Former journalist missing on the Gold Coast

Former Courier-Mail journalist Lawrie Kavanagh, 85, has gone missing on the Gold Coast, last seen waiting in his car at Bundall on Thursday afternoon.

Kavanagh, who has a medical condition, was last seen parked in his 2012 white Skoda Yeti SUV registration 168SKW at Corporate Centre One, on Bundall Rd, a family member said.

He had been waiting in the SUV beside the Gyroscope landmark outside the highrise from 2pm, but the car was gone when a relative returned there at 4pm.

Kavanagh recently moved to a retirement village on the Gold Coast and was unfamiliar with roads in the area and did not have a mobile phone with him at the time, the family member said.

"We're very worried that he was become confused, driven off and lost his way in peak-hour traffic," the family member said.

"It's unusual that he hasn't stopped to ask someone for help and there has been no contact or sightings overnight."

The long-serving Courier-Mail journalist retired in 1999 after a career spanning five decades with the newspaper. He covered two Olympic Games, three Commonwealth Games, and a Kangaroo rugby league tour of Great Britain.

He later became a signature news columnist and feature writer for the paper and had several books of his stories, mainly about Queensland, published in the 1990s.

Kavanagh is described as 180cm tall with a proportionate build, grey hair and blue eyes.

He was last seen wearing blue denim jeans and a dark navy polo shirt. He may be wearing a Maroons rugby league cap.

Anyone with dashcam footage of the SUV or any information should contact police on 131444.

Originally published as Former journalist missing on the Gold Coast