goldcoast

Originally named after the Miami Hotel in 1925, the area was used as a large military camp in World War II. Miami experienced substantial building growth in the 1960s which was also when the district’s State High School was opened, attended by Anna Bligh who would later become Queensland’s Premier in 2007. In 1962 a chairlift was opened that would take visitors up to a cafeteria on North Nobby Hill. Eventually, a Magic Castle was built there and in 1983 the site was developed as the Magic Mountain theme park, complete with theatre, playground, and even ‘thrill rides’. It was a vibrant tourist attraction for a number of years until it was replaced by holiday apartments that still go by the name ‘Magic Mountain Resort’. Source: www.goldcoastaustralia.com/suburb-miami.html

Paula Stafford was born in Willaura, Country Victoria, in 1921. She moved into Melbourne City at thirteen years of age to attend school. Originally, she wanted to be an architect. However, her teacher advised her to consider a more ‘feminine’ line of work. Paula had always enjoyed making clothes for her dolls, and herself, so she went on to receive Diploma in Fashion Design at Melbourne Technical College. Paula moved to Queensland in 1939, stationed as an army nurse in Toowoomba during World War II. It was there she met her husband Beverly. He was a Gold Coast local, so in 1943 when the two wed, they returned to the coast to live in an old kiosk on Main Beach. By 1948, Paula and Bev had four children – Frances, Susan, Sibyl, and Michael – and were running a beach-hire service, renting umbrellas and surf floats. They relocated and built a house on Cavill Avenue, Surfers Paradise, in 1949. Frenchman Louis Rèard is widely credited with inventing the skimpy bikini in 1946. However, Paula had been cutting swimsuits in half for herself since 1936 for comfort and calling it a two-piece. She wore her sliced bathers to the beach and made some for her daughters too. Tourists and locals, who would frequent their store to hire beach products, saw Paula and her children clad in her innovative designs and asked her to make some for them. In under a month in 1949, Paula’s business grew from one machinist to produce garments, to fourteen – a number that would eventually rise to over sixty. However, in a still rather conservative culture, Paula’s two-piece was met with a slew of disapproval. Paula recounts in an article how the Catholic Mothers club had said, “we definitely think bikinis lower the resistance of young people to temptation”. The Surfers Paradise Roman Catholic Priest Father J.N Shannon told news reporters that, “the bikini type of costume often worn here lowers the dignity of Christian womanhood”. On Bondi Beach, a Local Government act was in place to ensure that swimwear remained ‘decent’. The act stated that swimsuits should cover the whole front of the body, have straps to keep in place the garment, and have legs at least three inches long. Archival ABC footage shows how the ‘Beach Inspectors’ would walk around with measuring tapes to assess women’s swimsuits. In 1945, when a young woman donned a bikini along the popular beach strip, infamous Beach Inspector Aub Laidlaw told her she was ‘indecently’ attired and ordered her to put on more clothes. The woman was charged with offensive behavior. In a moment of what Paula called “righteous indignation”, she spoke to a friend at the local paper. The day after Anne’s run-in with Moffat, Paula sent five models down to the same beach, all dressed in her bikinis. It attracted an immense amount of media coverage, and Paula received a plethora of orders. Despite the raised eyebrows, Paula continued selling and heavily promoting, her two pieces. Outnumbered by the women donning them, eventually, the local priest, police, town clerk and Mayor declared their approval of the swimwear, and Beach Inspector Johnny Moffat publically stated that he would no longer object to a women’s attire. By 1967, the aforementioned Aub Laidlaw even attended – and approved of – a fashion parade of Stafford’s swimwear. Paula had championed a movement for women – more than simply providing sparser beach attire and a better tan, bikinis represented a change in society’s ideals, and empowered women in their attire choices. Surfers Paradise became the home of the bikini, which bolstered tourism as well as trade. Source: thefressh.wordpress.com/2016/07/12/a-fashionable-history-...

One of the beaches near Southport is the Main beach. While other suburbs snatch their names from exotic Aboriginal meanings or English seaside villages, Main Beach is far more literal. Situated at the northern end of the Gold Coast, Main Beach was so named as it was the main surf beach to the town of Southport. But while its name may be obvious, its hidden gems are far more exciting for this is one of the coast’s areas that celebrates something old and something new in style. A highlight of a visit here is to the beach itself, where the old bathing pavilion, Pavilion 34 to be precise, has been reincarnated as a casual beach café complete with Chiko rolls, potato scallops, pineapple fritters, and fish and chips. The old male and female change pavilions are still here and there are loads of retro photos to remind you of the Main Beach of old. This bathing pavilion sits next to the Southport Surf Club, the first to make its mark on the Gold Coast in 1936 and right next to a sprawling shady park which is perfect for oceanfront picnics. Source: www.destinationgoldcoast.com/places-to-see/main-beach