Gold Coast, Queensland

The Gold Coast, also known by its initials, GC, is a coastal city and region in the state of Queensland, Australia, located approximately south-southeast of the centre of the state capital, Brisbane. It is on the central eastern coast of Australia facing the Pacific Ocean. It is Queensland's second-largest city after Brisbane, as well as Australia's sixth-largest city and the most populous non-capital city. The city's central business district is located roughly in the centre of the Gold Coast in the suburb of Southport. The urban area of the Gold Coast is concentrated along the coast, sprawling almost 60 kilometres, joining up with the Greater Brisbane metropolitan region to the north and to the state border with New South Wales to the south. Nicknames of the city include the ‘Glitter Strip’ and the ‘Goldy’. The demonym of a Gold Coast resident is Gold Coaster.
The area that became the Gold Coast was originally inhabited by the indigenous Yugambeh people. The city grew from a collection of small townships, the earliest being Nerang in 1865. From the 1920s onwards, tourism led to significant economic growth in the region, and by 1959 the Gold Coast was declared a city, with its first high-rise being built in 1960. The Gold Coast boomed from the 1980s onwards with skyscraper construction. This era was defined by the city's ‘white-shoe brigade’ developers, neon lights, and organised crime, particularly the yakuza and the Russian mafia. The late 20th century saw the city's tourism diversify with theme park openings, and in the early 21st century became an international destination for film production.
The Gold Coast has a diverse economy with strengths in health, tourism, arts and culture, and construction, with a GDP of AU$49.3 billion as of 2024. The city ranks highly as one of the country's cultural and creative hotspots, alongside content creators, a growing video games industry, and leads Australia in startups per capita.
The Gold Coast is central to the nation's entertainment industry with a major film and television production industry, leading to the city's metonym of Goldywood. The Gold Coast is also host of the AACTA Awards and the Gold Coast Film Festival.
The Gold Coast is a major tourist destination with a sunny, subtropical climate and has become widely known for its surfing beaches, high-rise buildings, theme parks, nightlife, and rainforest hinterland.

History

The Gold Coast is the ancestral home of a number of Indigenous clans of the Yugambeh people, including the Kombumerri, Mununjali, and Wangerriburra clans. Europeans arrived in 1823 when explorer John Oxley explored the Tweed River. The hinterland's timber supply attracted people to the area in the mid-19th century.
A number of small townships developed along the coast and in the hinterland. The western suburb of Nerang was surveyed and established as a base for the industry and by 1870 a town reserve had been set aside. By 1873, the town reserve of Burleigh Heads had also been surveyed and successful land sales had taken place. In 1875, the small settlement opposite the boat passage at the head of the Nerang River, known as Nerang Heads or Nerang Creek Heads, was surveyed and renamed Southport, with the first land sales scheduled to take place in Beenleigh. Southport quickly grew a reputation as a secluded holiday destination for wealthy Brisbane residents.
Post-World War One Era saw the rise of the "seaside shack". The seaside shack provided the opportunity for the coastal "getaway" with modest investment. From 1914 to 1946, they popped up all along the South Coast. Seaside shacks were exceedingly cheap and were an early use of the concept of recycling. Many were built of disused or second grade timber, all kinds of materials were used for the holiday seaside shack – including fibro cement, metal containers, and left-over farm sheds; even disused trams were sold off as seaside shacks.
After the establishment of the Surfers Paradise Hotel in the late 1920s, the Gold Coast region grew significantly. The Gold Coast was originally known as the South Coast. However, over-inflated prices for real estate and other goods and services led to the nickname of "Gold Coast" from 1950. South Coast locals initially considered the name "Gold Coast" derogatory. However, soon the "Gold Coast" simply became a convenient way to refer to the holiday strip from Southport to Coolangatta. The Town of South Coast was formed through the amalgamation of Town of Coolangatta and Town of Southport along with the coastal areas from the Shire of Nerang on 17 June 1949, with the effect of having the present-day Gold Coast coastal strip as a single local government area. As the tourism industry grew into the 1950s, local businesses began to adopt the term Gold Coast in their names, and on 23 October 1958 the Town of South Coast was renamed Town of Gold Coast. The area was proclaimed a city, less than one year later on 16 May 1959.
The area boomed in the 1980s as a leading tourist destination. In 1994, the City of Gold Coast local government area was expanded to include the Shire of Albert.
In 2007, the Gold Coast overtook the population of Newcastle, New South Wales, to become the sixth largest city in Australia and the largest non-capital city.
The Gold Coast hosted the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Demographics

