Veteran real estate agent slapped with enforcement notice over works to Gold Coast’s first high-rise

A veteran real estate agent has become embroiled in a court battle over repair works done to the Gold Coast’s first, heritage-listed high-rise.

The Gold Coast’s first high-rise, Kinkabool, is at the centre of a legal battle.

The Gold Coast’s first high-rise is at the centre of a court battle after the State Government slapped a local real estate agent with an enforcement order for alleged illegal repair work on the heritage-listed building.

The 10-level Kinkabool high-rise was built in 1959 and set the stage for the famous Surfers Paradise skyline now dominated by super towers such as Q1.

It was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register in 2009 because it was considered “important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland’s history”.

But veteran Surfers real estate agent Bob Rollington, who operates his agency from a ground floor office in Kinkabool on Hanlan St, has been accused by the Department of Environment of breaching heritage laws by replacing timber windows in his shop with aluminium ones.

Court documents reveal he was hit with an enforcement order earlier last month alleging illegal repair work.

The historic Kinkabool high-rise in Surfers Paradise.

The enforcement order was sent to him personally on behalf of Bob Rollington Real Estate.

The order alleged he had “committed a development offence” under the Planning Act by installing aluminium windows because the timber frames on Kinkabool’s shopfronts were in place before the heritage listing.

The department quoted from the listing which noted that “a number of components of Kinkabool have been maintained to the present day and reflect the standards marketed in the 1950s and 1960s as ‘luxurious’, but which also exemplify the character of this type of building (including) the two ground floor shop spaces either side of an arcade leading to the lift and stair lobby and enclosed with the original timber framing and fixed glass.”

The department stated in court documents that the officers who inspected the building in April last year following a “community report” observed that the “street facing façade of Shop 2 had been changed from its original material as described in the (heritage listing) Statement of

Veteran real estate agent Bob Rollington. Picture: Supplied

Significance, with timber framing replaced with an aluminium sliding door and framing.”

“A search of departmental records confirmed that there is no record of an effective development permit or exemption certificate in existence for removing the timber framing from Shop 2 at the premises,” the department said.

Mr Rollington was given until June 28 to remove the aluminium frames and reinstall timber ones which “must match the original”, and to appoint an “appropriately qualified person” to oversee the work.

But he has since lodged a Planning and Environment Court appeal against the order.

In a letter filed as part of his appeal, he described the enforcement order as “unfair and unreasonable” and said reinstalling timber windows “could be a health and safety issue”.

He said the timber window in one of his two shops in Kinkabool was badly rotted before the building was heritage listed and was replaced with aluminium, which was also used to replace the decaying timber frames in the other shop in 2020.

Mr Rollington said in his appeal documents that street front timber frames in units above the shops were replaced with aluminium by the building’s body corporate in 2018.

“We employed a glazier who did not feel that replacing timber with timber was practical and recommended aluminium surrounds which we proceeded to install,” he wrote, referring to the shops.

“This matches the building as there is no longer timber framework surrounds on any windows at the front of Kinkabool which was approved by the heritage listing at the time.

“As previously stated, Kinkabool is built right on the street. Timber windows and glass surrounds are dangerous and would be a health and safety issue.”

Kinkabool was the brainchild of developer Stanley Korman whose other landmark 1950s projects included the Chevron Hotel in Surfers Paradise and Lennon’s Hotel at Broadbeach.

Originally published as Veteran real estate agent slapped with enforcement notice over works to Gold Coast’s first high-rise