Surfers Paradise Beer Garden: Phil Brown’s escapades at the iconic Gold Coast watering hole

As a teen, I worked at the Surfers Paradise Beer Garden. I have many memories - a bikie throwing up in a German army helmet is just one of them - and there are many reasons I won’t be returning as the iconic venue gets a reboot, writes Phil Brown.

Undated image from the Surfers Paradise Beer Garden. Picture: Jan Adams

APPARENTLY they are reopening one of the Gold Coast’s cultural icons. I refer of course to the Surfers Paradise Beer Garden, which will reappear in the heart of Surfers Paradise this Friday, August 16, as a rooftop beer garden, according to a press release I received by email last week.

Bar Supervisor Bonnie Ayres in the new-look Surfers Paradise Beer Garden.
Picture: Glenn Hampson

Why would this interest me when I am teetotal? The thing is that when I was a teenager growing up on the Gold Coast I once worked at the old Surfers Paradise Beer Garden which was just one of the watering holes at the old Surfers Paradise Hotel.

The pub is long gone but having the beer garden back will rekindle memories of the joint for many people. The original hotel was opened in 1925 by Jim Cavill.

The Surfers Paradise Beer Garden in the 1960s.

When I was a teenager in the 1970s it was really the heart and soul of Surfers Paradise and as well as the bars and the beer garden there was a nightclub where me and my mates spent way too much time getting rejected by girls. It was called the Paradise Room but we called it the “Parasite Room”. You may remember it.

I got a job picking up glasses at the pub and worked several of the venues.

They used to call that position “yardman” but nowadays it’s more commonly known as “glassie” I believe.

Phil Brown picked up the glasses at the Surfers Paradise Beer Garden in the mid 1970s. Photo AAP/ Ric Frearson

It wasn’t exactly fun. You would get some less than charming clientele like the bikies who used to taunt me because I was obviously a surfer, a breed they abhorred. I recall picking up the glasses off one table full of these leather-clad animals while one of them was busy throwing up into an old German army helmet. Charming.

After removing their empties they complained that the glasses hadn’t been empty and therefore, they should get a fresh round of drinks. No one was game to argue.

Historical photo of Surfers Paradise Beer Garden Picture: Supplied

The old beer garden was expansive with a lot of greenery and was very popular. I also picked up the glasses in the famous Corner Bar, which was also known as the Birdwatchers Bar. In those politically incorrect days the blokes used to sit on their stools by the open windows and leer at passing bikini girls making the sort of inappropriate comments people made back in the 1970s. They used to raffle cooked chooks in the bar to raise money for the local lifesavers and the winners would sit at the bar tearing the chickens apart with their bare hands.

Classy, very classy.

Highgate Hill sisters Gloria and Fay Cornwall chat with Jim Dorfler, an employee at the Surfers Paradise Beer Garden in 1958. Photo: Norm Lye, The Courier-Mail Photo Archive

I spent a summer working there and the pub’s other venues, gingerly picking my way between the drinkers and plucking glasses from their midst, often with howls of protest because there may have been one small drop of beer left in the bottom. Talk about desperados.

I was thinking about all this when I heard they were reopening the Surfers Paradise Beer Garden. You may want to visit on the weekend but I won’t.

I don’t want to spoil the golden memories of a misspent youth.