Gold Coast’s controversial Yatala lights could cost $2 million to remove: report

There was another twist in the long-running saga of the Yatala Lights on the Gold Coast, with revelations that removing the controversial light installation could come with a massive bill.

Removing the 97 light towers from the M1 and reinstalling them in a new location could reportedly cost farepayers a whopping $2 million.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Controversial Yatala Lights installation on the Gold Coast Removal can become too expensive.

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The initial cost of removing them was $250,000.

The development comes after police raised concerns that hoons were using the installation as a gathering place.

A full meeting of the Gold Coast City Council will be held Tuesday, where councilors are expected to discuss plans to shut down the $2.1 million lights.

Its disposal is now likely to be put on hold until it is classified as a “priority expense”.

First installed in 2018 and intended to welcome drivers to the region, the location and running costs of the Yatala light installation have drawn much criticism.

When lit, they are meant to spell “Gold Coast,” but viewers must stand a certain distance to read the words in suitably dark conditions.

The creators of the installation have spoken out in defense of their artwork in an open letter submitted to Gold Coast City Council and shared online by Councilman William Owen-Jones.

The Hi-Lights artwork, as it’s officially called, became the “scapegoat,” Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano said in the letter.

“As artists from the other side of the world, we cannot speak as wisely as you about issues of local social policy and policing, and the wise use of public funds to address these issues in the future,” they said.

“But we can talk about the value and purpose of public art.”

“Visible at its best”

The artwork was designed to showcase the Gold Coast at its best, the duo said.

“We would like to suggest using the current situation as an opportunity to engage more deeply with the Gold Coast community,” they wrote.

“Hi-Lights can – and should – always be talked about more actively and thoughtfully.”

The idea for the lights was “to help us all see the extraordinary in the ordinary,” Tolla and Lignano said.

“As you drive down the highway to the Gold Coast, the generic streetlights you’ve seen for many miles suddenly gather and transform – like a caterpillar into a butterfly – into something special, welcoming and a little mysterious.

“Although the pattern of light in the sculpture is shaped by the letters in the words Gold and Coast, this hidden message is just one of many possible readings: the sculpture’s twinkle evokes the stars above and the play of sunlight on the waves within the surf close by.

“This transition from the ordinary to the extraordinary evokes the experience of vacationing or living in the Gold Coast – a memory we cherish from our own time there.”

-With Dominique Loudon