THE YEAR OF BUILDER COLLAPSES
Coast police are facing an internal investigation for alleged corruption and misconduct after an investigation into alleged dodgy crime statistics and bullying of police whistleblowers.
Top cop Michelle Stenner was also charged with perjury and misconduct.
MAYOR TOM TATE’S TOUGH YEAR
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate had a shocker of a year.
In June, his beloved wife Ruth collapsed and went into cardiac arrest at Singapore Airport moments before boarding a flight to Europe.
Cr Tate spent an agonising 25 minutes on the floor of the airport trying to resuscitate her. Thankfully, he was successful.
Then in November, he revealed he’d been diagnosed with bowel cancer and was forced to step down as Mayor for several weeks while he recovered from surgery. Tradies were left chasing millions in several high profile builder collapses on the Gold Coast this year with Queensland One Homes leaving tradies $6 million out of pocket when it collapsed in July.
Commonwealth Games athlete’s village builder Grocon also ran into strife when the company surrendered its Queensland building licence after it was suspended by the Queensland Building and Construction Commission in October.
Fuming subbies also claimed they were owed hundreds of thousands of dollars when Commonwealth Games Village contractor Ware went under in August.
BIG BLOW TO ASF PLANS
A $3 billion casino resort on The Spit was scuttled by the State Government in August, ending a long-running controversial plan by Chinese-backed ASF to build a five-tower integrated resort on Crown land.
Meanwhile, council courted controversy over plans to sell Bruce Bishop carpark in Surfers Paradise.
THE CELEBRITY
We had movie royalty living on the Gold Coast while filming Aquaman with Jason Momoa regularly spotted out and about while Amber Heard was on-again, off-again with her billionaire beau Elon Musk. And you couldn’t get enough of reading about inside the life of the Candyman’s daughter – aspiring model Lucciana Beynon.
YOU COULDN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP
Manace the moggy became the cat who got the clean when the feckless feline snuck into a front loader washing machine and survived a 45-minute cold wash cycle.
An Arundel man got the shock of his life when a runaway car plunged through his fence and into his pool in November.
Local beach lover Greg Cooke managed to uncover two gold nuggets on a north Gold Coast beach in March.
Cyclists and motorists clashed on Hedges Ave in a video that went viral and sparked fresh debate about road etiquette.
And a Gold Coast couple had their neighbours to thank in June for ending an almost 24-hour nightmare that began when a distressed horse bolted into their living room. The horse was fatally injured and lay in the couple’s living room.
SNOW PARK IS COMING
The internet went wild over news a snow park was opening on the Gold Coast.
Operators of the Gold Coast’s first ski park revealed plans to open a mini-theme park on Ferny Avenue, Surfers Paradise with hopes to open a larger $4 million Gaven park.
IT WAS A TRAMPEDE
Thousands turned out to ride Stage 2 of the light rail when the new line from Gold Coast University Hospital to Helensvale opened this month, connecting the tram system to the heavy rail.
Meanwhile, debate about the route of Stage 3 down to Burleigh raged.
BOROBI WILL BE DRINKING XXXX
We all cheered when the 2018 Commonwealth Games secured XXXX maker Lion as the officer brewer of the Games.
While it stopped short of committing to a special Games edition beer, it seems there was plenty of beer fans excited about this news ... it was one of the most-read stories on goldcoastbulletin.com.au for 2017.