Time to stop the music
Call for an end to Schoolies and GC600 parties to improve city’s image
PROMINENT commercial developer Tom Ray has called for Schoolies and the Gold Coast 600 V8s event to be scrapped to boost the Gold Coast’s family tourism credentials.
The power lister said the events were well managed but likely to discourage families from holidaying here.
In an opinion piece for the Gold Coast Bulletin’s Think Tank, Mr Ray also criticised the current light rail system, saying it needed to be swiftly connected to other parts of the city or written off as a failure.
Mr Ray, whose family has been involved in developing and managing commercial enterprises across Queensland and northern New South Wales, and who co-founded the Salt Surf Lifesaving Club, said the most lucrative tourism and residential market prospects for the region came from families.
“Young families are good yielding tourists – they’ll come with their families and spend money on all sorts of attractions and travel around,” he said.
“I’m not saying they’re not good events, and I’m not saying they haven’t been successful. But do images of these two things, portrayed into people’s loungerooms and on their social media, project the image of the Gold Coast that we should be seeing?”
Mr Ray said the positives of the GC600 event did not outweigh the inconvenience of roads including the Gold Coast Highway being closed.
“It’s unacceptable to have an event like the V8s block the arterial roads of the Gold Coast as it does to a city that requires people to live and work here every day,” he said.
“I think they’re events that have been done well, but I don’t think they fit what I see as the right market we want to attract to the Gold Coast which is families.”
Mr Ray said the light rail was currently a “lost opportunity”. “What it’s done is restricted the ability for the Gold Coast Highway to be upgraded to handle more traffic,” he said.
“Unless you tunnel or reclaim more property – which is either cost prohibitive or socially prohibitive – the light rail’s going to continue to choke that arterial.
“So they’ve either got to network it properly and do it quickly, or consider it not to have achieved its objectives.”
WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT THE GOLD COAST?
“The Gold Coast has evolved a lot over the last 40 years since our family got here.
“Back then, it was a much smaller place, but it had the lifestyle attributes that had brought people to the place long before then – which they still do today, the beach and the open spaces and natural environment. That made people make compromises in being here, that I don’t think are quite as pronounced today.
“What’s happened over the last 40 years, and is continuing to happen, is that it’s providing young people in particular job and employment opportunities that it hadn’t been able to.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK COULD BE DONE BETTER ON THE GOLD COAST?
“We have two or three main arterial roads to transport people north and south and I don’t see them as having the capacity they need.
“The light rail, at the moment, is a lost opportunity and that might be driven by cost constraints. What it’s done is restrict the ability for the Gold Coast Highway to be upgraded to handle more traffic. Unless you tunnel or reclaim more property – which is either cost prohibitive or socially prohibitive – the light rail’s going to continue to choke that arterial.
“So they’ve either got to network it properly and do it quickly, or consider it not to have achieved its objectives.
“Young families are good yielding tourists – they’ll spend money on all sorts of attractions and travel around. That’s why I’d say the V8s and Schoolies Week don’t, in my mind, fit the image I would think as a great family destination for the Gold Coast.
“I’m not saying they’re not good events, and I’m not saying they haven’t been successful. But do images of these two things, portrayed into people’s loungerooms and on social media, project the image that we should be seeing? It’s unacceptable to have an event like the V8s block the arterial roads as it does to a city that requires people to live and work here every day.”
WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN BEING DONE ELSEWHERE YOU THINK COULD WORK WELL HERE?
“Chicago has been an example that, in the ’50s and ’60s was looking like it could have gone the way of the rust belt cities that fell into decline in the US – but it didn’t because it got a strong mayor, Richard Daley, who was there for 21 years. During his time he invested heavily in infrastructure and transport and crime reduction.
“I’m not suggesting we should become like Chicago but if you look at the vision he had, he was prepared to invest beyond an election cycle and have the courage to see beyond the term of his mayorship and invest in things that would pay dividends for generations.”
IF MONEY, TIME, LAWS AND APPROVALS WERE NO ISSUE, WHAT IS ONE BIG PROJECT YOU’D START TOMORROW?
“I got down the Esplanade in Miami one night and they had the night markets on and they’d closed the Esplanade. There’s only two arterial roads that go north-south and on a Friday at 4.30pm why would you close the esplanade?
“You cannot, to create a tourism industry, shut the infrastructure of the city down – you have to find another way.
“Fixing the transport is going to take co-operation between state, local and federal governments, which makes it even more complex.
“If money was no object, I think there’s no other way to move people north-south than to build a tunnel underneath.
“If I want to get from Southport down to Burleigh why do I need to sit in traffic in Surfers Paradise or Broadbeach for 20 minutes on the way down?”
WHAT CONVERSATIONS SHOULD GOLD COAST MOVERS AND SHAKERS BE HAVING?
“No matter how much we tell ourselves that this is a great place to live, the perceptions in many parts of this country are far from what we know to be the case. While those perceptions are out there, they’ll continue to hold us back from being taken seriously as a place to come and start a business.
“If you look at the cost of living here, the lifestyle, against the broadening industry opportunities, we are, by comparison, such a better place to live than most other places in this country I can think of.”