Gold Coast lawyer Colin Greatorix opens up about his career and life
Colin Greatorix has been a lawyer, a radio announcer, a country music star and a restaurateur. He’s also a black belt and runs the Springbrook Fudge Shop. This is the story of his life in the fast lane on the Gold Coast - and why he walked away from it all.
Police & Courts
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HE’S spent a lifetime falling in love with the mongrel dog that he calls the Gold Coast: wild and strong, with a little from here and a bit from there.
“It will never become a thoroughbred, it will always be a mongrel. But a good mongrel,” Glitter Strip criminal lawyer Colin Greatorix tells the Bulletin.
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His illustration of the city is much like the man himself, although the 77-year-old father-of-four could more aptly be described as a designer cross breed.
Colin Greatorix the lawyer, the radio announcer, the country music star, the Springbrook Fudge Shop operator, the restaurateur, the black belt. A little from here and a bit from there.
ALL THAT GLITTERS
Sipping coffee nearby the Southport Courthouse while joking with the waiter, Mr Greatorix reflects on his decades living on “the mountain” at Springbrook, his music career and the criminals he defended that were probably good for their crimes but walked free.
“I like piccolos, they wire me up. I’m only a small person so before I hit the courthouse I drink one and I’m f**king wired. I really am,” he says.
He later explains his view on expletives: “F*** is not a bad word, it doesn’t offend me”.
The ponytail-wearing lawyer is no stranger to a “wild” night.
He lived life in the fast lane when the Glitter Strip was booming, writing commercial contracts for movers and shakers including Max Christmas and dabbling in matrimonial law, which he was deeply passionate about.
He owned a number of Chinese restaurants in Surfers Paradise and once did a major commercial settlement for a client while wearing only a towel after returning from a surf.
“Colin, he was just the man back in the day,” one lawyer tells the Bulletin.
“If you worked for his firm, you had made it. They were going out all the time and bringing back work. It really was wild.”
But to the dismay of many colleagues, right when he was at the top of his game, Mr Greatorix walked away from Short Punch and Greatorix — the top commercial firm he’d helped build.
“It wasn’t me. I was living a different life. I just reached a point where I wanted to change,” he says.
Since he left university in Brisbane, the son of working-class parents had dreamt of being a criminal solicitor but his commercial partners wouldn’t take on the work, he says.
“I said: ‘I want to do crime’ … They said: ‘You can’t have criminals coming in here and mixing with other white-collar people’. I said: ‘Mate, they (the white collar people) are f***ing frauds as well. Give me a break’,” Mr Greatorix explains.
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But just as he was about to kick off his second-coming in the legal fraternity, he dropped everything and headed for LA with plans to make it big with the man who discovered The Eagles and Air Supply — Robbie Porter.
Mr Greatorix had always played in bands, even as a teen and has recorded several albums over the years.
His song What Have You Done For Australia is often sung by Normie Rowe and the anthem for Vietnam veterans.
Shortly before he ditched the law and headed to the US, Mr Greatorix had turned down an offer to work with Michael Gudinski, after sending him a fake Supreme Court writ telling him he must listen to his music.
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“I flew to the states to sign up with Robbie Porter. He had heard my music when I was on talkback radio and he came out to Australia. I flew over there and met them,” he recounts.
“So I rang Gudinski up and said: ‘F*** off Michael, I’m going to the US’. Big mistake, the company was somehow linked to … the mafia and it tanked.”
Gudinski died last month.
After his “hiatus” in the US Mr Greatorix returned to Gold Coast legal circles with his signature ponytail and jeans.
“I call them denim trousers,” he quips, remembering a time told a magistrate the same thing.
“When I started back and in the criminal law, I didn’t want to work for someone again. I thought: ‘I don’t want to go to the bar’. There, you are dependent on other lawyers around feeding you. I’m a free range chook, I don’t like being responsible to anybody.”
“MR GREATORIX FOR THE DEFENCE”
Before a big case, Mr Greatorix says he plays the role of every person in the courtroom out in his head.
Over the years, he has appeared for a member of the underworld Toecutter Gang’ and most recently convicted child molester, former Big Brother shrink Bob Montgomery during his Queensland extradition.
Over coffee, he reflects on the law today.
“I’m quite disappointed by the quality of some of the lawyers that are coming through … There is a number of lawyers who think it’s cool to be associated with gangs or gangsters or people or unusual character,” he says.
“Some identify with being quasi-criminal. It’s not the way I think the law should be. It should be about integrity. It should be about putting your life on the line to protect your client …”
But Mr Greatorix says working for the best interests of a client has meant that over the years some who committed crimes haven’t been held responsible.
“I’ve got people off that in my heart of hearts (I know) should never have walked free. I felt great doing it, like I’d accomplished something but … I think some of my clients might have walked free that perhaps should not have but that’s not my responsibility. I present the best case for my client and then it’s up to a judge or a magistrate to decide or a prosecutor to prosecute.”
THE BLACK BELT AND THE FUDGE SHOP OPERATOR
On crime today, he outlined a radical plan to stop people carrying knives in the city, adding he finds some aspects of human nature “despicable”.
“In the old days, no one carried a knife. I think about national service. Maybe a period of time when you’re putting something in for your country, not to become a soldier but as a penalty. It could be used for king hits as well. I was a king hit victim. I know what it’s like,” he says.
Mr Greatorix has practised martial arts nearly his whole life.
He started after being coward-punched outside his parents’ old pub the Grand Hotel at age 18.
“My mate said: ‘There is someone right behind you’ and I turned around and I got king hit. He opened me up, right up the side of the nose. These guys were from Sydney and they knew what they were about. Two of my mates came running out and one of them had their throat open and we both wound up in hospital,” he recalls.
“I decided then, I wanted to get more involved in how to fight.”
He continued over years earning a black belt in karate, taekwondo and judo and travelled to and from Asia numerous times to fight and train.
In his varied life, Mr Greatorix has also worked as a talkback radio announcer.
He interviewed rock star John Farnham while working on News 882 talkback almost three decades ago and famously announced the Queen mother’s death on Brisbane’s 4BH.
The only problem was, she wasn’t dead.
“I am terribly, terribly sorry for the royal family and for the British people generally. She was a sensational lady,” he said on air in 1993.
An apology and correction was later aired after a number of other news networks had picked up the story.
In the early 1980s, he moved to a place that he describes almost as some kind of spiritual home — Springbrook.
He now operates the Fudge Shop on the mountain as well as continuing to work in criminal law.
“I look for things that interest me,” he says.
“The kids that are up on the mountain, they really do give me hope for the future.”
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