What is the Gold Coast?
The Gold Coast is a city in southeast Queensland famous for surf beaches, high-rise towers and theme parks. It stretches about 57 kilometres along the coast south of Brisbane.
With around 650,000 residents, the Gold Coast is Australia's largest non-capital city. It began as a string of holiday towns and boomed after the 1950s as tourism grew.
Theme parks such as Dreamworld, Warner Bros. Movie World, Sea World and Wet'n'Wild attract millions of visitors. The hinterland offers rainforest at Springbrook and Lamington national parks, part of the Gondwana Rainforests World Heritage Area.
Sport and events
The Gold Coast hosted the 2018 Commonwealth Games. It is also home to the Gold Coast Suns AFL team and the Gold Coast Titans rugby league team, and hosts a major marathon each year.
Its subtropical climate brings warm summers and mild winters. Light rail runs along the coast from Helensvale to Broadbeach and on to Burleigh Heads.
Tourism, construction and education are major industries, and several universities have campuses in the city.
Did You Know?
The name Gold Coast was first used informally in the 1940s, possibly because of high property prices.