always feel that if you have an idea and it’s good enough, then someone will back you.
“It’s an adventurous place to live.” WHAT DO YOU THINK COULD BE DONE BETTER ON THE GOLD COAST?
“Obviously I think everyone feels that public transport is a debacle and it needs billions spent on it.
“I think the light rail is a great start and going to the airport will make a big difference.
“The other thing is, we’re a city of almost 600,000 and I think we need a central hub, an equivalent of Brisbane’s South Bank.
“Don’t get me wrong, the Arts Centre is amazing but there’s been this sort of tension between Southport and Robina.
“Someone just needs to say ‘you know what, we’re going to be a million people by 2030 or whenever it is and we need a place where people go to enjoy culture, and where there are lovely restaurants but all in one place’.
“Most cities have that if you think about it.
“I think that would be great for tourism but also great for local residents.”
IN YOUR TRAVELS, WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN BEING DONE ELSEWHERE YOU THINK COULD WORK WELL HERE?
“Sections of the city that are dedicated to people rather than vehicles.
“Some of my favourite cities in the world, just about all of them in fact, have significant areas which are traffic-free and where people can go and just wander, relax and enjoy family time.
“Dublin has a really nice centre, London, some of the big German cities, Munich for example: they all have central places where people gather and connect.
“Necessarily, we’ve had to do our growing on the run; I feel like the Gold Coast is going through its adolescent phase at the moment and everything’s changing very quickly but I’m not sure there’s a lot of thought going into it.
“If you look at a city like Adelaide, they basically sat down with a blank sheet of paper and the benefits of that are still felt today.
“I think someone needs to say ‘let’s not think in terms of five years, let’s think in terms of 20, 30, 40 years – what we want the Gold Coast to look like – and start planning accordingly’.” IF MONEY, TIME, LAWS AND APPROVALS WERE NO ISSUE, WHAT IS ONE BIG PROJECT YOU’D UNDERTAKE TOMORROW?
“The practical one is that I’d certainly like to see a highspeed rail.
“Initially, selfishly, from Gold Coast-Brisbane, but eventually down the whole eastern coast, linking Noosa and Sydney and Melbourne. That would make a massive difference to the economy.
“If I had unlimited resources, what I’d like to do is find a way of buying people time.
“Whether that’s moving to a four-day week, I don’t know. Everywhere I look people are just stretched in terms of living their lives.
“I would ban mobile phones having a camera because everywhere you look you see people recording experiences instead of living them.
“I would like to set up a think tank that addressed the issue of how we can slow people down and help them to better connect with each other.” WHAT CONVERSATIONS SHOULD GOLD COAST MOVERS AND SHAKERS BE HAVING?
“We need to be doing more for our youth than we're doing.
“I think parents are becoming more selfish, the Baby Boomers.
“I hear quite a lot of people my age and younger saying ‘it’s my turn now, I’ve worked all my life, it’s me-time now’.
“My parents’ generation would never say that; they would always be saying ‘ how can we help?’.
“We need really bright, determined, resolute people whose sole focus is ensuring a bright future for our kids.”