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AUSTRALIAN
CAPITAL
TERRITORY
I NEW
SOUTH
WALES I
TASMANIA
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VICTORIA |
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QUEENSLAND
I
SOUTH
AUSTRALIA
I NORTHERN
AUSTRALIA
I
WESTERN
AUSTRALIA |
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 The Gold Coast is a city and local government area in the southeast corner of Queensland, Australia. It is the second most populous city in the state and the sixth most populous city in the country. It is also the most populous non-capital city in the country. Gold Coast City is renowned for its sunny subtropical climate, popular surfing beaches, expansive waterway and canal systems, a skyline dominated by high-rise apartment buildings, a peaceful rainforest hinterland in the west of the city, active nightlife and its wide variety of tourist attractions. |
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History |
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Captain James Cook became the first European to note the region when he sailed along the coast on May 16, 1770 in the HM Bark Endeavour. |
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Captain Matthew Flinders, an explorer charting the continent north from the colony of New South Wales, sailed past in 1802. Many escaped convicts from the Moreton Bay penal settlement hid in the region, the region remained largely uninhabited by Europeans until 1823 when explorer John Oxley landed at Mermaid Beach, which was named after his boat, a cutter named Mermaid. |
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The hinterland's red cedar supply attracted large numbers of people to the area in the mid 1800s. The western suburb of Nerang was surveyed and established as a base for the industry. Later in 1875, Southport was surveyed and established and quickly grew a reputation as a secluded holiday destination for the upper class Brisbane residents. |
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In 1925, tourism to the area grew rapidly when Jim Cavill established the Surfers Paradise Hotel, which transformed to Circle on Cavill neighbouring with Towers of Chevron Renaissance shopping mall and resort apartment complex. The population grew steadily to support the tourism industry and by the 1940s, real estate speculators and journalists were referring to the area as the "Gold Coast." The true origin of the name is still debatable. The name "Gold Coast" was officially proclaimed in 1958 when the South Coast Town Council was renamed "Gold Coast Town Council." |
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During the 1970s, real-estate developers gained a dominant role in local politics, and high-rises began to dominate the area now known as Surfers Paradise and later in 1981 the airport was established. In 1994 the Gold Coast City Council and the Shire of Albert amalgamated to create new city boundaries under the administration of the City of Gold Coast Council. |
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Beach |
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The city consists of 57 kilometres of coastline with some of the most popular surf breaks in Australia including, South Stradbroke Island, The Spit, Main Beach, Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach, Mermaid Beach, Nobby Beach, Miami, Burleigh Beach, Burleigh Heads, Tallebudgera Beach, Palm Beach, Currumbin Beach, Tugun, Bilinga, Kirra, Coolangatta, Greenmount, Rainbow Bay, Snapper Rocks and Froggies Beach. Duranbah beach is one of the world's best known surfing beaches and is often thought of as being part of Gold Coast City, but is actually just across the New South Wales state border in Tweed Shire. The official name for the beach is actually Flagstaff Beach. Duranbah is a small town located about 12 kilometres southwest of the beach, but the name Duranbah Beach has become it's accepted (if not official) identity. |
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There are also beaches along many of the Gold Coast's 860 km of navigable tidal waterways. Popular inland beaches include Southport, Budds Beach, Marine Stadium, Currumbin Alley, Tallebudgera Estuary, Jacobs Well, Jabiru Island, Paradise Point, Harley Park Labrador, Santa Barbara, Boykambil and Evandale Lake. |
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