GOOD LORD, WE DESERVE A TITLE CHANGE
The Gold Coast is valiantly trying hard to shrug off this image where it is seen by the rest of Australia as a bit of a tart. We need to take another step to change that
WHAT do cities like Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Darwin, Hobart, Newcastle, Parramatta, Perth and Wollongong have in common?
They are cities where their head of local government has the title of Lord Mayor and they have big and bold church cathedrals.
It’s more symbolic than anything but why are we playing second fiddle to places such as Wollongong and Newcastle on these important civic milestones?
Our population is bigger than those two NSW regional cities, our beaches are better, our footy team is stronger and our climate is kinder.
As the Gold Coast tonight celebrates the success of its new $60m art gallery, the city must now push for Lord Mayoral status. Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, makes the decision. She could ask her son, Prince Charles, to vouch for the Gold Coast after he opened the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
The title of Lord Mayor for a city can only be granted by the monarch, via the governor’s office, as a result of a significant event.
For the Gold Coast, we can easily cite the hosting of the 2018 Commonwealth Games and now the opening of the HOTA art gallery, which signifies a remarkable milestone in the city’s desire to be treated as a serious place to work and live. According to the Office of Local Government, bestowing a Lord Mayoralty means the city “would need to have a very special significance in the history and geography of the state’’. For example, in 1988, the Queen bestowed Lord Mayoral status on Parramatta to mark its bicentenary year.
The Gold Coast is now Australia’s sixth-largest city, with a population likely to pass one million by 2030. It is the tourism gateway of Australia and is Queensland’s engine room of small business and construction.
There is nothing inherently advantageous to a city that has the Lord Mayoral robes, other than the symbolism and prestige. But these are important milestones for a place like the Gold Coast, which has always lived in the shadow of its big brother, Brisbane.
If there’s a city in the Commonwealth that stands to gain more than any other from such a title, it is the Gold Coast.
The multicultural pot pourri that makes up the Gold Coast means it must strive even harder for its own identity, with so many people coming from different countries to settle here.
At the same time, the Gold Coast is in a constant fight to prove itself. It is valiantly trying hard to shrug off this image where it is seen by the rest of Australia as a bit of a tart – good looking but with the morals of an alley cat. Girlfriend material but not a marriage candidate.
The city needs to be taken more seriously as a place to raise a family.
Assigning the Mayor a fancy title and giving him or her ceremonial robes is not the silver bullet. But as any city grows and matures, it must strive for recognition and authority, and that’s why such an honour would be fitting. Perception is everything and it
would be a just reward for the city’s “can do’’ attitude over the past 20 years. The emergence of a world-class art gallery is a reminder that the Gold Coast is fair dinkum about taking the next step on its journey with culture such a big component of that maturity.
In 2011, when I was editor of the Gold Coast Bulletin, Mayor Tom Tate outlined his plans for the HOTA and the accompanying art gallery.
It was such a bold and visionary plan that we ran the story on the front page. The Bulletin has been there all the way with this project, as we have been with the Gold Coast’s progress and ascension since the paper started in 1885. The art gallery project is a triumph for Tom Tate and his team of councillors and senior bureaucrats.
After securing the Lord Mayoral prize, the city must also convince the Catholic and
Anglican churches that now is the time for a large cathedral in both religious faiths.
The Anglicans have cathedrals in Armidale, Bathurst, Bendigo, Grafton, Rockhampton, and Townsville, yet nothing here. The Catholics have cathedrals in Broken Hill, Broome, Cairns, Lismore, Toowoomba and Sale, yet nothing here.
Our next “big thing’’ should be Lord Mayor Tom Tate opening a new Anglican or Catholic cathedral and promising the assembled flock that there will be a cruise ship terminal built off The Spit before the next election in 2024. God willing, of course.
The Gold Coast is in a constant fight to prove itself