Mick Power opens up about the Gold Coast’s most contentious projects: the G:link light rail and the Oceanway

He’s one of Australia’s wealthiest people, but Mick Power refuses to be labelled a “rich whinger” for opposing the Oceanway. And he’ll fund another legal fight to stop it.

In this battle of David and Goliath, it’s hard to tell who’s who.

Sure, it’s one man against a city … but Mick Power is not your typical resident.

The 71-year-old founder of construction giant BMD Group is one of Australia’s richest people, he’s the buyer who just set a $15.5m record for property on Hedges Avenue, and he’s the patron of Northcliffe Surf Life Saving Club.

And right now, he’s considered the patron saint in the fight against the Gold Coast City Council’s proposed Oceanway.

Nevermind that the Surfers Beachfront Protection Association (SBPA) last week lost its legal action in the Planning and Environment Court.

Judge Rackemann ruled that the SBPA, a group of property owners – including Mick – along the 1.6km Surfers South “missing link” of the proposed Oceanway, had failed to demonstrate that the decision to approve the Oceanway extension was legally unreasonable.

But Mick is more than willing to go back to court and fight another day. On his own if he must.

Mick Power standing where the oceanway will go. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

But he wants to make one thing clear, he may have the funds to fight … but this is not a battle of the rich.

“The council has continuously presented us as a bunch of rich whingers who want to keep the land all to ourselves,” says Mick, who founded BMD Group in 1979 with his wife Denise, building it into Australia’s largest civil engineering, construction and design business with 1700 employees and revenue of $1.5bn.

“That could not be further from the truth. What we are concerned about first and foremost is safety. Not just the safety of our properties but the safety of residents and especially Nippers at Northcliffe SLSC.

Indeed, Mick has been a Gold Coast ratepayer for decades.

He joined Northcliffe SLSC as a junior in 1967 and moved to the Coast in 1972 as a civil engineer, working on the canal estates in Paradise Waters, Burleigh and Mermaid, before founding BMD Group in its first offices on Christine Avenue.

He and Denise bought their first Surfers Paradise property in 1983 at Anglesea Court, continuing to invest regularly in the suburb over the decades. In 2005, he bought the D’arcy Arms Irish pub as a “lifestyle investment” – one he recently promised patrons he will keep, although he is considering developing the adjoining property.

Mick Power bought the D’arcy Arms in 2005.

With his solid Surfers history, Mick believes there is ground for further legal action, despite SBPA’s recent loss in court.

And he says it is precisely because many of the group’s members are not wealthy that he is prepared to fund a continued fight.

“The judgment handed down was purely to do with the validity of the approval that was given by the state government to the council to build the Oceanway.

“It did not address any of the environmental concerns we have regarding protection of the dunes, or whether their own Environmental Protection Act was breached.

“We will not be appealing the validity of that approval, but we are seeking whether we can appeal the development application approval on environmental grounds.

However, Mick says he is not opposed in theory to the Oceanway, but to its location and regulation.

If completed, the 36km path would stretch from the Southport Spit in the north to Point Danger in the south.

Already, the Oceanway has proved hugely popular for joggers, cyclists and walkers, with thousands of people using it daily for exercise and relaxation.

But there are several missing links, including the Surfers South Oceanway section at the centre of the court battle.

So-called Millionaires Row at Mermaid Beach is another missing link and the ultimate result of any further action could be a crucial test case for wealthy beachfront residents on dress circle Hedges and Albatross avenues hoping to stop the Oceanway being extended in front of their luxury properties.

Beachfront residents in other parts of the Coast previously launched legal challenges and, at Currumbin and Tugun, even tried to buy up Crown land to stop the 4m-wide Oceanway going past their homes but the walkway was eventually built.

“My point is not to stop the Oceanway in any shape or form, but I’d be pushing for the opportunity for proper consultation with all stakeholders,” he says.

“What is an outcome that caters to all interests? Not just residents along the beachfront but Nippers as well as visitors from Logan and Ipswich.

“I just don’t understand why they want to put this path right up against the property boundary line. It’s so close that we’ll have joggers stealing sausages off our backyard barbecues. If a hurricane or storm surge comes through, that concrete will be smashed into our buildings.

“Why not put it 20m out into the dunes?

“It also worries me just who will be using this Oceanway, with all of the e-bikes and e-scooters around, this is going to be a freeway not a walkway.

“We have traffic engineers in our employ who came up with a traffic plan which demonstrated that Garfield Tce could have a designated bike lane like Hedges to keep those dangerous vehicles off of the Oceanway, but the council don’t want to know about it.

A tram at Broadbeach South station. Picture: Mike Batterham.

And while he’s not a fan of the current Oceanway proposal, Mick is a huge proponent of the city’s other transportation solution, the light rail. In fact, BMD Group tendered for the construction of Stages 1 and 2.

However, he says the company decided not to tender for Stage 3, and he knows why current construction has stalled.

“In the first stage of the light rail, from Southport to Broadbeach, the contractor lost some $180m because of underground services that weren’t shown where they were supposed to be,” he says.

“In those days, contracts were such that the contractor took all the risk. We asked them to change the terms, but we were told that wasn’t going to happen.

“When it came time to tender for Stage 3, we decided it wasn’t worth that risk and we said we won’t be pricing it.

“Then they suddenly changed the rules to accommodate a Chinese company (John Holland), we were not too happy about that.

“The reason it’s taking so long now is that the state government is trying to bring in this best practice for workers, which adds something like $100m to the tender. It’s just totally over the top.”

It’s that practical acumen that has seen Mick make his own seachange on the Gold Coast.

After a 40-year association with Surfers Paradise, he’s now set to call Mermaid Beach home after purchasing an off-market double-block on Hedges Ave for $15.5m – more than $19,000 per sqm.

But he says regardless of where he lives, he will continue to fight for the residents he has called neighbours for so long.

“Just because I won’t be based there doesn’t mean I won’t fight for my neighbours,” he says.

“But it won’t be long until Garfield Terrace is all over 35 storeys. That’s not where we want to live.

“It’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s just about understanding the lay of the land.”

And when it comes to his fight against the Oceanway, that is precisely his point.