During a holiday visit to Cairns in the late 1960's, Rex Masters called in for a drink at the The Great Northern Hotel, hoping to learn of upcoming gay events. He was referred to John Pugh and Paul Cronin, a popular pair of local teachers. Meeting John and Paul, he found them personable, good looking men in their mid thirties, but wary of strangers, having past experience of police attempts to infiltrate the gay scene using undercover cops. An investigation into a burglary at their home had once turned into an interrogation over how two men managed to share a one bedroom cottage possessed of only one solitary bed.
As teachers, John and Paul risked losing their jobs in a state where the autocratic Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen…show more content… The couple were main stays of an informal social network of local gays. Events were usually held at John and Paul's leafy home in Manunda and guests, strictly 'by invitation only', chipped in to contribute to the cost of dinner and a film, which everyone sat on the grass to watch.
Over the years those evenings developed into bigger and better things, and what became known as The Gold Diggers Club organised car rallies, beach BBQ's, 'fishing trips', parties, and eventually, just like their friend Dame Sybil, a Queen's Birthday Ball costume party.
In October 1979, 360 people attended an Arts Ball at the famous House on the Hill, home of the first Mayor of Cairns, and by 1979, a celebrated night club. The event was ostensibly a gathering of the local arts community and officially organised by a coalition of The Cairns Artists United, the Mareeba Development Group and the Cairns Potters Club, but the real significance of the event is as the 'coming out' of the Cairns gay community. The attendees were local gays and their heterosexual allies, and while, by necessity, no mention was made of sexuality, it was the first public celebration of homosexuality Cairns ever saw. John Pugh won Most Original Costume for his 'Creature from Outer Space', while Ken and Graham won Best Couple for their ironic costume choice, 'A Pair of Pansies', pansies being a derogatory term for effeminate gay men
