IT was a grand gesture that certainly got heads turning at Port Central in Gladstone for a different reason.

The Curtis Island strike was over, but workers were still honking and hollering as they drove past a huge sign on Hopper Rd.

Standing in front was Bill Grundon, who had transformed the tarp into a personal billboard on Friday afternoon, ready to catch the attention of his partner.

As Sue Butler was coming home from a day at work on Curtis Island trying to see through the rain, she wasn't expecting Bill to walk out onto the road with a single red rose, dressed in a suit jacket, directing her to the message: "Sue, will you marry me?"

"We've been together for two years," Bill said, as he was setting up in the rain.

"It was a blind date set up by her daughter and my friend from work."

Bill said Sue had told him she didn't want anything special.

"But I did it because she's special so I wanted to make it special," he said.

"She said she didn't want anything big or embarrassing," he laughed, watching workers yell "good luck" from their cars as they drove past.

Bill, who works at Queensland Alumina Ltd, said it was rare they both had time off together.

"But we've both got the weekend off," he said. "We were going to have a pot roast in the campfire, but not with this rain."

When Sue stopped her car Bill opened the door and, kneeling, he received a positive response to those four little words.

The nod of his head as he stood up elicited a wild whoop of cheering from a group of workers who had gathered to watch the proceedings.



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