FUN AND NOW THE GAMES
From farmland and shopping mecca to a key hub for the 2032 Olympic Games, we complete our journey looking at the evolution of Robina
DREAMS of Robina becoming an exclusive enclave for the rich and famous came to an end in the 2000s, as it took shape as the Gold Coast’s own mini “super city”.
It had undergone a major development boom and the population was increasing.
Robina was even earmarked as the home of “the Taj Mahal” – the controversial council super headquarters.
In the past fortnight the Bulletin has revisited the origins of Robina and the long journey from farmland in the 1960s, its 1981 purchase by Dr Robin Loh and Arthur Earle, and the early 1990s proposal to turn it into the Gold Coast’s official CBD.
The 1990s brought dramatic growth as the railway was extended, Robina Town Centre opened and Bond University was forced to fight off a bizarre attempt by the Victorian government to poach it from Queensland.
By the mid-2000s, the suburb was on a major upswing – Robina Town Centre was in the midst of a $250m expansion and the suburb was selected as the home of the Gold Coast Titans NRL team and its stadium.
By 2007, The Rocket, Robina’s first high-rise was built at a cost of $80m.
With so much activity, the Gold Coast City Council under then-mayor Ron Clarke eyed off relocating to Robina and cement it as the city’s new CBD.
Council officers at the time pushed for city hall to abandon Evandale in favour of a 40-storey tower that would become its new centralised headquarters.
Council’s offices were spread between Evandale and the Nerang headquarters it had inherited from the Albert Shire in the mid-1990s.
While Southport was initially favoured, it was rapidly supplanted by Robina.
In late 2008, council voted to spend $400m on a headquarters at Robina.
But the idea immediately became controversial when the global financial crisis kicked into high gear, and pressure on council to cut its costs.
Councillors spent most of 2008 and 2009 brawling over the future of the controversial project.
Robina Land Corporation offered the council free land to build a grandiose $375m centralised headquarters for the organisation’s 2000-plus staff.
By late 2009, Cr Peter Young led a proposal to abandon a single headquarters proposal and establish three headquarters – one at Athol Paterson carpark at Southport, a second at the Coomera Town Centre and a third at a greenfield site at Robina.
Construction was expected to begin by 2012.
Then-robina councillor Jan Grew said the return to Robina was inevitable but the wait had been trying.
“I remember talking about this 14 years ago and we still haven’t built anything yet,’’ she told the Bulletin at the time.
“It has been very frustrating, especially since we had land offered to us but we couldn’t get the votes to go ahead with it.
“Now we’re back to square one but it makes complete sense that the council chooses to have a strong presence in Robina.’’
Council bought the land from Robina Land Corporation in mid-2010 after negotiating the company down from a $15m price tag.
“It’s a vote of confidence for Robina,’’ said Robina Land Corporation director Tony Tippett.
“We did the deal at significantly below market price, probably around half the market value rate, but in the interests of getting council to Robina we were happy to do the deal.’’
The second decade of the new century was meant to be an exciting beginning for Robina, but it marked the end for its founder.
Dr Robin Loh died in August at age 81.
Dr Loh had retired in 1996 after Robina Town Centre’s completion and had been in ill health.
In his last years he battled Parkinson’s disease and related conditions before dying on a flight from Singapore to Hong Kong.
He was buried in the US alongside his parents.
Back in Australia, the battle for Robina raged on.
Despite the council buying a site for the headquarters, some councillors continued to lobby for a “Taj Mahal”.
It became a major political football leading into the 2012 mayoral election as critics declared it to be a waste of money and attacked the incumbents for having spent years arguing about it rather than focused on ratepayer issues.
Tom Tate won the election and scrapped all the previous plans for headquarters and committed to keeping council based at Evandale.
The days of Robina as the third official CBD were over.
But thanks to the decades of work, Robina is now on track to host the new Olympic Games athletes village and the city’s biggest parklands.
Not a bad legacy at all.