40 years of political history inside Evandale’s council admin building
IF the walls of Evandale’s council administration building could talk they’d have some stories covering four decades of Gold Coast political history.
History
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THE wrecking ball is set to crash through the Evandale council administration building’s famous glass roof in February next year.
Yet the memories of the structure known affectionately as the “beehive” will stick around for many years.
The building was proposed in the early 1970s to create a new home for the Gold Coast City Council which had outgrown its original Southport chambers which dated back to the 1930s.
Evandale, a site bordering the Nerang River, was selected as the site of the new headquarters and construction began in 1974.
The building was designed by local architect Alan Griffith who in the mid-1970s was the Gold Coast manager of firm Prangley Crofts Dowling and Parups.
The work to build the centre lasted two years, with hundreds of workers taking part in the erecting of its metal frame roof.
The work was completed in mid-1976 and its opening day was set for September 11, 1976.
More than 1500 people attended and the opening was commemorated on a bright Saturday morning.
To mark the opening, a time capsule was placed in the ground, which included two copies of the Gold Coast Bulletin among other documents. It is scheduled to be dug up after 50 years in 2026.
Placing the capsule in the ground was federal McPherson MP Eric Robinson and State MP Russ Hinze.
Just 27 years old at the time, Mr Griffith had overseen construction of Evandale and said the opening was a “grand affair”.
“I was there on the day Evandale opened and we did not get a lot of love at the time but it is heartening to see that it has got the appreciation it deserved which is a good feeling,” he told the Bulletin last week.
“Opening day was a spectacular party and I am so heartened to see how much love there is for it now.”
The Evandale chambers immediately became the centre of the city’s political orbit as the home of Mayor Sir Bruce Small’s controversial council which was famous for its brawls and battles with Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
This remained the case until 1979 when the Bjelke-Petersen Government acted swiftly and sacked the council and installed an administrator who ran the city from Bundall until a new council was created.
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It remained the major political location through the 1970s and 1980s during the administrations of Keith Hunt, Denis O’Connell and Denis Pie but some of the complex’s most amusing moments came during Lex Bell’s time as mayor.
Cr Bell’s six years in the city’s top job coincided with the 1991 election of larger-than-life Crs Dawn Crichlow and Kerry Smith who were both known for their memorable moments.
Cr Bell who today continues to represent Surfers Paradise on the council last week recalled with great fondness being given his beloved pet pig Oink by Cr Crichlow in his office at Evandale.
Unfortunately for Cr Bell, Oink then proceeded to leave his droppings on the carpet of the mayor’s office.
During the early 1990s, Ald Smith became fed up with the slowness of the council’s internal memo service and staged a publicity stunt in which she stood on the top floor of the beehive and cast a fishing line carrying a memo down to the service counter on the bottom floor to show it could be done faster.
Evandale’s prominence began to wane in the mid to late 1990s following the amalgamation of the council under Gary Baildon.
New mayor Ray Stevens retained his headquarters at the Nerang administration building which was previously the Albert Shire’s headquarters and this remained through the early years of Cr Baildon’s second term.
But new chambers were needed and eventually built at Evandale in 2004, bringing politics back to the site once again.
In 2013 incumbent Mayor Tom Tate unveiled his plans for a cultural precinct on the site that would require the beehive’s demolition.
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