A friend who I partied with in my teens, has reminded me of the fun we had at 'Kinkabool' in Surfers Paradise on Queensland's Gold Coast. Happy memories of surfing, basking in the sun, before we knew it wasn't good for our skin, when we thought it showed we were healthy and active. We were. A lot of that activity may have happened after the sun went down at places like Kinkabool.
The Surfers Paradise FB page has a Throwback Thursday and featured Kinkabool. Built 1959-60, the 11 storey "high-rise" was the Gold Coast's first high-rise and one of Queensland's earliest!
Situated one block to the south of Cavill Avenue, 'Kinkabool' is now heritage listed and one of the few buildings remaining that represents what was the heart of burgeoning modern Surfers Paradise in the 1950s.
That's a bit harsh, I thought. A building that was new in my youth is heritage listed!! Harsh or not I'm glad they are retaining it, even if just as a quaint reminder of how things were 'in the olden days'. In the days when Surfers was just about the surf and fun, before the glitz and glamour arrived. Before the apartment buildings started reaching for the sky and the main focus of the places is no longer the sea. Before they started building high rises right on the beach front with their shadows falling on the beach
I'm reining myself in before I get carried away. I have no right to express an opinion about Surfers Paradise, I haven't been there since the 70s. And on that occasion I stood in the middle of a street and looked upwards and saw just a small patch of sky - and cried. I felt like I was in a concrete jungle and although I was quite close to the beach I couldn't hear the waves above the sound of the traffic. It's a wonder I wasn't run over. Probably got my timing right with traffic lights. I know I just repeated over and over "They've ruined it." Luckily I was with one of my brothers and most of them thought I was nuts years before that happened.
Surfers Paradise today. I can't bring myself to find a photo away from the beach.
photo courtesy of Facebook Visit Surfers Paradise page
Well, I feel for you. I have been to places that have changed so dramatically that I have felt the same way. Like you I'm glad that they are at least saving Kinkaboo.
ReplyDeleteYes, Denise, it can be hard accepting some change if we don't see it as for the better.
DeleteIt is awful, spectacularly so. I see that there are advantages to having vile weather moom would do that to Scotland's west coast.
ReplyDeleteI'd know we are doomed if ever that wild and beautiful place was changed, Adrian.
DeleteWonderful scenery in number two.
ReplyDeleteI agree it makes for a spectacular photo, Bob.
DeleteGreat shots....lovely beach
ReplyDeleteIt is in the mornings, Tanza, before the high-rises cast shadows on the beach. But I think it is kept looking good, by bringing in sand from other beaches, for commercial reasons.
DeleteWe are paving paradise to put in a parking lot, to borrow from the song.
ReplyDelete" With a pink hotel, a boutique and a swinging hot spot" A good description of modern day Surfers Paradise, Messymimi.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of Surfers. Even though I live up here in the Gold Coast hinterland I never go down to the GC. I've never been a fan of the Gold Coast. I always preferred the Sunshine Coast. It's all rapidly changing, too.
ReplyDeleteNoosa was our main hang-out as teenagers. And back in the late 70s to the mid 80s I lived at both Coolum and Sunshine Beach.
I'll be heritage listed soon!
Adrian has a good point. Imagine all those beautiful Lewis beaches being overrun with buildings and tourists. No thanks.
ReplyDelete