SAVE SMALL FROM SLURS

FORMER mayor Sir Bruce Small was a giant in business before he retired to the Gold Coast from Melbourne.

Small was a self-made man, building a fortune with his bike company, Malvern Star, particularly during the war years when petrol rationing created public and military demand for bicycles. Small’s factory also manufactured radar sets for the war effort.

On the Gold Coast, his company developed 200ha of canal estates including the Isle of Capri, where he lived in a palmfringed mansion with wife Lillian.

Small made a huge contribution to the Gold Coast. A grateful city erected a statue and as mayor, his contribution included a massive reconstruction effort soon after winning office, when a cyclone smashed the Gold Coast in 1967. Small then took an entourage south to tell Sydney and Melbourne we remained open as the tourism capital – and that might well be the origin of poisonous claims he was a womaniser.

Meter maids were part of the tour but as a former model told the Bulletin, Small was a gentleman. Former alderman Norm Rix said Small had an ego but was devoted to his wife.

Small died in 1980. He is not here to defend himself against slurs by tour guides, but there are plenty who thought highly of him and are saying so. The trouble is, mud still sticks. If people spreading the muck have no evidence, they should desist and stop dragging the man and city through the mire just to make a few bucks.