The Gold Coast is one of Australia’s most popular tourist attractions and one of its fastest growing cities. The Gold Coast is infamous for bikini culture, surfing and a city of high rises by the beach, but upon closer inspection, there is much more to “the coast” than first meets the eye. It is hard to ignore the 57 kilometres of beaches however, with 40 of them patrolled by the ubiquitous volunteer surf live savers. The red and yellow caps are a very distinctive feature of the Gold Coast and a welcome site on any busy family beach.
Photo of Surf Lifesavers from the Southport Surf Life Saving Club archives
Location
The Gold Coast is located in Queensland’s South Eastern-most corner, just north of the border between Queensland and New South Wales. Queensland’s capital city Brisbane is an hour’s drive north and the popular seaside resort town of Byron Bay is an hour’s drive south. The Gold Coast has it’s own airport at Coolangatta and so domestic and international travel is very easy to and from the Gold Coast.
Attractions
Art galleries, theatre, festivals, performing arts, beaches, beachfront esplanades, shopping precincts, free entertainment precincts, theme parks, clubbing, nightlife and restaurants, not to mention golf, water sports and a multitude of other sporting activities. There are also many forested and river wildlife areas, close and accessible to the Gold Coast.
Aerial view of the Gold Coast looking South over Surfers paradise
Theme parks
One of the Gold Coast’s primary attractions (other than the beaches) are theme and wildlife parks.
- Warner Bros Movie World
- Dreamworld
- Seaworld
- Outback Spectacular
- Wet n’ Wild Water Park
- Currumbin Sanctuary
- Fleays Wildlife Park
- Paradise Country
Shopping & markets
There are enough shopping choices for everyone, including resort, unique lifestyle centres, malls, retails centres and markets.
Robina Town Centre on the Gold Coast (Artists Impression)
Hinterland & bushwalking
Many people like to explore the natural beauty of the Gold Coast hinterland with visits to national park areas, beautiful flora and fauna and quaint rural townships.
Major events
The Gold Coast is the home of many sporting events. The city hosts many national and international events, including the Nikon Indy 300 motorsports festival, Gold Coast Airport Marathon, Conrad Jupiters Magic Millions horse race and the ANZ Ladies Masters Golf have created peak tourist times for the city. There are also Gold Coast national sporting teams in rugby league and basketball plus the pending entry of the city’s soccer and AFL teams into their respective competitions.
Shane Smeltz and Jason Cullina of Gold Coast United celebrate a goal.
Besides land sports, there also water sports to be found on the Gold Coast, such as the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro surfing competitions and the Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show.
For a full list of Gold Coast attractions visit the Very GC website.
