Remember when: Mayor Robert Neumann’s fury over scrapping of inland freeway plan in 1975

GOLD Coast mayor Alderman Robert Neumann declared he would fight a decision to scrap the construction of a Gold Coast inland freeway.

Flashback: Neumann’s freeway fury

Gold Coast Bulletin, Wednesday June 18, 1975

GOLD Coast mayor Alderman Robert Neumann declared he would fight a decision to scrap the construction of a Gold Coast inland freeway.

He said the abandonment of the freeway proposal was possibly the most disappointing news to have greeted him on his return with his family from a seven-week holiday tour in Europe.

“I came back determined that one of my major recommendations to council would be that we should do everything possible to get the traffic out of the city,” he said.

“The biggest trouble with the development of European cities is the mass of motor vehicles within the towns themselves.

“On the other hand the railway service is absolutely superb and we found it positively the best way to travel.

“Forgetting politics, newspapers and everything we have to look to a better life for anyone.

Gold Coast Bulletin 1975, June 18. Front page.

“And we must bypass motor traffic from our cities and towns — otherwise we are going to choke ourselves up with traffic, engine noises and exhaust fumes.”

Ald. Neumann said he would discuss the inland freeway situation with council “as quickly as possible”.

“I believe we must move to acquire the land for the freeway,” he said.

“And if we can’t have a freeway there, then the land should be acquired for the route for an electric rail service.”

Ald. Neumann was accompanied on his European tour by his wife Jeanine and their four children — Kathryn, 18, Mark, 17, Michelle, 15 and Lucette, 13.