COMMUNITY AT HEART OF GOLD COAST
The population of this city has more than quadrupled since the 1980s, but it remains a place defined by the unique energy and vitality of its people
AS my stint as editor of the Bulletin comes to an end, my overwhelming lasting impression of the Gold Coast is that while this is a burgeoning city of almost 600,000, with millions of visitors there is a rock-solid community heart.
I saw that heart-power, as tragic as it was, this time last year. I hadn’t officially started as editor, but on the morning of Tuesday, October 25 I decided to come down and say gidday to the staff and our new GM Clare Starling.
Upon returning to Brisbane later that day the news broke about the tragedy at Dreamworld. I turned around and headed back down the M1 to do what little I could to help the team put out the edition.
In the 48 hours afterwards, we felt that we needed to do more than just report what happened, but actually make something happen that told the world the Gold Coast cares for its visitors, its theme parks and the thousands of locals who work in them.
We decided to launch an appeal to help the families of the victims. On the Friday, by 6pm, we had $110,000 from local business leaders who kicked the tin to supercharge the Dreamworld RedCross Givit appeal.
That fund eventually topped $550,000, following our Dream Again wrap around the newspaper which heralded the community open day.
The size of the town, the paper or its circulation is irrelevant: I have always felt that fundamentally newspapers are a business which should be purpose led, and then profit driven, which is why I was drawn to apply for a job at my “local rag”.
The telephone call that led me to a 30-year career in newspapers came during uni holidays when I was earning some money working at the Golden Circle Cannery in Brisbane.
I’d been slogging away on the “pine line” for four weeks when the foreman tapped me on the shoulder to tell me I’d just been promoted to the baby carrots.
But something even better came along. During smoko I had a message to call the editor of the Redcliffe and Bayside Herald, Mr Gavin Lauman, asking when could I come for an interview.
Not many people get to work on the paper they grew up reading as a kid, let alone become its editor which I did many years later.
Since then newspapers around Queensland have been my life and my love.
I have little reputation as a great writer with no books to my name. I’m not a social media influencer. I haven’t been in any war zones, or covered Olympic finals, although I have had some of the best jobs in journalism, editing the papers I grew up reading as a kid... in Redcliffe, Cairns, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
I have had a great belief and drive to see the papers I’ve worked at become better papers that make better communities.
I arrived on the Gold Coast with no agendas or prejudices other than ensuring the Bulletin reflects the coast lifestyle, respects the truth, is a flagbearer for pride, both defends and sustains its readers.
Although I couldn’t claim “true local” status, I was no stranger to the coast. There is something about the place that’s embedded in my wiring.
As newly-weds, and later when I was a baby, mum and dad holidayed at a little fibro shack tucked in behind the dunes off Jefferson Lane at Palm Beach.
The little beach house was called “Wy Worry” (Mum reckons she forgot to take the pill that romantic weekend back in the 1960s). I suspect I was even conceived there.
As the family expanded to include my three siblings our family holidays in the 1970s were just up the road at a unit
block called Sunny Surf which is still there today.
The holiday itinerary included a walk around Tallebudgera Mountain, dining out at the new McDonalds restaurant at the top of Cavill Ave or the Pizza Hut a little further down, finishing off the night with some musk sticks and chocolate gingers from Darrell Lea in Surfers. There were exciting places to visit like Marine Land, the Currumbin Bird Sanctuary (I still get the shudders when birds land on my head), Magic Mountain and Grundys.
During my teens Mum and Dad bought their first investment property – a unit on the Gold Coast Highway at Burleigh called “Glenlee”. That was “base camp” for Schoolies Week. It was the mid-1980s when the coast had a population of 130,000. I remember thinking back then how it seemed a huge city.
Fast forward to the Gold Coast we know today: almost 600,000 people, 13 million tourists, $13 billion in developments. That growth has not come without some pains.
What do I see as the future issues and opportunities?
Planning and development along the strip. We’re a collection of beach villages that grew into a new world city. How do we move those people around? Traffic congestion is something the Bulletin has not only campaigned hard on, but sought to find solutions for.
Broadening high-end job opportunities. We are dominated by tourism and construction jobs which are susceptible to the boom/bust cycle.
Crime. It’s a big problem we resisted letting it overtake the paper so we can’t let it overtake the city.
The Commonwealth Games legacy… not just buildings, roads and stadia… but the human element. Make Gold Coasters proud.
Success on the national stage for our major footy code teams – the Titans and the Suns – which can reinforce our sense of pride and identity.
This is a big town made up of small businesses.The Bulletin should always be the champion of small business which is what our Going for Gold symposium on October 31 is about.
As we look ahead to our 133rd year, the Bulletin has been the pulse point for the Coast and it is deeply entwined in the evolution of this city.
During the move into the editor’s office I found a book on the history of the Gold Coast
Bulletin which was published upon its centenary in 1985.
Like the Gold Coast, newspapers have been changing for years – and in each case we have adapted, survived and thrived. It’s true the digital revolution has blown up our traditional business model.
If papers like the Bulletin are to survive and prosper we have to be in partnership with the community drivers as well as be part of the community. In the preface of that Gold
Coast Bulletin 1985 centenary book there is a good quote: “Machines and technology are the tools to produce a newspaper but local people provide the publication with its life and vitality.”
You might not love us every day, but I truly believe the Gold Coast would be poorer for not having the Bulletin. I would encourage you to support us through advertising and by helping us grow subscriptions.
I get a real sense that there is a renewed energy and positivity on the Coast. It has been a privilege to edit your local paper.
As I hand over to Ben English, I feel confident that the Coast is a far better place because we continue to operate here; because we raise the high bar; because we fight for the things that matter most and because Bulletin people genuinely care about the Gold Coast.