City Beat: Another radio announcer’s passing slips under radar

Two of Brisbane’s former breakfast radio presenters died this week. One received saturation coverage, while the other flew under the radar.

Garry Ord

IT’S been a tough week for Brisbane radio, with the passing of two of the city’s breakfast presenters.

The death of Sammy Power received saturation coverage.

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Less well-known is the departure of Garry Ord, who hosted the ABC’s The Hospital Hour program starting in 1966 until it was canned in 1975. He was the third and final host of the national program which started in 1939.

Ord was 87 when he left us at the weekend for that great studio in the sky.

A former colleague remembered him as “a great raconteur’’ who used to collect radio bloopers, drive a filthy old VW Beetle and worked at a desk “groaning under the weight of folders and files’’.

Ord had a private family funeral ahead of a remembrance ceremony in Melbourne planned for this Friday.

SHOT IN THE ARTS

QUEENSLAND’S artistic community is poised to get a groundbreaking fill-up worth over $10.5 million.

The non-profit Metro Arts group has just sold its historic property in the Brisbane CBD and the money will now be channelled into what’s been dubbed the Metro Arts Future Fund to assist emerging artists produce new works.

By the end of March next year, Metro Arts plans to vacate its longstanding home at 109 Edward Street, a heritage-listed, five-level building which dates from 1889.

The group will then relocate to a new site at West Village in the West End, with an opening planned for September to coincide with the Brisbane Festival.

Jo Thomas

But before leaving the Edward Street site, which has long served as a kind of bohemian incubator hub for artists, a series of events over the first two weeks of February will help celebrate the group’s 40th birthday.

Overseeing the new fund will be Perpetual Private, a listed entity with $26 billion in assets under management and chaired by former ASIC chief Tony D’Aloisio.

Metro Arts boss Jo Thomas described it as a “nest egg’’ unique in Australia that will help “future proof’’ the sector at a time when other sources of aid are drying up.

“The Federal Government is disavowing the very existence of the arts. We have seen funding from the government rapidly decline and I don’t see that about to turn around,’’ Thomas told City Beat.

“I’ve been an advocate for the grassroots, which has long been ignored and under-resourced. We’re very lucky we had an asset we could sell.’’

TIGHT-LIPPED

But Thomas was tight-lipped when it came to divulging details about how much the move will cost.

Nor would she discuss the spend on the fit out of the 680 sqm new centre, which will feature an underground theatre, two galleries, two rehearsal areas, an outdoor events area and office space.

West Village developer Sekisui House and Hutchinson Builders are both making significant contributions, however, to relieve some of the financial burden.

Thomas also declined to reveal details about the buyer of the old Metro Arts building, which originally served as a warehouse for a series of tenants and more recently has been playfully referred to as “The Old Broad’’.

Allan Fife

Yet City Beat understands the new owner, who settled the $10.5 million-plus deal last Friday, is Sydney-based independent asset manager Fife Capital, which has been in the game for more than 50 years.

Company head Allan Fife didn’t return a call seeking comment yesterday but we hear he plans to transform the space into a boutique office complex complete with ground-floor retail outlets.

It won’t be his first foray in to Brisbane or the first time he’s bought a heritage-listed site.

A Fife subsidiary company shelled out $38.35 million in June last year to acquire the historic McDonnell and East department store site on the corner of George and Tank streets.

Other Fife entities have established a foothold in Acacia Ridge, settling on two industrial properties in May this year for $25.5 million and $16.5 million respectively.

Architect Don Watson wants to stop sale of Brisbane’s Metro Arts building