Paparazzo becomes Geelong mayor
He is known as a former paparazzo and Big Brother contestant – now Darryn Lyons is the newly elected Mayor of Geelong.
Mr Lyons, who was born in Geelong and first worked as a photographer at local newspapers, comfortably defeated 15 other candidates with 38,406 first preference votes and 29.79 per cent of the poll.
His nearest rival Stephanie Asher received 18,608 of first preferences.
The mayor-elect, who sported pink hair and a “surgically created” six-pack when he was a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother in the UK wants people to look beyond his colourful image.
“There’s a lot more to me beyond the hair, at the end of the day there is a pretty savvy bloke with a passion for his home town,” he told AAP.
Mr Lyons left Geelong at 22 and found fame and fortune as a UK newspaper photographer and set up his own company taking paparazzi photos.
But he says he never forgot his roots and returned to Geelong about two years ago.
“I could live anywhere in the world if I wanted to, but I’ve come home and I want to live here,” he said.
He said beautification of the city was his top priority as mayor and he wanted to promote a positive image of the city.
“At the end if the day I have no magic wand,” he said.
“I think it (Geelong) needs a little bit of a different eye … I want to talk about what’s great that’s going on in Geelong.”
The 48-year-old will be officially sworn in as the City of Geelong mayor at a council meeting on Tuesday evening.