Liquid fantasy Gold Coast: Inside story of worst-ever mass overdose at Broadbeach nightclub

A bad batch of liquid fantasy was blamed for a mass overdose at a popular Gold Coast nightclub which nearly killed 10 people and sparked calls for a war on drugs.

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IT’S 6.30AM and the footpath outside a popular Broadbeach nightclub is packed with revellers fighting for their lives.

The young clubbers are lying on the cold, wet concrete struggling to breath while their heads rest on pillows brought from a nearby hotel as paramedics attempt to revive them.

It’s October 6, 1996 and the Gold Coast is in its then-worst mass drug overdose.

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Footage of the drug- affected patrons from Broadbeach Nightclub on the footpath outside following the mass overdose.

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Next week marks 25 years since 10 Gold Coast revellers collapsed outside Broadbeach nightclub B3, affected by a mystery substance.

The mass overdose left eight of the victims on life support in intensive care for several days and shocked the local community, coming as it did just weeks before Schoolies.

Eight of the 10 victims, aged from 17 to 30, stopped breathing outside the dance club in Albert Ave within an hour of taking the drug.

The “fantasy” drug was allegedly based on an ingredient imported from the US and was reportedly in a 375ml bottle of soft drink or bottled water from which the victims had swigged as it was passed around the dance club.

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Drug overdose victims arrive at RBH by helicopter from Gold Coast following the overdose.

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Emergency services were stretched to the limit as the comatose victims were rushed by ambulance to the Gold Coast Hospital in Southport.

Four were later flown to the Royal Brisbane, Princess Alexandra and Mater hospitals and one was transported to the Logan Hospital.

Royal Brisbane Hospital emergency department consultant Dr Tony Brown, who helped co-ordinate the medical teams, said the eight people had the same symptoms in varying degrees and all had to be intubated and artificially ventilated.

“They are seriously ill, but they all should recover,’’ he said at the time.

“They all had stopped breathing. I have never seen anything like this ever.’’

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Det Inspector Arch McDonald at press conference at Gold Coast Police headquarters following the mass overdose.

Dr Brown said the victims became ill within about an hour of taking the drug and all had serious respiratory problems.

“All would have died without prompt medical attention.”

The sheer size of the overdose put the national spotlight on the Gold Coast for all the wrong reasons as police issued a warning.

Witness Troy Winningham, a cleaning supervisor working in the same building as the dance club, said: “”They all started dropping one by one _ one guy was standing there and just dropped to the ground.

“It was really weird. Normally you might think they might wobble or whatever but they just went down _ bang. I don’t know what they’d been taking but it wasn’t any good.’’

Gold Coast CIB chief, Detective Inspector Arch McDonald, said at the time that designer drugs were unusual in nightclubs.

“We understand the drugs are known in the United Kingdom as GBH, which is an abbreviation for grievous bodily harm because that’s the damage it does to people,” he said.

“It’s a relatively new type of designer-type drug to Queensland.

“Obviously, it’s a relatively potent one and should make any person think twice about taking anything they are offered under those circumstances … In this instance, people just fell over and lapsed into coma.’’

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Dr Michael Wooldridge

Federal Health Minister Michael Wooldridge proposed a national crackdown on fantasy.

But despite this, then-police Minister Russell Cooper shot down calls for the Gold Coast to get its own specialised drug squad, arguing that the media had “overreacted”.

Operators of the B3 venue were issued with a notice from the Gold Coast City Council ordering them to cease using the premises for “indoor recreation’’ immediately.

The club had only opened in August that year and had a $3 cover charge, only serving water and soft drinks.

The then-Broadbeach Chamber of Commerce president John Walters called for a 3am curfew on all Gold Coast nightspots.

“Before Sunday’s incident, we conveyed this view to the Gold Coast City Council, Licensing Commission and police,’’ he told media at the time.

“We need the support of the nightclub industry and the Gold Coast community to enable responsible trading hours to be implemented.’’

Then-Gold Coast City Councillor Eddy Sarroff outside Broadbeach nightclub B3 where the overdose occurred.

He said the incident was “a sobering lesson about the life-threatening dangers of drug abuse’’.

The council subsequently slashed nightclub closing times in the area by two hours from 5am to 3am despite objections from their lawyer, former councillor Kerry Smith.

Then-area councillor Eddy Sarroff was furious about the incident and led the charge to cut nightclub operating hours.

It was another 20 years before another incident eclipsed the 1996 overdose.

In October 2016, 16 people overdosed on a deadly cocktail of drugs known as an “N-bomb”.

The drugs, a combination of LSD and MDMA, shocked paramedics who said it was the worst overdose incident they had seen in decades.