Why Nobody Wants to Visit Surfers Paradise Anymore

Why Nobody Wants to Visit Surfers Paradise Anymore In 1925 a Brisbane publican named Jim Cavill opened a sixteen bedroom timber hotel on a stretch of Queensland coast then called Elston. It had hot and cold water in every room, electric light, bowling greens, aviaries and a private zoo. Eight years later the local council renamed the entire suburb after it, on the reasoning that the new name was more marketable. Surfers Paradise is one of the only places in Australia named after a business, and it has been selling a version of itself ever since. This is the story of what that decision cost. The honeymoon capital of the 1960s. The meter maids in gold bikinis, invented to stop visitors being fined. The waterslides at Grundy's that half of Australia queued for. The Japanese money that arrived in the eighties and priced out the families the place was built for. The wall of towers that now throws the beach into shadow every afternoon. And the quiet, ordinary reason a town can do everything right and still lose its audience. If you honeymooned at Surfers Paradise, or spent a fortnight there in a low rise flat with the windows open, this one is for you. SOURCES https://www.goldcoaststories.com.au/s... https://queenslandplaces.com.au/surfe... https://timegents.com/2023/01/29/the-... https://monumentaustralia.org.au/them... Did you go to Surfers Paradise before the towers went up? Tell me what it was like in the comments. Subscribe for more Australian history. #SurfersParadise #GoldCoast #AustralianHistory