The Gold Coast Then and Now

The Belmont Bear · Guru

The Gold Coast Then and Now

dabbler · Guru

If you are on FB, look at this page. It's just one of a few. https://www.facebook.com/Have-you-seen-the-old-Gold-Coast-280745045301771/

RustyD · Guru

I went there as a 16 year-old in July 1968. I had just started my first job in January and all the juniors were allocated mid-winter annual leave. A friend and myself convinced our parents that we could travel from Ballarat to Coolangatta by bus and stay at Greenmount Guest House. A friend of my dad's ran the Playroom amongst other nightclubs on the Coast (and Cloudland Ballroom in Brisbane) and reckoned that we'd be OK at any of 5 guest houses around Coolangatta. What a week!!! Years later, I could never believe my parents let me go. Still can't. A mid-year toolies week in 1968!

Back in 1974. Didn't recognise much but really enjoyed it, particularly the eating.

Holidays with kids several times from mid-1980s to late 1990s and the place was barely recognisable on each visit.

Best part was that out of season the accomodation was so cheap.

Now, I just cannot recognise much at all. So busy and chaotic last time I was there (2 years ago) that it's no longer on my list of places to visit.

For a trip way, way back in time back in time to 1950s-60 West Coast of Vic (Barwon Heads, Torquay etc.), Crescent Head presses my button.

jules47 · The Happy Helper

I remember the biggest building in Surfers was Lennons Hotel pre 1959.

The Belmont Bear · Guru

As kids in the 60s we were fascinated with the large animated neon sign in the main street of Surfers which was an add for some sunscreen product. A little dog would jump up and pull the back of a girls swimmers down I don't remember what building it was on may even have been the one that youre talking about Jules because it was one of the largest buildings in the street at that time. thanks for the link Dabbler.

BB

RustyD · Guru

The Belmont Bear · Guru

Thats the one Rusty but it used to be an animated neon sign - that is unless my memory is failing just like the rest of me.

BB

Leo · Senior Member

The Coppertone advertisement would now be offensive to the morals police. The Project's Waleed Aly might have a further slap at it on diversity grounds, and the promoters of gender fluidity would be having a fit over the girl hairdo, when a unisex (non-sex, or doubtful sex) shaved head would be preferable.

We must have been so innocent and naive always imagining it to be so cute and funny confuse smile biggrin biggrin

Notes:

1. With cringing acknowledgement to the Indigenous creators of the internet (courtesy of re-written history) and the traditional owners of the land through which the Telstra cabling passes and on which its towers stand.
[Whatever narrative applies according to the Political Correctness this day, 17 April 2018 and not having access to the ABC's PC Style Manual].

2. To my knowledge no animals were harmed by this post.

dabbler · Guru

Some of us with family members sexually abused at a young age, have found that type of sign offensive for a long time. Don't criticize until you walk in another's shoes Leo. Some changes are beneficial even for dinosaurs with ostrich habits.

Leo · Senior Member

dabbler wrote:
Some of us with family members sexually abused at a young age, have found that type of sign offensive for a long time. Don't criticize until you walk in another's shoes Leo. Some changes are beneficial even for dinosaurs with ostrich habits.

Have you considered that you might be revising history? The sign was around for donkey's years. It was an icon of sunny, carefree, FAMILY-friendly Surfers Paradise.

Next, this sign and The Pink Poodle neon will be adjudged with the 'benefit' of hindsight political correctness to be 'cruelty' to animals.

Dougwe · Chief one feather

I loved the place 40 odd years ago but I reckon I only like it now cry

Not sure about progress sometimes confuse

RustyD · Guru

The Belmont Bear wrote:
Thats the one Rusty but it used to be an animated neon sign - that is unless my memory is failing just like the rest of me.
BB

It was an animated neon sign. I reckon there was one around Melbourne somewhere.

I thought it was quite an innocent and cute sign. No sexual connotations there - for me. I cannot read anything into that at all.

