The former long-serving mayor of Tweed Shire, Max Boyd AM, has laid bare the decades-long struggle he, other councillors, and the community fought to stop corruption and over-development of their shire.
The 91-year-old Mr Boyd retired in 2008 after serving as one of three administrators of the shire appointed by the state government in 2005, following an inquiry. The inquiry led to the council’s sacking after it found the ruling majority were ‘puppets of developers’.
Mr Boyd has just published his autobiography, Saving Paradise – The Tweed Under Siege, in which he details the turbulence that flowed from the numerous probes and inquiries the NSW government conducted because of council controversies and community unrest over unpopular, rampant development.
Developers from the so-called ‘glitzy’ high-rise Gold Coast and elsewhere were drawn to the picturesque Tweed ‘honey pot’ with its unspoiled 30-kilometre coastline just down from Surfers Paradise.
But with mega profits over land deals came corruption and political shenanigans, which Mr Boyd, other councillors, and community groups tussled with all the way.
In his 145-page book, Mr Boyd also details his life growing up in the Tweed Valley on his family farm at Dulguigan, where he still lives with his wife Marguerite, as well as the legacy he left for the Tweed Shire after his 44-year-long stint as a leader.
He was first elected to council at the age of 30 in 1964 but sadly just three years later succumbed to a rare ailment he was born with, Buerger’s Disease, which led to the amputation of his lower right leg.
But he bravely faced that challenge with determination and, despite the disability, continued his farming activities, and worked as a tourism officer / Tweed travel centre manager for two decades, while continuously serving as a councillor.
In his book, Mr Boyd looks extensively into the background of council politics and what led to the several corruption inquiries which preceded the sacking of council.
The cover of the book features two controversial high-rise tower projects which Mr Boyd said ‘stood out like sore thumbs among the low-rise structures dominating the Tweed landscape’.
The 25-storey Seascape tower and 27-storey Pinehurst were approved by Tweed Shire Council in 1981, ‘sparking community unrest as they were seen as the tip of the iceberg for looming Gold Coast glitter-strip style of high-rise canyons’.
‘The approval process was cloaked in secrecy and several years later it would emerge how widespread the skullduggery was, involving members of parliament, some councillors and questionable developer consultants,’ Mr Boyd says in his book.
In late 2004, the state government set up an inquiry led by Emeritus Professor Maurice Daly, after it received a growing number of complaints about councillor dealings with developers.
The inquiry, Mr Boyd said, ‘unmasked’ the seven members of the ruling conservative council faction ‘as imposters who acted as puppets of developers’.
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