Surfers Paradise

Surfers Paradise took its name from a hotel in the 1930s and grew from the 1950s into the densest high-rise strip in Australia, a wall of apartment towers standing directly behind a long surf beach so that the buildings throw shadows across the sand in the afternoon. Q1, completed in 2005 and 322 metres tall, has an observation deck and an external climb to its spire. Cavill Avenue runs from the beach through the shopping and nightlife core, a beachfront market operates several evenings a week, and theme parks, Movie World, Dreamworld and Sea World, lie within half an hour. The strip is loud, commercial and unapologetic about what it is.

History

The farmer James Beattie was the first European settler, staking out a farm on the north bank of the Nerang River near today's Cavill Avenue, and in 1877 he sold it to the German immigrant Johan Meyer, who tried sugar in the sandy soil and then turned to tourists, running a ferry across the Nerang from 1880 to 1928, a buggy service from Southport station and the Main Beach Hotel; the settlement around it was named Elston by 1889. After Meyer died in 1901 the hotel licence lapsed, and in 1917 a land auction tried and failed to sell blocks in Elston as the Surfers' Paradise Estate (Wikipedia, Surfers Paradise).

The main sights

• The high-rise wall - towers standing directly behind the beach.
• The SkyPoint deck - the observation level and external climb on Q1.
• The beach - patrolled surf sand running the length of the strip.
• The night markets - beachfront stalls several evenings a week.

When to go

April to October for the mild dry season; summer is hot, humid and stormy. Schoolies week in late November fills the strip with school leavers and is best avoided by everyone else. Winter is the peak season for southern visitors.

Good to know

Afternoon shadow from the towers takes the sun off the beach earlier than expected. The strip is heavily commercial with aggressive touting on Cavill Avenue, and the nightlife has a reputation for trouble late. Theme parks are separate, expensive tickets.

Nearby

Burleigh Heads lies south; the hinterland parks are half an hour west.