Travel
- May 3, 2009
The Interesting History of the Gold Coast
Local aborigines referred to Queenslands south coast as kurrungula name derived from their word for endless supplies of timber, and the region was said to be a meeting place where tribes would come together (essentially on summer holidays) to fish and camp near the many creeks and estuaries between the Tweed River and Moreton Bay.Captain Cook traveled past the coast in 1770 and named Point Danger and Mount Warning but it wasnt until government surveyors chartered the region in 1840 that the area was really brought to the attention of the European settlers, who werent really interested in surf beaches but were keen to chop down as much wood as they could drag up to Brisbane to use in the Moreton Bay shipping industry.
Timber cutters began coming to this region in large numbers in the mid 1800’s. The town of Merang was home base for this industry. Surrounding valleys and plains were quickly developed as sugar, cotton and cattle farms and by 1869 the settlers had reached as far as the mouth of the Nerang River to the South of Moreton Bay.
The Governor of Queensland, Musgrave, built his vacation home on a hill just north of Southport. At this time the coastal surroundings began to gain a reputation of being a resort town for the rich and famous. After the finish of the railway in 1889, numerous hotels and guest houses were built up and down the area’s coastline.
The population of permanenet residents was slowly increasing yearly until the road between Brisbane and Southport was built in 1925. It was also in 1925 that the original Surfers Paradise hotel was built. This glorious hotel burned in 1936, but it was quickly rebuilt on an even grander scale and even included a zoo in the back.
Developers began to recognize this area and refer to it as the Gold Coast by the 1940’s. It was not officially named that until 1958. The development of high rise buildings began in the 1950’s and continued into the 1980’s, however the skyline began to really soar after the Japanese investment in the 1980’s. This area is home to over 500,000, making it Australia’s sixth largest city. It is also home to one of the tallest residential buildings in all the world.
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