Dougwe · Chief one feather

RustyD wrote:

Ahhh! Topless, on the Gold Coast...........never.

meetoo · Guru

The Belmont Bear wrote:
I remember spending family holidays on the Gold Coast when I was a kid back in the 60s and again with our own children in the 80s. Later in the 90s we went there with friends who had young children and finally in the early 2000s just the 2 of us. The last time that we visited was maybe 10 years ago when we started to realise that it was no longer the fun place that we remembered going to for over 40 years especially without kids. I remember in the 60s attractions such as the Gilltraps Auto museum and the porpoise pool at Coolangatta, the bird sanctuary at Corrumbin, the chairlift at Broadbeach ?, the headland walk at Berleigh, the meter maids and the neon on lights of Surfers Paradise. The Gold Coast wasn't a city it was more like a string of little towns spread along a coastline of beautiful surfing beaches. In the 60s we stayed in the Burleigh Heads caravan park and spent all day over the road at the beach, maybe a counter lunch with our parents while we swam in the pool then a BBQ each night. When we took our kids there places like Seaworld, Dreamworld and Grundys started opening and of course more and more people and units were built casting shadows over the beaches. Later came the Casino and of course more and more development, signs were in Japanese and the towns had become suburbs that were joined by freeways, even the railway eventually reached Helensvale. For us the drive up the Pacific Highway from Newcastle was an adventure in itself that usually included an over nighter somewhere along the way just to break up the trip.
I know that you can't stop progress but I'm curious if anyone else has similar memories of that lay back Gold Coast lifestyle which has now been assigned to the pages of history ?
Cheers
BB

Hey there BB. Not just the Gold Coast either.

Cheers, John.

dabbler · Guru

Leo, no one is rewriting history. But the images in that sign and similar images are both offensive and frightening to several of my sisters. Those images have appeal to all types of people and some are the lowest form of life. If you can't at least acknowledge there are sound reasons to deplore sexual images of children, you are one sad misguided human being. I'm not offended by the image shared here and I'm not condemning anyone who might share them but statistically there will be some that are upset at the connotation. Sexual molestation is age old and, yes, history is being slowly rewritten and rightfully so. Removing a sign is not rewriting history.

dabbler · Guru

RustyD. From what my family now knows of our maternal grandfather, he undoubtedly got some sexual jollies from signs that showed kid's naked bums and he wouldn't be the only one.

RustyD · Guru

Im almost to the point of not saying or doing anything as there always seem to be someone who gets offended. I give up with posting stuff FULL STOP.

dabbler · Guru

RustyD, I wouldn't like to have you stop posting. I am merely pointing out that not everyone views things the same way.

RustyD · Guru

Its like walking on egg shells as one never knows what innocent thing turns out to an insult.

dabbler · Guru

RustyD, no one mentioned being insulted and I'm certainly not insulted. I am annoyed and frustrated that people can be so dismissive of legitimate reasons to remove trigger images from public places. The signage is part of our history. It can still be viewed, just not in public.

Leo · Senior Member

Here is the street sign in Surfers Paradise that was doing a sterling job encouraging people to apply sunscreen,

http://i.pinimg.com/originals/35/27/03/352703c868d89b37f89107cdbf385706.jpg

June · Senior Member

Many years ago my parents and grand-parents built two unites which were joined together under one roof, each unit having a bedroom, open kitchen and living room upstairs, with a verandah running along the front of the building. Down stairs was a bathroom, toilet and another bedroom which opened into the garages at the front. There was and still is, a bitumen road running along the front of the building and across the road was bushland and then the beach and ocean. There was only one other house near us a few blocks along and there were no other buildings for years. Now there are all upmarket houses and unites all along the beach front and the lagoon behind our place was filled in and now has a motel and houses covering the whole of Miami. The bridge across the Nerang River was very low and when it rained it would go under water and no one could get across it. Surfers Paradise comprised of a few houses and shops and motels, the Pink Poodle motel had a neon sign above it and was quite an icon in those days. Yes, Jules, I remember Lennons Hotel at Broadbeach was surrounded by nothing but sand. Life back in those days was so natural and pleasant.

'Progress is man's ability to stuff up simplicity' - that old saying comes to mind

Leo · Senior Member

Does anyone remember the street plantings of hibiscus bushes?

The Belmont Bear · Guru

Sorry guys I was just remembering a more relaxed easy going lifestyle that is now just a distant memory, as a 10 year kid that sign was just a bit of fun it never had any sexual meaning for us. I can see where some people may have been offended by it and if that means that this type of sign should be removed for the welfare of the masses then I guess thats a decision that has been taken in order to protect us. I do tend to agree with Rusty though sometimes you get the feeling that you are walking on egg shells when you start a post as someone always seems to find a way to be offended. I think I'll follow your lead mate and stop initiating posts in order to generate discussions or to exchange ideas in future maybe I will make an odd comment and that will do me.

