TV celebrity and former mayor opens art gallery in Port Douglas

The former Mayor of Geelong and TV personality, Darryn Lyons, has opened an art investment gallery in Port Douglas after making the town his permanent home earlier this year. A long-time lover of the region, Lyons sat down with Newsport to talk about his new gallery and about what’s coming for the Douglas Shire.

Lyons is amongst a growing list of celebrity seachangers that have moved north to avoid the heavy Covid-19 restrictions that are currently plaguing the major centres.

Sensing that another Victorian lockdown was imminent Lyons said he wasted no time moving to Port earlier in the year, a town that he knows very well after buying a house at Newell Beach in 2016.

“I had a feeling that Chairman Dan was going to lock down Victoria again and I decided that I wanted to get up to Port Douglas early so I took the punt,” Lyons said.

Lyons arrived and experienced the tourist boom of June and July before the ongoing lockdowns hit Sydney and Melbourne.

“The town was absolutely heaving, it was an extraordinary feeling around the place. It was more like Hollywood or St Tropez. It was exciting times, it was booming.

It was while tourism was peaking that Lyons decided to open an art investment gallery in Port Douglas, situated between Salsa and Melaleuca restaurants on Wharf Street.

“Even though the directors were initially apprehensive about opening in Port Douglas, I knew we made the right decision after seeing what happened before the lockdowns”, he said.

“I’m hoping that Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel, Hermes and Rolex will follow the Lyons Gallery in opening in Port Douglas. I’m not sure about a Lamborghini dealership here but I do think we’re on the precipice of Port having a boom.”

Art investment on the rise

Lyons believes that art investment is booming and he’s opened six other galleries in the last 18 months on the back of that trend.

“It’s tax deductible and you could even compare it with cryptocurrency with the returns you’re getting,” Lyons said.

With that trend in mind, Lyons Gallery features about 80 per cent fine art investment and about 20 per cent work from emerging artists.

“We have some amazing emerging talent but essentially we’re talking about blue chip art investment. We’re a combination of pop art, fine art and photography. We concentrate very specifically on what we do, we’re very contemporary, we’re very here and now. As a contemporary gallery we’re the first of its kind in Australia.”

Passion for politics

Before he was the Mayor of Geelong, Lyons was well known as a newspaper and celebrity photographer, as well as gaining world notoriety in 2011 for unveiling a surgically improved ‘6-pack’ while he was a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother UK.

He is also known for his wacky hairstyles which seem to match his persona; his current hair colour is varying shades of electric blue. There is no doubting Lyons ability to gain people’s attention, but he is apprehensive about whether he would take another run at politics, this time in the Douglas Shire.

“Maybe the mayor of Port Douglas, that would be interesting wouldn’t it? Well I’m really enjoying building this business at the moment but I’m very passionate about my politics and I’m certainly here for the business sector of Port Douglas.”

Australia’s St Tropez

Lyons is unambiguous in his thoughts for what the Douglas Shire needs from a political standpoint.

“I think Port Douglas has suffered over a long period of time from not embracing investment from the top echelon. I’m very disappointed that Crystalbrook have been hamstrung in what they’re trying to do at the marina, that could’ve been built by now if there was an entrepreneurial mayor running this city and council supporting him, because it’s not just about one person.

“There is also a balance to keep this beautiful little enclave. I have a place in St Tropez and I really believe this is our St Tropez.”

He believes that there’s been too much of a power struggle between business and the greens and that has hurt the region and it’s time to embrace new investment.

“I think what Christopher Skase did for Port Douglas was an extraordinary thing, took it to a whole new future, I don’t think his legacy has been impacted by anyone since. I’m feeling that Port Douglas needs to be impacted again and I think it’s starting to happen. The potential in this place for it to be number one is extraordinary. No one has ever taken the bull by the horns here. Post Covid I think this place is going to hammer along but the infrastructure needs to be ready.”