Terry Morris: Veteran Gold Coast business leader says city lacks ‘establishment’ and isn’t snobby

A veteran business leader has declared the Gold Coast to be one of the world’s great cities and it’s all because of a lack of snobbiness. FIND OUT WHY

Veteran business leader Terry Morris has declared the Gold Coast to be one of the world’s great cities.

Mr Morris, who founded Carrara Markets and Sirromet winery, argued the lack of “establishment” and “snobbery” made it a place of opportunity.

Speaking at a Gold Coast Community Fund breakfast on Tuesday, the 86-year-old entrepreneur said the city remained full of promise for anyone willing to try.

“I’m in my 50th year here on the Gold Coast and it’s an incredible place to be,” he said.

“I’m in my 86th trip around the sun and it gives you time to ponder and I keep thinking it is an incredible city we have here because it is such a youthful city.

Terry Morris. Photograph: Renae Droop.

“It hasn’t developed what they call in other cities ‘the establishment’, there’s very little snobbery on the Gold Coast and that’s why people flock here, for the lifestyle.”

Mr Morris said the city had grown and evolved in the five decades he had done business on the Gold Coast.

“It’s a very different city but it’s also Groundhog Day because there’s always been young people wanting to do things,” he said.

“Happy to talk to people, get on the job and we have had all sorts of things to overcome — the white-shoe brigade — but there has always been some great things here and so many great businesses nobody knows about.

“We make the world’s best supermarket trolleys here and a guy at Molendinar makes the best manhole covers. It’s quite incredible.”

Mr Morris spoke on a panel of business leaders, also including Dreamworld boss Greg Yong and Abedian and Co’s Anne Abedian.

Soheil Abedian and Anne Abedian. Picture Glenn Hampson

The breakfast event, which was attended by some of the city’s most prominent business figures, raised more than $205,000 for Gold Coasters in need.

Mrs Abedian spoke about the importance of charity and helping those in need.

“Our lives can change in the blink of an eye and we are not in control of that, so I think it is important to recognise that circumstances arise in our lives that are beyond our control,” she said.

“To think of all those people suffering and by contributing something small you can contribute to something so much greater.

“We (Mrs Abedian and her husband, Sunland co-founder Soheil Abedian) spent some time in Dubai and worked alongside people who were struggling to make ends meet, sacrificing so significantly, so when Soheil and I came back to the Gold Coast we realised that it is not just about working.

“The Gold Coast has been very kind to us, our family and our business and when we came back we wanted to pay it forward.

“ … There is the opportunity to contribute from what we have earned and share it, because when you have equilibrium, there is balance.”