Flashback: Remembering Gold Coast developer Arthur Earle 20 years after his 1998 death

HE was the quiet man who left a giant legacy. The life of Arthur Earle saw a swamp become one of the Gold Coast’s biggest success stories. This is how he did it.

FEW Gold Coasters have had the kind of legacy that Arthur Earle secured in his long lifetime.

The developer made his mark on the city and was one of the two founders of Robina, now a suburb which is now home to more than 23,000 people.

The towering figure of the city’s history died 20 years ago this week but now two decades on from his death, Earle’s legacy continues to grow.

Arthur Earle was the largest private investor in Australia in rural property by the mid-1990s.

He was born in 1913 in at Goombungee on the Darling Downs and went on the work as a grazier, among many other industries in his early years.

Initially investing in Tobacco, the industry failed to deliver so Earle moved into the rural field, growing cotton and clearing trees

Shortly after World War II he employed the future premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen to clear brush for him.

These industries as well as his dealing in sheep and cattle proved to be successful and Earle, who was living in Charleville in the state’s west at the time, became rich.

Arthur Earle, pictured in September 1996

At one point Earle was the state’s biggest dairy farmer.

But in the 1960s Earle decided to retire and move to the Gold Coast where he found his retirement short lived and a secondary career began as a property developer.

In 1964 he bought more than 3000 acres (1200ha) of land east of Nerang and Mudgeeraba and built a road through the centre of it.

This road eventually would form part of the Pacific Motorway.

At the time, the land which would eventually became Robina was a swamp “and all it grew was tea-tree and a bit of marijuana,” according to Earle.

Throughout his life, Earle maintained strong connections with the country.

Through the 1960s and 1970s the developer, who based himself at Earle House in central Nerang, was involved in the building of numerous housing estates including River Bend, Tallai Hills and Summerhills.

At the height of his success, Earle Enterprises had either developed or was in control of at least $5.5 billion worth of land which was home to 100,000 people.

This stretched from Tallai, Currumbin and Nerang to as far north as Bribie Island.

But it was in 1980 that Earle’s greatest gambit began.

In late 1980, Earle and Asian developer Robin Loh teamed up and bought 1658ha of land near the M1.

After paying just $11.2 million for the land through the liquidation sale of Cambridge Credit Company, the pair announced the $1.2 billion new suburb of Robina.

It was given a completion date of 1995, a year before Robina Town Centre ultimately opened.

Outside of his development work, Earle maintained a love of collecting and using horse-drawn buggies.

Arthur Earle’s funeral — March 3, 1998.

He retired in 1987 at the age of 74 after a long career and enjoyed more than a decade of retirement though he continued to invest in rural properties and donated millions to charity.

His wife Lorna died in 1997 in her husband’s arms at their home while the pair enjoyed their weekend custom of dancing to old songs on their gramophone.

Earle died of cancer in late February 1998 at the age of 84.

His legacy continues to today in the growing Robina, his former office, Earle House, remains a major business hub in central Nerang and Earle Haven Retirement Village is still open.