We love our Gold Coast. From it's world class beaches to it's tranquil hinterland, our city is full of culture and so very rich in history.
For example, did you know Surfers Paradise used to be named Elston? Or that in WW2 Americans commandeered the beach at Coolangatta to establish a rest area? Did you know we were nicknamed the Gold Coast due to inflated prices for real estate? Well there's a reason for that!
Brace yourself, because we're about to take you back to the humble beginings of our once quiet little town and show you just how far we've come in the last 100 years!
ASHMORE
ESTABLISHED: 1972
The area's name derives from a locality or family property in England. Also a local thoroughfare with residents travelling from Benowa Road to Nerang Road, the suburb was officially perpetuated in 1976 when a housing estate was developed in the area called Ashmore Village.
ESTABLISHED: 1870 The name was originally derived from the Bundjalung word "Boonow", meaning bloodwood tree. ESTABLISHED: 1934 IN 1934 the South Coast Bulletin announced a new seaside township had been surveyed fronting the Pacific Highway and adjoining Main Beach, about one mile south of Surfers Paradise.The township had been appropriately named Broadbeach and the first section of the site had been surveyed into 70 allotments. ESTABLISHED: 1862 The name Bundall is from the Aboriginal word for a species of prickly vine. ESTABLISHED: 1871 Indigenous Australians inhabited the area of Burleigh Heads for thousands of years prior to European settlement. The Indigenous tribe were known as the Kombumerri people, who had named the area 'Jellurgal'. James Warner was commissioned to survey the coastline near Moreton Bay. Warner named the headlands near Tallebudgera Creek, 'Burly Head' because of its massive appearance. Decades later the name was adapted to the more genteel spelling of 'Burleigh Heads' ESTABLISHED: 1960s The name Carrara comes from the Aboriginal word 'Karara' meaning 'long flat'. ESTABLISHED: 1955 Prior to this land reclamation, the Nerang River was wide and shallow with many sandbanks with shifting riverbanks. Through dredging, deeper channels were created for shipping in the river with the spoil being used to create inhabitable islands and permanent river edge embankments, all of which facilitated residential and commercial development. ESTABLISHED: 1883 Coolangatta is named after the schooner Coolangatta which was wrecked there in 1846. ESTABLISHED: 1865 The name Coomera comes from the Yugambeh word kumera, a species of wattle. The word Currumbin is of native origin and means quicksand. In the old days of travel along the coast, there was a ford across the creek at Currumbin which could be negotiated at low tide, but had to be carefully taken owing to the quicksand which was prevalent in Currumbin Creek. Farmers transported harvested sugar cane to the Benowa Sugar Mill. Later the land was used for dairy farming until developers Efim Zola and Sir Bruce Small acquired land which they called Isle of Capri, a catalyst for future commercial and residential development. ESTABLISHED: 1840 There's variations on what the word Kirra actually means, but some believe Queensland Aborigines named it after a boomerang. ESTABLISHED: 1878 Robert Muir is believed to have named the area after the Labrador Peninsula, a large coastal fishery located in north eastern Canada. ESTABLISHED: 1934 During the early years in which Southport was the urban centre of recreational activity at the coast, visitors were ferried across the Broadwater to surf at the Main Beach so named because it was the main surf beach for the town of Southport. ESTABLISHED: 1925 Mermaid Beach received its name from the cutter HMS Mermaid. Explorer John Oxley sailed aboard the Mermaid in 1823 when he discovered the nearby Tweed and Brisbane rivers. ESTABLISHED: 1873 The community takes its name from two possible sources: the Merrimack River in the New England region of the United States, or the USS Merrimac, a Union navy frigate itself named for the river. ESTABLISHED: 1920s In the early 1920s, prospective investors were looking over plans for a new real estate development called Miami Shore at North Burleigh. They built their wooden or fibro bungalows on estates such as Miami Shore, spent their holidays by the beach, or rented the cottages to other holiday makers. The less well-heeled pitched their tents at Burleigh Heads and then walked and fished along the beautiful beach flanked by the two Nobbies. The name Nobbies was a relic from the days when Burleigh local, timber getter and bullocky, Frederick Fowler, had grazed his head bullock, which he called Nobby, along the headlands. ESTABLISHED: 1868 Mudgeeraba is apparently an Aboriginal word meaning place of sticky soil. ESTABLISHED: 1865 Early writers suggest that the Nerang river was named by Europeans after the local dialect word neerang, meaning either little or shovel nosed shark. OXENFORD ESTABLISHED: 1873 Henry Jordan, a Queensland parliamentarian and sugar planter living in the Logan area, selected much of the coastal land between Tallebudgera and Currumbin Creeks in 1873. Gradually, Jordan added to his block. His property encompassed today's Palm Beach, Elanora, and Currumbin Waters. ESTABLISHED: 1980 Before the construction of Robina Town Centre shopping complex and the Robina Railway Station, the suburb of Robina Town Centre was formerly known as Kerrydale. ESTABLISHED: 1967 The name "Runaway Bay" was coined to promote the area as a tranquil retreat. ESTABLISHED: 1986 ESTABLISHED: 1874 Originally known as Nerang Creek Heads, it was named Southport because it was the southernmost port of the colony of Queensland. ESTABLISHED: 1933 Around 1920, Brisbane hotelier, Jim Cavill, acquired twenty five acres of land in an area known as Elston - the place we know now as Surfers Paradise. ESTABLISHED: 1840s The village of Tallebudgera was originally known as Maybree which was the name of a certain tree that grew in the area. ESTABLISHED: 1898 Tugun's name is believed to have derived from an Indigenous word of unknown dialect meaning "breaking waves". So now that you know a little bit more about all of the suburbs that make up the city of Gold Coast - which one do you think is the best? Let us know in the comments! BENOWA
BROADBEACH
BUNDALL
BURLEIGH HEADS
CARRARA
CHEVRON ISLAND
COOLANGATTA
COOMERA
CURRUMBIN
ISLE OF CAPRI
KIRRA
LABRADOR
MAIN BEACH
MERMAID BEACH
MERRIMAC
MIAMI & NOBBYS
MUDGEERABA
NERANG
PALM BEACH
ROBINA
RUNAWAY BAY
SANCTUARY COVE
SOUTHPORT
SURFERS PARADISE
TALLEBUDGERA
TUGUN