Hedges Ave: Millionaire rich-listers on exclusive strip’s wildest disputes

It does not get more exclusive than Hedges Ave the strip, known as millionaire’s row which is home to some of the city’s richest people. But its residents have gone to war over some very controversial issues.

IT does not get more exclusive than Hedges Ave.

The Mermaid Beach strip, known as millionaire’s row, is home to some of the city’s richest people and most expensive property.

With a history going back a century, it is one of the Gold Coast’s best-known addresses.

But it has also been ground zero for several battles between its residents and the Gold Coast City Council, generating significant controversy in the past 20 years.

Hedges Ave is the Gold Coast’s most exclusive strip

Residents of the exclusive area are currently watching moves to halt the construction of the Oceanway on the Surfers Paradise beachfront.

Tower residents in the area this year launched legal action to stop the council building the path in front of their homes.

With plans to eventually build the Oceanway south along the Mermaid Beach foreshore in front of Hedges Ave, residents are nervously wondering what the path will mean for their beach views.

It comes nearly 20 years after a controversial push from locals to build out their properties.

Workmen were snapped by the Bulletin laying turf outside one of the Hedges Ave mansions in 2003.

In 2003, beachfront millionaires came under fire from the council, state government and other Coast residents for turfing over the sand tunes in front of their mansions and landscaping them.

This so-called “sand grab” came at a cost of more than $200,000.

The Hedges Ave residents claimed they were protecting the beaches, while critics argued it was a case of the wealthy expanding their backyards into public space.

Among those at the forefront of the fight was millionaire milk baron Ken Lacey who faced fines of up to $30,000 for building a rock wall and laying turf on the dunes.

Mr Lacey argued he was restoring the dunes to their “natural state” and was trying to stop dust from getting into his pool.

Ken and Madeleine Lacey later tried to sell their mansion to move to Miami, Florida.

He challenged the council to rip up the turf, something then-councillor Eddy Sarroff was only too happy to order in December 2003.

“`I’m very disappointed that rather than comply, this particular resident has thumbed his nose at the council and laid turf on top of the rock wall and fill,’’ Cr Sarroff said at the time.

Mr Lacey ultimately sold his mansion and it was eventually demolished.

Fast forward to 2010 and Hedges Ave residents wanted to make their street even more exclusive.

The house was finally demolished. Pic by Luke Marsden.

Residents campaigned to close millionaire’s row to tourist traffic and make it residents-only.

The wealthy property owners argued the chances of a fatality were far higher given the road’s narrow width and popularity with “joggers, pram-pushers and skateboarders”.

Then-councillor Greg Betts poured cold water on the idea, but it was just the start of an escalating series of rows which ran through the early-to-mid 2010s.

In 2011, the Mermaid Beach Community Association campaigned for their council rates to be slashed on the back of property values falling 40 per cent in just over a year during the prolonged fallout from the global financial crisis.

Hedges Ave became astonishingly busy in the late 2000s.

The association, headed by long-time Hedges Ave resident Alf Vockler, said it was unfair for its members to pay the highest rates in the city despite their properties losing value.

Mr Vockler paid more than $22,000 in rates in 2011 and said at the time he was concerned about the disparity between rates and values.

“`We want the council to explain the situation and sort it out,’’ he said.

“It is unbelievable to see how much the values have changed in the past 18 months.”’

Eddy Sarroff, the city’s finance boss at the time, said a fall in unimproved capital values on property did not always translate to a similar reduction in rates.

Mermaid Beach Community Association President Alf Vockler. Picture Mike Batterham

“As far as I am aware the rates have fallen by $900 a year for that area,’’ he said.

Despite this lobbying, the idea of a rates cut for the wealthy also failed to gain traction, with councillors who were just a handful of months out from the 2012 election which ushered in Tom Tate as Mayor.

By 2013 the association called for chicanes and widened footpaths on their exclusive strip after paying big bucks for a traffic report to prove it had become a rat run.

An independent report found the local road was busier than a single lane of the neighbouring Gold Coast Highway during morning peak times, and was over capacity with local amenities compromised.

Armed with the document, millionaire resident and tourism identity Terry Jackman, along with other well-heeled members of the Mermaid Beach Community Association, demanded action.

Council responded more than two years later by lowering the speed limit to 30km/h in a bid to deter drivers from using it, something which did cut traffic.

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