REGINA KING – BULLETIN COLUMNIST

“Christopher Skase was a bit like Icarus who, legend has it, flew too close to the sun. Some corporate high-flyers might have had more spectacular burnouts but Señor Skase captured our collective loathing by his ability to smile teasingly at never-ending attempts to bring him back to face justice.

Love or hate him, I found him to be always charming, debonair and a perfect host.

He was always charitable and a workaholic but his drive and ambition tempted him to have just one more go at a project which was too big even for him, and eventually led to the demise of the House of Qintex. No matter your personal opinion, we Gold Coasters will always have Marina Mirage and Sheraton Mirage as a legacy of his vision.”

NORM RIX – DEVELOPER

“I always found him a delightful person. He was obviously an entrepreneur who had great visions and was full of enthusiasm.

Skase was always full of ideas, one after another and they were fuelled by his imagination. It is unfortunate his vision was never fully completed because of the financial difficulties he ran into.

But he has a legacy which is hard to beat and it is amazing what he actually achieved in just a few years.”

Photos: Life and times of Christopher Skase

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DESMOND BROOKS – SHERATON MIRAGE ARCHITECT

“I set up a meeting between Keith (Williams) and Christopher and he came back and said he’d bought (the Sheraton Mirage land) for $9 million. He told me ‘Des, it’s the best site in Australia.’ The next day my wife, Christopher and I are walking along the beach and he said to me ‘Des what are you going to do?’ I told him ‘I don’t know but I want it to appear to me’ and my wife said ‘what, like a mirage?’

A few weeks later Christopher pulled out a brochure and gave it to my wife and told her to look at the name of the company and it was Sheraton Mirage. That’s what started it all.’

WARWICK CAPPER – AFL LARRIKIN

“Christopher Skase was an eccentric guy but I would say he was an innovator. He put a bit of that Hollywood glamour into the Gold Coast and brought pizzazz to the Brisbane Bears.

We wouldn’t have had the lights at Carrara if it wasn’t for him and I actually had a shop at Marina Mirage I co-owned with him call Armano Men’s Wear.

We didn’t sell too many shirts because each one cost something like $5000.”

LEANNE ST GEORGE – PUBLICIST

“It was a wild time of incredible extrava-gance, uber glamorous people, legendary parties and wealth on show. There was nothing discrete about Skase. Skase was a clever mark-eter, and knew how to tap into people who had the financial means, and wanted to be part of the ‘in’ crowd.

He had purchased the movie studio, to open Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas, and Gold Coast, he shipped in Mr. Perennial tan, George Hamilton, Catherine Oxenberg to mention a couple. John Farnham was the opening act for the Sheraton Mirage Gold Coast Opening. The party seemed to go on forever.

Skase developed a fantastic luxury product, and that product still stands the test of time today, as a great development.

I remember one time coming into Cairns (on a private jet), we still had a few bottles yet to be drained, and Skase said to the pilot, ‘Just go around one more time, we still have champagne that needs to be drunk. Liked him or hated him, Skase had a very big picture view of the Gold Coast and he certainly did things on a grand scale.”

BILL POTTS – LAWYER

“He flew back from Spain (for a minor court matter) where we had no extradition treaty at the time and in essence he came back over for this very minor assault.

It was one of those remarkable things where we had a meeting with him at a secret location.

I turned up for court on the Monday and Christopher, unbeknownst to me, had some retired SAS guy completely do a reconnaissance mission on the court.

They employed two or three Christopher Skase lookalikes driving in these black Range Rovers and they were circling the court to put the media off. He snuck in through the back door of the court.

I went to court, he was there and during the big break – we had been served with litigation demanding something like $400M – the Australian Federal Police had arrested him and taken him down to the watchhouse.

In his book he says that this was when he realised that down there in the cells surrounded by criminals that Australia was a place that didn’t treat entrepreneurs well.

In reality I was with him the entire time, the police officers and the watchhouse treated him very well, he was never placed in the cells and the police officers treated him to a cup of tea and a biscuit.

We got him bail and he later left the country. He spent the next 10 years promising to return but developed the only lung conditions that meant he couldn’t fly.

He had a strange mixture of charm and absolute aggression. He was a difficult client that was alternatively really quite charming and endearing all the way through to simply scathing and almost impossible to deal with.

It was hard to know which Christopher Skase you knew you were going to be talking to.”

Inside story of corporate giant’s downfall

IT is December 1987 and the champagne is flowing freely at the newly opened Sheraton Mirage where businessman Christopher Skase stands, resplendent in his tuxedo, celebrating his beachfront monument to capitalism.

