Flashback Gold Coast: Best Gold Coast advertising from 1945 newspaper

A shock milk shortage on the Gold Coast shocked locals as they visited shops looking for kerosene-powered refrigerators and considered buying Victory Bonds.

THE final year of World War II saw the town which would become known as the Gold Coast at a crossroads.

It was just three years away from first being declared a city but it was still very much a small beachside town where phone numbers consisted of just three digits.

FLASHBACK: 50 YEARS OF GOLD COAST PUTT PUTT

Gold Coast Bulletin advertising, 1945/1940s

PART ONE: BEST GOLD COAST ADVERTISING 1975

PART TWO: BEST GOLD COAST ADVERTISING 1985

PART THREE: BEST GOLD COAST ADVERTISING 1995

PART FOUR: BEST GOLD COAST ADVERTISING 1930

The region’s agrarian roots remained strong, with tractors and farming equipment appearing heavily in advertisements at the time but it grew increasingly cosmopolitan with high-end fashion coming to town.

Best Gold Coast advertising from 1945

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The war was coming to an end but it dominated affairs in the South Coast region, forcing a shortage of milk.

Locals were urged to buy Victory Bonds to ensure Australia’s military remained well-funded through the conflict and its aftermath.

Reading glasses at CE Birkbeck.

The region’s cinemas did a roaring trad, showing Zane Grey’s Riders of the Purple Sage and Nazty Nuisance marketed as “an hilarious comedy produced by the ace of Laugh Producers, Hal Roach. “It’s a riot of laughs at the expense of Adolf, Musso and Togo and it’s all in fun!”

Milk supplies were low.

Sharp suits were on sale.

Murwillumbah’s A.E Budd and Sons were selling The Silent Knight, a kerosene-operated refrigerator, for 59 pounds. It was declared to be “cool as an iceberg, silent as the night”.

Possibly the most simple advertisement to appear was for businessman and future MP Cecil “Cec” Carey.

He was so well-known that his advertisement contained just his name, the title “the leading storekeeper” and his three-digit phone number.