Gyrating Mark Barnaba helps surprise Malcolm McCusker

Not many 85-year-olds want a surprise birthday party. At least, not without a defibrillator on site. But former West Australian governor, philanthropist and prominent barrister Malcolm McCusker is by all accounts a rare breed.

The Saturday before last at property developer Nigel Satterley’s sprawling mansion in Peppermint Grove — a suburb dubbed once by Colin Barnett as the “Monaco of WA” — Perth’s high and mighty gathered to toast McCusker’s 85 years of existence.