Goodbye Paradise

Goodbye Paradise is a 1983 Australian film directed by Carl Schultz. The plot centres on Queenslands Gold Coast in the early 1980s, when a disgraced former cop, Michael Stacey Ray Barrett writes a book exposing police corruption, does an investigation resulting inmurders, exposes a religious cult and watches the army begin a military coup.

He then pitched the idea to Bob Ellis, who liked it and the two of them agreed to work together. They always envisioned Ray Barrett in the lead role as the private eye Stacey and the three of them got some money from the NSW Film Corporation to go up to Surfers Paradise for a week to research and write the script.Bob is a great observer, and when I finally read the script, I thought You bugger youve observed Barrett But I didnt mind. I was flattered because Stacey is a living person. He is a failure, really, but a loveable failure a kind man at heart. Yet everythings slipped by him and he hasnt achieved the things hes wanted to. The character relates to a lot of people, including myself. Bobs put the finger on it. Hes brilliant. ........

Source: Wikipedia