Surrounded by business titans, socialites and the Desmond Brooks-designed hotel he had poured millions into, the 40-year-old no doubt thought life could not get any better.

It wouldn’t.

Within three years the man once the toast of Gold Coast high society would be Australia’s most wanted fugitive, living in exile in Majorca.

The Qintex Group boss never returned, dying 20 years ago today on August 5, 2001 at age 52.

Skase remains the poster child for the extreme excesses of 1980s corporate Australia, known for his cash splashes, $6m superyacht Mirage III, giant parties and questionable decision-making.

It included sending his private corporate jet from Port Douglas to Melbourne to pick up a dress for his wife, Pixie.

But the Gold Coasters who knew him say he was a charming man with drive whose impact on this city was significant. He was also a shonk and criminal who cost investors millions and died in exile.

The House of Qintex’s fall at the end of the 1980s, before Skase’s 1991 escape to Spain, came after a wild five years of activity on the Gold Coast. It would help reshape the city under a cloud of contrasting legacy.

Between 1985 and 1988 Skase built Marina Mirage and the Sheraton Mirage at The Spit, co-founded the Carrara-based Brisbane Bears Aussie rules team, built its stadium and giant floodlights and bought the Seven network.

Skase even began operating a hovercraft on the Broadwater while spending more than $450,000 on Qintex’s 1988 Christmas party and maintaining a priceless art and antiques collection.

Former Gold Coast City Council CEO Dale Dickson first met Skase in 1987 during his career as a professional AFL player.

Signed to the Bears, Mr Dickson flew to Queensland and was personally presented with his first team jersey by the team’s co-owner.

“He was a charming man, his wife was a lovely lady,” he remembered. “(It was) a very glamorous and exciting time.

“I can recall dinners at the Sheraton Mirage with people like Max Christmas and Peter Lawrence, so my wife and I got to know the Skases quite well.

“In fact, my last senior game of AFL was actually the first to be played under lights at Carrara, against Geelong.”

Skase’s downfall also led to his freewheeling approach to business becoming associated with the Gold Coast, which, even today, is derided as a city for spivs and “colourful” business figures.

Mr Dickson, who spent more than 20 years at council, said many of the major initiatives he had helped spearhead had been to help move the city beyond this reputation.

“The failures of the late 1980s gave the impetus for people within the city organisation, and well-meaning business people who only wanted the best for the Coast, to do a lot of strategic thinking which led to what you see today.”

Skase was born in Melbourne in 1948 and worked as a journalist before making the jump to business in the 1970s, buying Qintex in 1975 for just $15,000.

By the late-1980s it was worth $2.2bn and Skase was well-established on the Gold Coast, pitching big ideas to city leaders, including a highly controversial proposal to build a golf course at The Spit.

Then-councillor Lex Bell remembers Skase as a tough negotiator who was never short of ideas.

“At the time we did not realise he was doing his construction with other people’s money,” he said.

“Skase himself was quite a charming person, as was his wife. I recall them being generous and gave to a number of worthwhile local charities and they were modest despite having that giant boat which he once invited the whole council to come and have a look.

“He pushed the envelope a lot and at one time wanted to build a golf course on The Spit, though he was always polite and philosophical when we said no and would not bend to his requests.”

Sheraton Mirage would be his crowning achievement, attracting celebrities such as John Farnham and Raquel Welsh.

Erhard Hotter was Mirage general manager for six years and said the opulence of the Skase era would never be seen again on the Gold Coast.

“Christopher’s exit was quite famous and there were a lot of people who were extremely interested in his life,” he said. “There was a lot of speculation about it.

“But without Christopher and Pixie we would not have had this magnificent hotel on the beach.

“Everything from the boat to his hovercraft to the hotel, we will never see high society like that ever again.”

By 1989, Qintex collapsed and Skase was charged with assaulting a News Corp photographer.

The former high-flyer went bankrupt in 1991 and escaped to Spain, leaving $700m in debts.

The federal government launched the “chase for Skase” which lasted a decade.

Even television host Andrew Denton attempted to hire a US-based bounty hunter to bring Skase back to Australia, raising $250,000 for the effort.

Skase, who long maintained he was too sick to return to Australia, ultimately died of stomach cancer.

Pixie Skase, now 81, returned to Australia in 2008 and lives in Melbourne.

The missing money was never found.

Skase and the House of Qintex are long gone, but his legacy on the Gold Coast lives on.

andrew.potts@news.com.au