Clear Island Waters: Exclusive suburb’s battle over controversial development

This exclusive Gold Coast suburb is home to mansions which celebrities have called home. But a controversial plan to dramatically redevelopment was declared “a monstrosity”.

IT started out as farmland, but this Gold Coast suburb is today best-known for its pricey real estate and waterfront houses.

Clear Island Waters has seen plenty of ups and downs since it was first proposed back in the 1980s and reshaped the central Gold Coast.

Planning for the future of Gold Coast suburbs has come into sharp focus again this week, with residents of Chevron Island calling for a plan for its central business district.

Aerial pictures of Surfers Paradise Golf Club.

It’s not something most Gold Coast suburbs get to do, having largely grown from a series of small villages into Australia’s sixth-largest city.

Things changed in the 1980s when the problems of a city developing in this fashion were already becoming apparent – with no central public transport network and perpetually choked roads as the population grew.

Among the first generation of heavily planned suburbs to grow from this era were Robina, Sanctuary Cove and Clear Island Waters.

Aerials of Surfers Paradise Golf Club.

The suburb itself did not begin to take shape until the 1980s, but its story began two decades earlier.

The land which became Clear Island Waters was used for dairy farming through the first half of the 20th century, with that land among the alleged locations where the so-called Merrimac yowie was spotted.

By the mid-1960s, property developer and future Gold Coast mayor Sir Bruce Small owned more than 92ha of land which was at the time known as Cypress Gardens.

In 1967, Sir Bruce approached the fledgling Surfers Paradise Golf Club, which had been founded two years earlier by “a small order of keen golfers, ex-servicemen and their friends”.

The club was searching for a home and initially was looking at the Rialto Estate in the then-Albert Shire.

Instead, Sir Bruce convinced them to buy Cypress Gardens for $43,240, with the deal signed on February 15, 1967.

Aerials of Surfers Paradise Golf Club.

Fast-forward to the 1980s and developers, led by billionaire Bob Ell and his company Leda Holdings, moved into the area.

Leda, Villawood, The Robina Group and others bought up large parcels of swampland at the back of Carrara and built the Clear Island Waters estate, naming it for Clear Island Road which once ran through the area to Merrimac.

By January 1989, the state government gazetted the area as an official suburb and it immediately became one of the hottest real estate locations on the Coast.

In 1991, Paul Randell, director in charge of Baillieu Knight Frank on the Gold Coast, named Clear Island Waters as a place to buy amid the recession which slowed the property industry through the early 1990s.

John Fish.

“There’s a better selection (of properties) than there has been for a long time,’’ he said.

Among its prominent residents in the 1990s was Australian test cricketer Craig McDermott, who sold his mansion there in 1997 for $1.1m, plus a signed bat.

By the mid-1990s, the value of its property skyrocketed.

“One example is a waterfront lot at The Capes at Clear Island Waters which sold almost three years ago for $109,000 and resold in August of this year for $188,000 – a gain of 73 per cent,” a PRD report at the time read.

Cr Eddy Sarroff at a rally opposing the proposed redevelopment.

The scarcity of developable land on the Gold Coast intensified into the 2000s, with the median sale price reaching $390,000 by 2001.

The booming property market led to big-name developers pitching major projects for the area.

In 2007, John Fish unveiled a proposed $500m redevelopment of the Surfers Paradise Golf Club which would have seen the golf club bulldozed and nine-storey buildings put in its place.

The project was planned by Mr Fish and developer Edwin Yu and was made possible by a vote to sell the golf club land for $15, which would mean a move of members to the exclusive Glades golf course at Robina. The development, which relied on 1978 Albert Shire Council height limits, was to include a mix of buildings from nine storeys down to single-level dwellings.

Mayor Ron Clarke and other residents opposed to the project.

Firebrand councillor Eddy Sarroff fronted the meeting and told the developers to “keep their money”.

“We must fight to have this monstrosity refused,’’ said Mr Sarroff.

“I have read over the proposal in depth in the last week and I will read over it three more times before I can prepare a submission on your behalf so we can refuse this monstrosity.”

It was opposed by the Clear Island Waters Action Group, though ultimately the development failed to eventuate after its developers were hit hard by the financial crisis.

Kevin Filer of the Clear Island Waters Action Group.

Now, 15 years on, Clear Island Waters is hot property again.

Latest REA Group data released this month revealed it was among the Gold Coast suburbs which showed the greatest buyer demand during the final months of 2021.

It was listed alongside Currumbin Waters, Worongary, Bonogin Highland Park, Elanora and Mermaid Waters.

Among its prominent residents in the 1990s was Australian test cricketer Craig McDermott who sold his mansion there in 1997 for $1.1m, plus a signed bat.

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Originally published as Clear Island Waters: Exclusive suburb’s battle over controversial development