QLDPort & river
Surfers Paradise
A ferry landing and a hotel became Australia’s best-known beach resort.
1881Meyer’s ferry crosses the Nerang River
WHAT STARTED IT
The Nerang River runs parallel to the beach here, leaving a narrow strip of dunes between river and surf. Johan Meyer’s ferry landed at the end of Ferry Road, now Cavill Avenue, which became the centre of the later business district.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Known as Elston, the area grew slowly until the Jubilee Bridge and Jim Cavill’s Surfers Paradise Hotel opened in 1925. The post office was renamed Surfers’ Paradise in 1933, and high-rise apartments followed from 1960.
TURNING POINTS
1881Johan Meyer wins the Nerang Divisional Board’s contract for a new ferry across the Nerang River.
1917Arthur Blackwood offers blocks in his “Surfers’ Paradise” estate on the ocean beach, a mile from Meyer’s Ferry.
1925The Jubilee Bridge and Cavill’s Surfers Paradise Hotel open.
1933The Elston post office is officially renamed Surfers’ Paradise.
1960The Kinkabool, the first high-rise apartment block, is completed.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
The high-rise heart of the Gold Coast tourist strip, with apartments, hotels and the Cavill Avenue mall. Little remains of the early river-and-dune landscape.
KEEP READING · SOURCESQueensland Places · Surfers ParadiseTrove · Logan Witness, 19 November 1881, ‘Local and General’ (new ferry contract for Mr Meyer)Trove · Telegraph (Brisbane), 3 April 1917, Arthur Blackwood advertisement, ‘Surfers’ Paradise, Southport’Trove · Brisbane Courier, 27 November 1925, ‘Jubilee Bridge: Southport Rejoices’Trove · Courier-Mail, 12 October 1933, ‘Surfers’ Paradise’