In the, the urban area of the Gold Coast had a population of 540,559 people. According to the, the population of the Gold Coast including rural areas was 569,997. The median age was 39 years old, 1 year older than the nationwide median. The male-to-female ratio was 48.6-to-51.4. The most commonly nominated ancestries were English, Australian, Irish, Scottish, and German. 64% of people were born in Australia, while the other most common countries of birth were New Zealand, England, China and South Africa, and Japan. Indigenous Australians accounted for 1.7% of the population. The most commonly spoken languages other than English were Mandarin, Japanese, Korean and Spanish, and Cantonese.
According to the Australian Official Census in 2021, the most common religious affiliations in Gold Coast reported were none, Catholic, Anglican, Uniting Church, Non-denominational Christian, Presbyterian and Reformed, Buddhism, Pentecostal, Baptist, Hinduism and Islam.

Geography

The Gold Coast is approximately half covered by forests of various types. This includes small patches of near-pristine ancient rainforest, mangrove-covered islands, and patches of coastal heathlands and farmland with areas of uncleared eucalyptus forest. Of the plantation pine forests that were planted in the 1950s and 1960s, when commercial forest planting for tax minimisation was encouraged by the Commonwealth government, tiny remnants remain. Most of the Gold Coast area was covered by forest prior to European human settlement and extensive land clearing in the 19th century.
Gold Coast City lies in the southeast corner of Queensland, to the south of Brisbane, the state capital. The Albert River separates the Gold Coast from Logan City, a local government area south of the City of Brisbane.
Gold Coast City stretches from the Albert River, Logan River, and Southern Moreton Bay to the border with New South Wales approximately south, and extends from the coast west to the foothills of the Great Dividing Range in World Heritage listed Lamington National Park.The southernmost town of Gold Coast City, Coolangatta, includes Point Danger and its lighthouse. Coolangatta is a twin city with Tweed Heads located directly across the NSW border. At, this is the most easterly point on the Queensland mainland. From Coolangatta, approximately forty kilometres of holiday resorts and surfing beaches stretch north to the suburb of Main Beach, and then further on Stradbroke Island. The suburbs of Southport and Surfers Paradise form the Gold Coast's commercial centre. The major river in the area is the Nerang River. Much of the land between the coastal strip and the hinterland were once wetlands drained by this river, but the swamps have been converted into man-made waterways and artificial islands covered in upmarket homes. The heavily developed coastal strip sits on a narrow barrier sandbar between these waterways and the sea.
To the west, the city borders a part of the Great Dividing Range commonly referred to as the Gold Coast hinterland. A section of the mountain range is protected by Lamington National Park and has been listed as a World Heritage area in recognition of its "outstanding geological features displayed around shield volcanic craters and the high number of rare and threatened rainforest species". The area attracts bushwalkers and day-trippers. Important rainforest pollinating and seed-dispersing Black flying foxes are found in the area and may be heard foraging at night.
File:Skylines of Surfers Paradise seen from Home of the Arts, Queensland, 2023, 06.jpg|thumb|The skyline of Surfers Paradise and its surrounds, as viewed from the Home of the Arts

Urban structure

The City of Gold Coast includes suburbs, localities, towns and rural districts.
The declaration of Southport as a Priority Development Area and new investment into the CBD is driving transformative change and creating new business and investment opportunities.

Waterways

Waterfront canal living is a feature of the Gold Coast. Most canal frontage homes have pontoons. The Gold Coast Seaway, between The Spit and South Stradbroke Island, allows vessels direct access to the Pacific Ocean from The Broadwater and many of the city's canal estates. Breakwaters on either side of the Seaway prevent longshore drift and the bar from silting up. A sand pumping operation on the Spit pipes sand under the Seaway to continue this natural process.
Residential canals were first built in the Gold Coast in the 1950s and construction continues. Most canals are extensions to the Nerang River, but there are more to the south along Tallebudgera Creek and Currumbin Creek and to the north along the Gold Coast Broadwater, South Stradbroke Island, Coomera River and southern Moreton Bay. Early canals included Florida Gardens and Isle of Capri which were under construction at the time of a 1954 flood. Recently constructed canals include Harbour Quays and Riverlinks completed in 2007. There are over of constructed residential waterfront land within the city that is home to over 80,000 residents.