1987 to 1989 | Hello from the Five Star Vagabond

Relocate Sydney Gold Coast

January 15, 2016 by David Herd

Part of my personal online photo albums, as opposed to my FiveStarVagabond travel blog. The story starts in 1986.

Relocate Sydney Gold Coast

Relocate Sydney Gold Coast took place in January 1987, but lets go back a couple of months to when I was living at Newport Beach in Sydney. I had just broken up with my fiancée, beautiful Karen Smith, we were engaged and living together in a wonderful old home in Newport overlooking the Royal Motor Yacht Club. To add to my woes I had also just been sacked from a high paying job as National Sales Manager for Ricoh facsimile machines.

For the past few years I was a regular visitor to the Gold Coast so at the time moving there permanently seemed to be the right thing to do. I had many friends living in Surfers Paradise including Graham Edwards aka “Crazy” who you see in the photo above. The gorgeous girls in the photo are Sandy Palmer & Joanne Bernhardt.

My ex fiancée Karen Smith

Karen was a beautiful lady and a lovely human being, but looking back I finally realised by the mid 90s I was not cut out for “long term relationships”, and the older I get the less I need the company of others.

Paul Slaughter and Tony Murphy

Two close friends in December 1986 were helping me celebrate the move north. Tony was living in Avalon at the time and now in 2021 resides on the Gold Coast.

Not part of my travel blog just a huge chapter in my life.

Bryan Millard

Bryan lived close to me at Newport and we were regular drinkers at the Newport Arms Hotel.

Now here is a strange coincidence, one week after I posted Brian’s photo here he was convicted in Noosa for various infringements. Here is the full story.

Big Tim Bristow & Sue Ellis

Another neighbour the notorious Big Tim Bristow, read more about him here.

Now when I visit Sydney I book my hotel through this link for great room rates.

Ok, bye bye Sydney, Gold Coast here I come.

I had to return my company car so my transport consisted of my little red Moke. Do you like my impersonation of the “White Knight” at the Watson’s Bay Hotel?

Di Parkinson & Madison

Di Parkinson was my beautiful ex girlfriend from the 70s, Madison was my beautiful German Shepherd. For the first 3 months I rented a house at Carrara from my good friend Peter Lewis before buying a house at Sorrento.

Jim Cox & Larry Wilson

Jim was a friend of mine in Adelaide when I lived there in the 70s, Larry was a solicitor in Southport and was responsible for me taking up golf, I have never totally forgiven him. 🙂

Relocate Sydney Gold Coast to my Sorrento home

I bought a house at 36 Claymore Crescent and it soon became party central.

Naturally I bought a boat

A very pretty little runabout with a 150 HP Suzuki on the back.

Allison and Winnie

The girls came with me to Byron Bay to pick up my new toy. I had been taking Winnie out occasionally until she introduced me to her 18 year old girlfriend Allison, well I’m guessing you know what happened next. 🙂

Then I had to build a jetty.

Here we are christening the jetty even before it is finished, apologies for the poor photo quality.

The finished product

What a beauty it was, big enough to have a party on, and we did very often indeed.

Afternoon drinks on the Jetty

My new girlfriend on the left was Tanya Rigley, oh my didn’t she cause me some stress. On the far right is George Hoult aka the “Angry Ant”, I bumped into him outside my condo in Pattaya in December 2015. Sitting next to him is Malcolm Pearce, Mick Cottrell is standing and the little guy in the middle is my old mate Harley Bradstreet.

Jetty! What jetty, I don’t see a jetty.

It does often rain a little on the Gold Coast, and the canal my house was on was a long way from the main river. Consequently it would take quite a while for the water to subside after a heavy storm.

Fancy dress party

My great mate Bob Martin threw a party at his home near Carrara, I forget the theme, something to do with camels or Lawrence of Arabia I think. On the right is Don Wenham who sadly passed away in 2016 after a long battle with cancer.

Harley is locked & loaded

This great mate of mine loved to dress up in his combat gear, it didn’t have to be a fancy dress party, he sometimes strolled into a Surfers Paradise bar dressed like this.

Here is Marco

A Croatian friend from Sydney who had more moves than a Swiss watch, Marco always had some sort of scheme on the go, designed of course to relieve somebody of their precious savings.

Such a beautiful girl

This was one of my many parties at Claymore Crescent, sadly a few months after this photo was taken this gorgeous lost her life in a traffic accident, RIP.

Cold beers on the Broadwater

Mike Hughes was an English guy who eventually moved to Sydney. Boating was a big part of my life in my early days on the Gold Coast.

A couple of hot European ladies

Another day on the Broadwater, on the right is Tova.

Adelaide 1988

Jim Stanbury & Suzie in Adelaide, I was there for the Formula one in 1988, Jim used to work for me in Melbourne in 1970.

Come fly with me

I was in Adelaide again in 1989, Jim took me for a spin to Victor Harbour and I actually took the controls for a while.

Talking about Melbourne

This is Dion Ormond who was a successful car dealer living at Box Hill.

This id Dion’s back yard.

How many people do you now with a DC3 in their backyard? 🙂

Allison Schroeder

I clearly remember flying to Brisbane from Adelaide after the Formula one and being met at the airport by this beautiful 18 year old princess. We checked in to a hotel for 2 nights, ordered room service the first night then saw Billy Joel perform at Brisbane entertainment centre the following night November 17.

In case you are wondering how a 44 year old guy could wind up with such a young babe, quite simple really, I promised her the world and bought her an atlas. 🙂

Relaxing on the broadwater

The decision to Relocate Sydney Gold Coast was indeed a major event in my life, I would spend the next 25 years there before selling all my possessions and moving to Thailand in October 2011.

Here are some more posts to check out

Life 2015 Family history Life 1982