The shock resignation of Rockhampton's mayor Margaret Strelow meant she would have been replaced by the next highest polling candidate — and there was only one — until the government did a backflip.
With a battered straw hat, often barefoot and perched on a pushbike, Chris Hooper is hard to miss on the streets of Rockhampton, in Central Queensland.
Nicknamed 'Pineapple' because of a bushy mop of hair from his school days, Mr Hooper could have been the region's next mayor by default after Margaret Strelow's shock resignation.
The resignation meant the central Queensland region could have had a new mayor by default, after recent changes to the state's Local Government Act, but this situation has prompted the Queensland Government to amend the law once the new parliament is sworn in.
The chain of events surprised Mr Hooper.
"It's pretty amazing how it all came about," Mr Hooper said.
"I'm like that accidental — who was that Aussie bloke who won the ice-skating gold medal?"
Steven Bradbury?
"Yeah, sort of like that. But I'm up for the challenge," Mr Hooper said.
"I've got a lot of different ideas and I think the council needs a shake-up.
"And I think a lot of councils around Queensland haven't been travelling too well, have they?"
Mr Hooper said he was asleep when news came that Ms Strelow had resigned, and had sat back to let it sink in.
"I think you just have to go with the flow," he said.
'I think it's pretty funny'
Mr Hooper said he would take the job if it were offered, but he would also have no issue if the decision was made to hold a by-election.
"I'm an outsider. It's up to them," he said.
In a statement, State Minister for Local Government Sterling Hinchliffe said once the new Parliament was sworn in, it would change the law retrospectively to allow any vacancies to any mayoral or councillor positions, that have recently arisen, to be filled through a by-election.
Initially being labelled an "accidental mayor" or "mayor by default" did not bother Mr Hooper.
"I think it's pretty funny," he said.
"I've done things around town that people think is pretty eccentric, so it doesn't really matter."
Climate change top priority
Mr Hooper said his priority if he became mayor would be to address climate change.
"We've got to start talking about climate change," he said.
"People just laugh it off and say, 'You're a greenie!' But people need to get on board.
"COVID is just a dress rehearsal to man-made climate change, as more of this stuff is going to happen."
If Mr Hooper were mayor, he said would establish a board of people from all walks of life in Rockhampton, including the unemployed and Indigenous representatives.
He would also take on the role for a dollar a year, which was part of his campaign platform earlier this year.
"I don't need any more and I don't want it."
The self-funded retiree is no stranger to giving politics ago.
In 2012, he ran as an Independent in the Queensland elections before running for mayor in the Rockhampton Regional Council in 2016 and again this year when he was the only contender against Ms Strelow.
