I met Gordon only a few months ago at an inner city warehouse party in Sydney’s Chippendale. It was illegal and by 2am the thumping baseline inevitably attracted the fuzz.
And as others began barricading themselves in, we escaped together out the back. In those circumstances it was a comfort to be in the company of the six-foot plus 100 kilo fitness fanatic.
But I remember thinking he was somewhat of an oddball, socially awkward and prickly. It was only as we were shouting out goodbyes that he revealed he had been a contestant on Big Brother. I was so embarrassed I hadn’t recognised him - as he clearly had of me!
Big Brother was on at the time and I was interviewing the then current crop of housemates on my website www.ohbrother.com.au
I figured it would be good to have a yak on camera, because this was one interesting cat, quite different to the usual teenage philistines that populate the show. This was someone who read and thought and talked.
This was someone who had dated Natalie Basingthwaite pre Rogue Traders and even pre Neighbours. This was someone who wore crazy spiky hair and orange rubber pants, but was also an architect. This was someone who was so passionate about his politics he’d quit his job and went to Iraq as a human shield. This was an individual.
And in our interview he displayed this and more. He revealed it wasn’t long after he’d arrived in Iraq that he started getting disillusioned. Whereas his group wanted to protect civilian infrastructure Saddam’s officials had other ideas. As the bombs rained down he was arrested and deported. In the end he told me he was just happy not to ‘get shot in the head in the desert’. After the fall of the regime he returned and helped in the building of orphanages.
But he was never shaken from the conviction the Americans had only invaded the country to ‘steal the oil’. He told me about his town planning work in China and in the Middle East.
He revealed his entry into the Big Brother house was pure whimsy, and that he’d ‘filled out the application form drunk’. He talked about smuggling amphetamine tablets into the Big Brother house, which he described as like ‘being on ecstasy’. These were drugs he’d learned were later banned by Australian authorities. And when I heard of this death and that drugs were suspected, this is the first thing I thought of.
He talked about how leaving the house had been traumatic – he said people had tried to kill him and he had been attacked while simply walking down the street. And he told me how his personal life had been ruined with simple trips to the shops and to play tennis becoming impossible. He said how the show was part of a big media machine which saturated magazines, radio and television into ‘a big amazing mind washing machine’ that was inescapable, even for ordinary punters.
On the plus side he thought the free beer, champagne and invitations to parties had been fun. He talked about his world trip with Natalie Basingthwaite.
He surprised me by saying he knew 2007 Big Brother housemate Emma Cornell and her fitness fanatic boyfriend Tim Stanton. Emma’s stay in the house caused controversy this year after producers choose not to inform her of the death of her father. Come to think of it now, it wasn’t all that unbelievable he’d knew them - all three were very much into gym culture.
And he told me he would never have gone in a later series of BB.
But the impression I got of him was a bloke who had an odd but interesting character. Yes, a man of great contradictions.
An architect who jetted off around the world to become a human shield.
A guy with average social skills who put himself under the media spotlight and brought attention to himself with bizarre haircuts and zany clothes.
I couldn’t help but like him.
He was above everything else a unique individual who cut his own path. And the world can always do with a few more of those.