QLDRail & telegraph
Currumbin
A station by the creek mouth brought the first holidaymakers.
1903Railway reaches Currumbin Creek
WHAT STARTED IT
The railway from Nerang to Tweed Heads crossed Currumbin Creek in 1903, with a station on the south bank about a kilometre from the beach. Small settlements grew at the beach, near the station and upstream along the creek.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Excursionists came for the surf, creek fishing and oysters, and the two-storey Hotel Nicoll looked over the estuary. Upstream, bananas replaced most other farming, and a flower grower who fed honey-soaked bread to lorikeets near Flat Rock Creek turned his land into a bird sanctuary in the late 1940s.
TURNING POINTS
1903Trains begin running through to Tweed Heads, with a station beside Currumbin Creek.
1915Banana growing begins in the Currumbin Valley with about 10 acres.
1927Bunchy top forces valley growers to dig out every plantation; a road bridge over the creek opens.
1940sLorikeet feeding on a flower farm near Flat Rock Creek grows into a bird sanctuary.
1948Rock walling at Currumbin Point is built to stop beach erosion.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A residential beach suburb of about 3,300 people on the southern Gold Coast. The creek mouth, Elephant Rock and the wildlife sanctuary remain its best-known places.