🪴 Southport's $6m cannabis deal
Volume 152: Vaccine beer brewed | Winter Olympics 'Penisgate' saga | Sandbag stations open | Palm Beach road speeds reduced and heaps more
G’day GC, and welcome back to another big weekly newsletter. It’s February 12.
And if any of you coast cupids ever needed an excuse to plan indoor activities, just check the weekend forecast..
In today's newsletter
One Big Thing: Tourists flood through Gold Coast airport
Surfing’s biggest week: Arrives on the Gold Coast
A Southport company and its: $6m cannabis deal
Trending: Weet-bix changed its recipe..
Around the web: Palm Beach road speeds reduced | Winter Olympians investigated in ‘Pensigate’ saga | Sandbag stations open for wet weather | Vaccine beer brewed by scientist and heaps more!
Upcoming events
🕹️That’s fun: We’re sweeping our way to Olympic glory in the office this week, one gloriously unathletic online curl at a time 🥌
🔓 Unlocking extras
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Occasional bonus newsletters and offers
Weekend Weather and Surf
Live Housing Price Index
1. One Big Thing: Tourists flood through Gold Coast airport
By Marshall Hall
What’s Happening: Tourists have flooded into the Gold Coast over summer with the Coolangatta local airport recording over a million passengers travelling through the terminal during December and January.
Why It Matters: That many arrivals (and departures) is a live barometer for tourism confidence, and a timely reminder that the Gold Coast is still the king of Australia’s favourite quick escape destinations.
By the Numbers:
Around 600,000 passengers travelled in December alone.
A further 637,000 more travelled through in the airport in January, recording over the 1,200,000 mark
Passengers flying to Bali from the Gold Coast increased by over 75% when compared to the same time last year
Local Impact: This number of visitors means more bookings for hotels, venues and tours and rideshares (in and out of the surf..).
What The People Say: Queensland Airports Limited’s Chief of Aviation, Adam Rowe, said it was positive to see such strong demand for travel over the holiday season.
“Demand for flights in and out of the Gold Coast was exceptionally high with around 90 per cent of seats on all flights booked.
“The first two weeks of January were the busiest, with several days of more than 23,000 passengers, followed by another peak ahead of the long weekend on Friday, 23 January.
What To Look For Next: The full article below👇
Win a double pass to see EPiC: Elvis Presley In Concert at Dendy Cinemas Southport, hitting the screen from February 19! 🎬✨
How to enter:
Follow @thegcminute and Dendy Cinemas Southport
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2.
3. Gold Coast company in $6m cannabis deal
By Marshall Hall
What’s Happening: Gold Coast drug company Epsilon Healthcare has secured a $6 million, three-year deal to manufacture cannabis products for Europe.
Why It Matters: The Southport-based business, which was previously known as THC Global Group, owns what has been widely described as the largest certified medicinal cannabis extraction facility in the Southern Hemisphere.
Teaming up with New Zealand’s largest cannabis grower, Puro New Zealand, they are planning to make cannabis products for the UK market this year.
By the Numbers:
$6,000,000 is the forecast for manufacturing revenue over 3 years
The increased revenue represents about 25% of Epsilon’s 2025 earnings
Local Impact: Puro says it contracted Epilson to do the manufacturing because the company already has the right international certifications in place, as well as the manufacturing infrastructure and know-how.
The increased business activity will undoubtedly require more jobs to be created and other opportunities.
What The People Say: Epsilon Healthcare managing director Peter Giannopoulos said the agreement represented a significant milestone for Epsilon Pharma.
“Our team has worked tirelessly to develop a robust (contract manufacturing) platform that aligns with global standards, and this agreement validates our readiness to provide international product supply at scale with reliability and excellence.”
Puro chief executive officer Sank MacFarlane said the Epsilon partnership was part of the company’s aims to be a globally focused medicinal cannabis supplier.
“The UK is a cornerstone market for Puro, and this partnership enables us to translate our organic, sun-grown New Zealand production into high-value finished products for patients and prescribers under the highest global standards,” he said.
What To Look For Next: Following what they aim to be a successful United Kingdom trial, how they step next into mainland Europe.
🔓 Unlocking extras
We love sending the free weekly newsletters, but our short-and-sweet reads and articles take a big chunk of time to put together. Paid subscriptions help keep this little engine humming.
You will gain access to:
The full back catalogue + open access to all website articles
Subscriber-only content
Ability to interact with the GC Minute community
Occasional bonus newsletters and offers
4. Trending
5. Around The Web
A scientist has brewed his very own: Vaccine beer to combat a dangerous virus, which may have just worked
A Russian startup is hacking: Pigeons’ brains with neural implants so it can use them as biological drones
Palm Beach road speed limits have been: Reduced to 50km an hour on Nineteenth Avenue
Half a dozen ice fishermen took more than: Two hours to catch a 110kg halibut
If you haven’t heard of the Winter Olympics “Penisgate” saga, where: Ski jumpers were injecting their penises with hyaluronic acid in order to fly further, well, now the World Anti-Doping Agency is investigating
A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange accidentally: Gave away $44,000,000,000 (that’s $44b) worth of Bitcoins
Recent releases of AI models have been made by: The AI itself, with this article explaining how the entire space is hitting warp speed on a whole new level
Gold Coaster’s became protesters at a: Proposed Reedy Creek quarry demonstration 👇
Recent newsletters
Last week’s top-clicked link was in the: Trending section
Weekly Dream Gig
This week - Dust off the Aperol spritz, Gemelli Italian wants a Marketing Manager to turn hype into hard revenue as they scale from cult local favourite to national contender.
Based in Southport, you’ll sit between the twin founders and their external agency, setting direction, approving campaigns, managing budgets, and (politely) pushing back when the strategy doesn’t stack up.
With a salary of $90,000.00–$120,000.00, with low application volume (for now). If you’re commercially sharp and hospitality-minded, this one’s al dente.
6. Upcoming Events
🎨 Ken Done: No Rules: February 12 at HOTA; dive into a colour-splashed hit parade of Aussie beach-and-harbour joy
🎥 Wuthering Heights: February 14 at HOTA Cinema 2; start your Saturday with a big-screen classic
🖍️ ArtLab - Busy Beach: February 14 at HOTA Gallery; kids get hands-on with Ken Done-inspired making in The Studio
🥂 Valentine’s Day 2026 at Palette: February 13-14; linger over a special Valentine’s menu in the lush surrounds of Palette Restaurant
🎸 An Evening with Gillian Welch & David Rawlings: February 14, 8pm; settle into Theatre 1 at HOTA for an intimate, world-class night of songcraft and string magic in Surfers Paradise
🥐 Gold Coast 2032 Meet the Buyer Breakfast: March 12; find out how your business can support the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games at Aquis Park (Gold Coast Turf Club), with buyers and delivery partners
