‘Mr Gold Coast’ Sir Bruce Small honoured as posthumous winner in 2024 Queensland Greats Awards
The late Sir Bruce Small famously called ‘Mr Gold Coast’ is the new posthumous winner of the Queensland Greats award for 2024, awarded by Queensland Premier Steven Miles.
The author of the new official biography ‘Sir Bruce Small: From Malvern Star to Mr Gold Coast’, Gold Coast journalist Rachel Syers, nominated Sir Bruce as a living legend in his lifetime for his lasting legacies to the Gold Coast and the state of Queensland.
Rachel accepted the award on behalf of the Sir Bruce Small family, at a ceremony on 6 June, 2024, attended by the Governor of Queensland Her Excellency the Honourable Dr Jeannette Young AC PSM.
The 2024 Queensland Greats are:
- Former Gold Coast Mayor and philanthropist Sir Bruce Small (posthumous)
- Scientist and biotechnology leader Emeritus Professor Peter Andrews AO
- Olympic gold medallist and athletes’ champion Natalie Cook OAM OLY
- Award-winning fashion stylist and retailer Keri Craig-Lee OAM
- Construction industry entrepreneur and philanthropist Scott Hutchinson
- Torres Strait Islands advocate and community leader Getano Lui (Jnr) AM
- World-leading aeromedicine community service LifeFlight
ABOVE — ‘Queensland Greats’ ABC Breakfast Radio interview with official biographer Rachel Syers
‘Mr Gold Coast’
Sir Bruce Small is known as ‘Mr Gold Coast’ and is credited with putting Surfers Paradise and the Gold Coast on the global map. He served as the inaugural State Member for Surfers Paradise in Queensland Parliament for two terms. Often called ‘the architect of the modern Gold Coast’, he developed canal estates now worth billions, which set town-planning precedents and lifted standards statewide. Bruce also initiated boulder walls to protect against beach erosion.
The three-time Gold Coast Mayor travelled to over 55 towns and cities over two decades to promote the tourism city to the world. Bruce was a philanthropist, donating millions of dollars and his entire Mayoral and Parliamentarian wages to charity for 12 years, from the age of 71 to 83.
The new Queensland Greats will be honoured with bronze plaques installed alongside previous recipients at Roma Street Parkland in Brisbane.
There are now 125 individuals, 20 institutions, and 11 posthumous recipients of a Queensland Greats award, representing the many ways in which Queenslanders have worked for the greater good of the state and their community. The Queensland Greats Awards program began in 2001 to honour people and organisations who have made a meaningful contribution to, or whose achievements have significantly impacted, the history and development of Queensland.
Queensland Premier Steven Miles said: “Yesterday, on Queensland Day, we honoured some great Queenslanders for their contributions to the state.
“Their work, determination and commitment has been of great benefit to Queensland. “Our state’s success is built of the accomplishments of our people and the contributions that make Queensland and Australia a better place for all.”
Dr Anne Small, granddaughter of Sir Bruce Small, said: “This award represents recognition by Queensland and hopefully the rest of Australia of all the work Sir Bruce did to develop and celebrate Surfers Paradise. And hopefully people will realise how far they can go with their own endeavours, even if they come from a poor start like Sir Bruce did when his family had to sometimes pray for food to land on the table to feed the children – his story of coming from humble beginnings to becoming one of Australia’s greatest success stories is still relevant today.”
Rachel Syers, official biographer, author of Sir Bruce Small: From Malvern Star To Mr Gold Coast, said: “When Sir Bruce Small passed away in 1980, the entire nation knew him as Mr Gold Coast, who had spent the last 20 years of his life promoting and improving the tourism city in the eyes of the world.”
“Community leaders labelled him ‘a legend in his living life’, ‘an icon’, ‘the man who built the modern Gold Coast’ and simply ‘a man of character and charity’. Even the then-Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser made an official statement about his death, praising Sir Bruce for his contribution to the state of Queensland, and in particular to the development of the Gold Coast.
“This significant award honouring Sir Bruce Small as a true Queensland Great can be celebrated not only by everyone who knew and loved Sir Bruce, but also by the entire City of old Coast as a reminder of the legacy Sir Bruce left – from developing suburbs now home to thousands of families, and staging promotional tours from Tasmania to Tokyo to transform the city into a tourism mecca, to supporting more than 100 local clubs and organisations and donating millions to charity.”
“Sir Bruce Small had a passion for spruiking about Queensland and its sunshine wherever he travelled, and after spending nine years researching and writing his official biography, I have no doubt that receiving this posthumous award would be one of the highlights of the many amazing moments in his life.”
Queensland cities and towns highlighted in the new Sir Bruce Small biography include:
- Brisbane
- Corinda (Brisbane)
- St Lucia (Brisbane)
- Clayfield (Brisbane)
- Gold Coast
- Mount Tamborine
- Moreton Bay
- Numinbah Valley
- Mt Isa
- Cairns
- Townsville
- Toowoomba
- Rockhampton
- Kingaroy
- Emerald
- Charleville
- Winton
- Charters Towers
- Rolleston (Central Highlands)
- Wondai
- South Burnett
- Murgon Shire
- Barambah
- Hartley’s Creek
- Beechmont
- Beaudesert
- Yeppoon
- Hamilton Island
- Port Hinchinbrook
- Ipswich
- Widgee Shire
- Canungra
- Sunshine Coast
- Beerwah
- Bundaberg
- Gladstone
- Hervey Bay
- O’Reilly’s
- Great Barrier Reef
- Springbrook
