Flashback: The rise and fall of Southport’s controversial Nerang Street Mall in the 1990s

SOUTHPORT’s Nerang Street is now a bustling restaurant district full of shops. But back in the 1990s it was a pedestrian mall with a stage and other features. This is its story.

The Southport Mall in its heyday

SOUTHPORT’S Nerang Street dates back more than 140 years to the earliest days of settlement.

It’s seen a lot of changes over the decades, but none more so than in the late ’80s when the Southport Mall was built.

Immediately proving to be controversial, it was gradually redeveloped to quell the fury of locals and finally removed entirely.

February 26, 1988: The final day of traffic on Nerang Street before it was closed-off to become the Southport Mall. Original picture by Malcolm North.

This weekend marks 25 years since the first demolition works were completed.

In 1987 Nerang St was a bustling central business district which became home to two major shopping centres – the newly expanded Australia Fair complex and the McDonell and East department store.

City leaders decided this new shopping metropolis deserved its own walkway and voted to build the Southport Mall.

The Mall was highly controversial during its decade of existence.

Traffic drove down the future mall site for the last time on February 26, 1988, heralding the end of an era for business owners along the strip who opposed construction.

Work was completed within a year and the mall opened just months before the nearby Australia Fair shopping centre finished its own expansion.

It initially featured a large stage area, fountain, sundial and restaurant.

The mall immediately attracted criticism from local business owners, including florist Dawn Crichlow.

The view towards the Broadwater.

The sundial was replaced after it was found to not work at all.

Cr Crichlow was so furious about the works that she stood for council in March 1991. She has been there ever since.

Once in office she used all her political powers to destroy the mall, starting with the eatery which stood at its centre.

On May 14, 1992 the demolition of the Sails Restaurant began with a party.

Contractors began to pull down the structure as Cr Crichlow celebrated with a sausage sizzle.

The final demolition of the mall began in late 1998.

The eatery was demolished to make way for the first stage of a $330,000 redevelopment, which included a children’s playground, waterfalls and observation decks which gave a view across the Broadwater.

“Sails Restaurant was a shocking mistake as was the planning of the mall in general,” she told the Bulletin at the time.

“The whole bungle has sent business in the eastern end of the mall broke. It has killed that part of Southport."

Cr Crichlow then proceeded to offer pieces of the rubble as a souvenir.

Pictured at the time beginning the demolition works was contractor Christian Jocumsen who wielded a sledgehammer while tearing the building apart.

The mall was returned to being a two-lane street.

He gained notoriety when he decided to put down his hammer and pick up a political career.

Jocumsen ran for mayor multiple times in the 1990s on a nudity platform, hoping to secure 100 metres of The Spit for nude bathing.

He failed in all attempts to secure office.

The mall lasted another five years in its new form before being demolished in the late 1990s to make way for a reopened Nerang St.

The newly reopened Nerang Street, January 1999.