Yes John the GC is not the only place, as a young man I spent a lot of time surfing along the north coast of NSW with my mates (as did many in my era) at what were once isolated pristine beaches. When I go back to those places now they have been so built out that you are lucky to even see a beach. It seems that any waterway be it river, lake or beach is fair game for the developers in trying to take advantage of all the cashed up runaways from the big cities who want to retire to their own little piece of paradise. Like you Dougwe I loved the place 40 years ago but nowadays we are more likely to bypass both the Gold and Sunshine Coasts when heading north..

Cheers
BB

-- Edited by The Belmont Bear on Wednesday 18th of April 2018 07:55:03 AM

memory maker · Member

If you listen to any of the old music or watch a lot of old movies, especially things like the three stooges, in hindsight they were terrible BUT you cant put today's morals or judgement s on things from the past, most of us look back with nostalgia and its a shame to ruin that. No disputing some terrible things have happened to a lot of people but the majority of us had a normal and happy upbringing and there is no crime or shame in that and its a pity that things we remember fondly upset anyone.

Grandad5 · Senior Member

The Belmont Bear wrote:
It seems that any waterway be it river, lake or beach is fair game for the developers in trying to take advantage of all the cashed up runaways from the big cities who want to retire to their own little piece of paradise.

i'm reminded of the last line in The Eagles hit song "Last Resort"

You call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye.

Jim

Leo · Senior Member

Grandad5 wrote:
The Belmont Bear wrote:
It seems that any waterway be it river, lake or beach is fair game for the developers in trying to take advantage of all the cashed up runaways from the big cities who want to retire to their own little piece of paradise.

i'm reminded of the last line in The Eagles hit song "Last Resort"
You call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye.
Jim

Older people are being deliberately squeezed out of major cities, to take their land for up-market apartments. If they could afford the ramped up council rates and so on, few retirees/pensioners/working seniors, would ever move away from the family home and familiar environment.

Problem is the 'Big Australia' the pollies favour (through mass immigration and for 'growth' in the economy) and the growth of 350,000 pa for it, which outdoes the population growth of those criticised Third World countries. For comparison, Wollongong (NSW) is 293,503 total, the whole of the Sunshine Coast (Qld) is 254,650 and the whole of the Gold Coast including Tweed (NSW) is 600,475 (2013 figures).

-- Edited by Leo on Wednesday 18th of April 2018 11:16:38 AM

rockylizard · Guru

Grandad5 wrote:
i'm reminded of the last line in The Eagles hit song "Last Resort"
You call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye.
Jim

Gday...

And it has been going on for decades -

Big Yellow Taxi written and sung by Joni Mitchell in 1970

They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got til its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

They took all the trees
And put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half to seem 'em

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgMEPk6fvpg

Humankind will NEVER wake up. Even the Cree knew it -

When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten, and the last stream poisoned, you will realise that you cannot eat money.

Cheers - John

rockylizard · Guru

Gday...

One could substitute Canada for any government of any country, certainly Straya -

Comments in 1972 by Alanis Obomsawin, a North American Indian, an Abenaki from the Odanak reserve, seventy odd miles northeast of Montreal.

Canada, the most affluent of countries, operates on a depletion economy which leaves destruction in its wake.
Your people are driven by a terrible sense of deficiency.
When the last tree is cut, the last fish is caught, and the last river is polluted; when to breathe the air is sickening, you will realize, too late, that wealth is not in bank accounts and that you cant eat money.

Cheers - John

dabbler · Guru

June, the Pink Poodle sign was relocated a short distance up Fern St and now advertises a restaurant bar. The original hotel was demolished about 15 years ago as too costly to maintain but fortunately the sign is heritage listed. There are still a lot of original buildings and elements left but visitors rarely see them unless they venture off the glitter strip. Interestingly, my 23yo daughter has fond memories of things now gone but they are not the same things many here would find nostalgic .... and that too is a sign of the times. Surfers is still family friendly unless you're around after midnight and I daresay the same applies to most cities and towns in Australia. There are also increasing local protests about ripping up our untouched and undeveloped areas and they are the areas that most interest me.