Crowd of nearly 200 heavy hitters farewell retiring QUT Vice-Chancellor Peter Coaldrake

Former premiers Campbell Newman and Anna Bligh were among the 200-strong crowd of pollies, bizoids and academics to honour retiring QUT Vice-Chancellor Peter Coaldrake.

QUT Vice Chancellor Peter Coldrake.

PROFESSOR Peter Coaldrake went out in style on Wednesday night.

A crowd of nearly 200 heavy hitters downed drinks and dinner to farewell the retiring Vice-Chancellor of QUT, who steps down next month after almost 15 very consequential years in the job.

QUT’s scenic Room Three Sixty at the Gardens Point Campus in Brisbane was filled with plenty of current and former pollies, notably ex-premiers Campbell Newman and Anna Bligh.

It must be years since those two were in the same room!

Former Governor-General Dame Quentin Bryce, Lord Mayor Graham Quirk, one-time treasurer Wayne Swan and ex-minister turned lobbyist Santo Santoro were there, along with Opposition frontbenchers Jim Chalmers and Terri Butler.

David Barbagello, chief of staff for Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, even took a break from the election to show up.

Plenty of bizoids also rocked up, among them Bob Bryan, Maha Sinnathamby, Terry White and Phillip Bacon.

Former chief scientist Ian Chubb put in an appearance, along with top guns from UQ and Griffith Uni.

Coaldrake, 66, told City Beat yesterday that it was the right time to go.

“I love my job as much as I’ve ever loved it. But it’s important to call time on yourself. All organisations have to renew themselves,’’ he said. Since taking the helm in 2003, Coaldrake, a former Goss Government player, has overseen the development of the Kelvin Grove campus and leaves the uni in strong financial shape.

More than $54 million has been raised for QUT’s Learning Potential Fund, which provides scholarships to needy students, and he hopes it can hit $100 million by 2020.

Coaldrake isn’t disappearing. Just last month he was appointed chairman of the Queensland Performing Arts Trust.

But first, he needs a little down time. Coaldrake and his missus, Lee, are planning a two-month holiday consisting of concerts in Europe followed by skiing in Canada. Sweet!

His successor at QUT will be Margaret Sheil, now a top figure at the University of Melbourne.

DISPUTE SETTLED

STRUGGLING copper miner CuDeco has settled a long-running legal battle with its founder and former chairman Wayne McCrae.

The Brisbane outfit revealed yesterday that it had struck a deal to pay McCrae $500,000 and another $150,000 for legal costs.

That’s a far cry from the $5 million in damages and more than $605,000 for allegedly unpaid entitlements that McCrae sought when he sued the company 14 months ago in the Supreme Court.

CuDeco alleged in a counterclaim that it had paid $873,000 to McCrae when he was turfed out by Chinese investors back in mid-2015.

That figure included a $250,000 “golden handshake,’’ the company said.

CuDeco later maintained the money was improperly paid to McCrae and it sought in vain to claw back nearly $1.2 million from him.

NEAR MISS

RACING Queensland boss Steve Wilson arrived home from Berlin this week a disappointed man.

Wilson narrowly missed winning one of the world’s most prestigious architecture awards for his innovative and eco-friendly villa on Lizard Island.

His $2 million-plus project, completed about a year ago, was among 13 finalists out of 900 entries in the “villa’’ category at the World Architecture Festival.

Making matters worse, Wilson’s pet project lost out to some bloody Kiwis who developed, as he put it, “an elegant hut in the forest’’.

The Wilson HTM Investment Group supremo, accompanied by his architect, James Davidson, had company to drown their sorrows on the flight back to Brisbane. Joining them on the plane was BVN chief architect Brian Donovan, who also came home empty-handed after pitching his refurbishment of the UQ law school.

Misery loves company, as they say, and Brisbane architect Shane Thompson also returned without something to stick in the trophy cabinet.