[Athena E.]

Gold Coast Highway, Surfers Paradise in the 1960s​

Check out this blast from the past! Remember the good old days of cruising down this strip? This is what the highway to the beloved Surfers Paradise looked like in the 1960s, back before the high rises took over.

Source: Memory Lane - Growing up in Australia/Facebook

Do you have any fun memories from this place? We'd love to read your nostalgic stories here!

 

[Gunpark]

I went there first in 1957 with my then girlfriend and her family and stayed at Bilinga. Her Father had the latest Ford Customline that we used for the trip to Surfers a couple of times. I was 21 and she was 18, we were the coolest pair in Surfer's. That was before the Gold Coast Highway so it was quite a trip. I recently came back to NSW after 23 years on the Gold Coast as you may as well live in the middle of Sydney these days. Great place for a holiday.

 

[Penny4]

I have a story.

Here is an old photo of my brother and I on the beach in the 60's. In those days, my Grandfather drove his Land Rover on the beach to fish. He used to bring home lots of freshly caught fish to give us. On this fishing day, he rushed home to take us back (it was after school). It was a World War II sea-mine washed up onto the Surfers Paradise beach. Explosives experts from the Royal Australian Navy were called in to check the mine and if necessary deactivate it. Gold Coast Police then assisted the navy to remove the mine from the beach.

 

[Veggiepatch]

Were those parked facing the wrong way in the photo get booked?

Rewind a few days of SDC and you will see the relevance of this comment.

 

[Penny4]

Were those parked facing the wrong way in the photo get booked?

Rewind a few days of SDC and you will see the relevance of this comment.

Surfers has always had one ways streets, but it got wider and zero parking. These days, the G-Link light rail runs through the main part and has ruined businesses.

 

[Veggiepatch]

Surfers has always had one ways streets, but it got wider and zero parking. These days, the G-Link light rail runs through the main part and has ruined businesses.

I haven't been there since the mid 1980s so I wouldn't have the foggiest!

@Penny4 thank you for the heads up!!

 

[Athena E.]

I have a story.

Here is an old photo of my brother and I on the beach in the 60's. In those days, my Grandfather drove his Land Rover on the beach to fish. He used to bring home lots of freshly caught fish to give us. On this fishing day, he rushed home to take us back (it was after school). It was a World War II sea-mine washed up onto the Surfers Paradise beach. Explosives experts from the Royal Australian Navy were called in to check the mine and if necessary deactivate it. Gold Coast Police then assisted the navy to remove the mine from the beach.

View attachment 54465

Wow, it sounds like you had an adventurous day at the beach. It must have been nerve-wracking with the mine there. Thanks for sharing your story and the photo!

 

[Penny4]

Wow, it sounds like you had an adventurous day at the beach. It must have been nerve-wracking with the mine there. Thanks for sharing your story and the photo!

Thanks! It's certainly an old photo. Actually, when my brother and I were a bit older we both learnt to drive on the beach with my Grandfather teaching us in his Land Rover. Those were the days!

 

[Penny4]

Wow, it sounds like you had an adventurous day at the beach. It must have been nerve-wracking with the mine there. Thanks for sharing your story and the photo!

It was a 300 kilo mine was laid off the New South Wales coast near Newcastle by the Germans in 1941. It broke its moorings and floated around the Pacific, until it washed up on Surfers Paradise beach.