Coast After Dark Part 3: Riding Surfers Paradise sea-change with Tim Martin
In the late 1990s a young Melbourne man headed to the Gold Coast for the summer. Before long he was running the biggest club in town. READ PART THREE OF OUR SPECIAL FOUR-PART SERIES >>>
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THE Gold Coast is known for its nightclubs – for both good and bad reasons.
In our special four-part Coast After Dark series, learn the truth about the history of Surfers Paradise from the major players who transformed the suburb into a world renowned party precinct.
By looking back, this in-depth series hopes to find how Surfers Paradise can return to its glory days.
FROM MELBOURNE TO MELBAS
In the late 1990s a young Melbourne man headed to the Gold Coast for the summer.
Working at popular Surfers Paradise night spot Melbas, he was soon hooked on what the city had to offer.
Tim Martin started at the Cavill Ave venue – an institution – working behind the bar but quickly moved his way up to nightclub manager before Melbas changed hands in 2008.
“I left school and joined the army straight away. When I left there I moved to the Gold Coast for a working holiday,” Mr Martin said.
“I started at Melbas literally the day I got here.
“I thought I was going to be here for a couple of months and never moved back.”
Under the eye of night scene fixture and owner the late Paul Allen – who ran Melbas for over two decades – Mr Martin learnt his craft before he was asked to run a soon-to-be opened venue called Sin City.
“I was with Melbas for 11 years and at the time it was the biggest place in town,” he said.
“It was going off seven days a week.
“Once that went into receivership I got asked by the guys who had Bedroom to open Sin City.”
With Melbas changing ownership and being temporarily shut, the crowds flooded to nearby Orchid Ave, where the new venue under Mr Martin’s guise was located.
“It was the same type of set up as Melbas. We were open seven days a week and once we launched no one could catch us,” he said.
“It became the place to be.”
SINNER A WINNER
Sin City soon cemented itself as the hot spot in Surfers.
Mr Martin had joined a new team – guided by then venue operator and industry veteran Jamie Pickering.
Now the newly formulated Artesian Hospitality – which Mr Martin recently took an ownership slice in – still have the Orchid Ave nightclubs Sin City, the Bedroom Lounge Bar and Havana RnB.
The location Sin City sat on was formerly the Sugar Shack before being transformed into strip club Cheerleaders.
But Mr Martin’s rebranded nightclub – with VIP hostesses in lingerie – was hugely successful and became the heartbeat for Surfer Paradise’s party precinct by the early 2010s.
“We were in the right place at the right time,” he said.
“When Sin City opened it was when lots of clubs had been the same for about ten years.
“It brought something new. I think the town was looking for something different and Sin came along and exploded.
“You’d go in on a Monday night and think ‘How are there 400 people out tonight?’. It was always like a Saturday.”
The success of Sin City allowed Mr Martin to become the group manager for the three Orchid Ave nightclubs before Artesian then more recently added Cavill Ave bar and restaurant White Rhino.
SECRET TO CELEB SUCCESS
Sin City helped cement Surfers Paradise as a go-to for visitors and celebrities looking to party on the Gold Coast.
Justin Bieber, Amber Heard and Usher have all partied in Surfers under the guidance of Mr Martin and his team.
However, he said it was a link to R’n’B artists that gave Sin City its most memorable nights.
“We always got the celebrities who were on tour. They’d be doing their own shows on Friday and Saturday nights, so they would want to party on weekdays,” he said.
“One night T-Pain smashed a $4000 bottle of Louis XIII that we gave to him for some photos.
“He was like ‘what do I do?’ and we said to sing.
“He took the mic and sang for two hours.”
The celebrity recognition helped Sin City and Surfers Paradise grow its name but it was no accident the touring artists often ended up in the nightclub.
“What we used to do is book their touring DJ, so if they were going to go out they’d follow someone from their crew,” Mr Martin said.
“It worked really well and helped build our relationships with touring managers too.”
It wasn’t just musicians looking for a good time who flocked to Surfers Paradise. Athletes flocked to the party precinct during the Commonwealth Games in 2018.
A boxer from Northern Ireland allegedly got into an altercation out the front of Sin City during the event while a former Scottish boxer ended up in a fight inside, the same night Usain Bolt first headed in.
Mr Martin said it turned out to be the best publicity for the venue.
“Word got out and athletes were banned from the venue. When you take something away from someone they want it more,” he said.
“One night we had all the swim teams from different countries in all the booths.”
Usain Bolt practically took up residency in the venue while on the Gold Coast for the Games – he visited six nights straight.
“He rang and said he wanted to come in and he had such a good time he asked to DJ the next night,” Mr Martin said.
“Word went out to all the Olympians, who all idealised him. When the public found out all the athletes were going to Sin they all jumped on too.
“We had a line of 300 people out the front.”
LOOK OUT FOR THE LOCKOUT
Clubs on the Gold Coast were already dealing with liquor licence laws to stamp out alcohol-fuelled violence in the late 2000s.
Initially the LNP Government had introduced a 5am last drinks but in 2016 it was brought forward two hours.
At the time the state government’s push for a 1am lockout received backlash from Mr Martin – who was leading the Surfers Paradise Licensed Venues Association.
His fight joined by fellow venue operators was successful but the 3am last drinks stood in safe night precincts across Queensland.
Another big change in legislation was the inclusion of ID scanning in party precincts around the same time.
“The majority of incidents that occur would have come from the same people over and over,” Mr Martin said.
“What scanning did was find the d***heads and made them accountable. If you were banned on the Gold Coast, you were banned in Brisbane.
“There were a few issues in the early days for businesses but it did make people more accountable.”
Mr Martin said the regulations were one of many reasons a growing culture in day drinking has grown on the Gold Coast, especially in older generations.
“There’s also a greater focus on health with people more conscious of how much they’re drinking and what they’re drinking,” he said.
“Social media has also had a major impact. Before apps like Tinder people had to go out to meet someone.
“No one was able to slide into someone’s DMs. Talking to someone on a night out was the equivalent.”
ROLLING OUT THE WELCOME MATT
Mr Martin and his team were going strong in Surfers Paradise despite the new regulations but they were about to hit new heights when a man with a financial background joined their ranks.
“Five years ago Matt Keegan came on board, he’s our managing partner,” Mr Martin said.
“He was the one who created Artesian and branded us as a new identity.
“We used to be just three nightclubs and White Rhino. That was as big as we were going to get until he came along and expanded the group.
“He comes from a legal and financial background and put us on a different path as a more corporate company.”
Artesian Group recently opened Ferny Ave venture Surfers Pavilion in April and are set to open rooftop bar Cali Beach Club in the near future.
Although nightclubs still play a major part in the night-life scene according to Mr Martin, he said the group are expanding to meet the new needs for party goers.
“By the end of next year we will probably be at 12 venues,” he said.
“Through this time that is unbelievable.
“We’ve been able to open Surfers Pavilion, which is a direction we wanted to take.
“We love the day drinking experience and it’s on the water and the perfect location for that scene.
“There is also Cali on the way, which is going to change the Gold Coast.
“It has three bars, four restaurants, and four pools. It’s going to be our legacy forever.”
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