Grundy’s Surfers Paradise: 40 years since Grundy’s Entertainment Centre opened in March 1981

Grundy’s was one of the Gold Coast’s best-loved attractions. It opened 40 years ago this month, bringing in celebrities and cementing its place with an iconic music video.

THE opening of the Gold Coast’s first new attraction in nearly a decade was a moment few who attended forgot.

Grundy’s Entertainment Centre was the centrepiece of the Paradise Centre and an instant icon for Surfers Paradise.

Grundy's Entertainment Centre and Cavill Ave Mall, Surfers Paradise, 1980s

From its famous slides to its international food court, it was something the city had not seen before.

Coming nearly 10 years after Sea World and beating Dreamworld by 10 months, Grundy’s was an immediate sensation for the city.

Its opening, 40 years ago next week, came just three months after the Paradise Centre itself was completed.

Reg Grundy.

Costing $5.5 million, it was a substantial investment from television mogul Reg Grundy who had overseen its construction, plus the installation of his hand-picked favourite attraction – an antique carousel.

The opening was set for 10am, Saturday March 14, 1981 and in typical Grundy style, it was designed as a grand affair, with no expense spared to make it a day to remember.

Mr Grundy used his power to bring a laundry list of big name actors from the television series he produced to the Gold Coast for the launch.

The celebrities Reg Grundy brought in to attend the opening of Grundy’s, as well as Val Lehman’s birthday.

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Among them was Prisoner’s Collette Mann and Val Lehman, Personality Squares host Jimmy Hannan, The Restless Years’ Rosemary Paul and The Young Doctors’ Peter Bensley, Gwen Plumb and Judy McBurney.

Mayor Keith Hunt visited the complex the day before the launch to present mascot Charlie Cheese with an official Gold Coast shirt.

Grundy’s executive John Collins told the Bulletin “everything will come together in a big rush”.

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Mayor Keith Hunt with Charlie Cheese.

He talked up its staff of “clean-cut young Australians” and promised an experience unlike anything the Gold Coast had seen.

It was determined that the famous slides wouldn’t be ready for launch day and saw their opening pushed back a month to April.

Despite this, more than 1000 people were expected to attend the day according to the organiser’s predictions.

Grundy's Surfers Paradise opening coverage from the Gold Coast Bulletin, March 1981

This proved to be a vast underestimation, with more than 40,000 people coming through the front door of Grundy’s that Saturday.

A five-piece Palm Court Orchestra which Mr Grundy had flown in from Sydney tested the complex’s ivory grand piano, while the visiting actors cut a cake to celebrate both Grundy’s launch and Ms Lehman’s upcoming 38th birthday.

The Grundy’s slides opened a month after the rest of the centre.

With the slides left unavailable, Mr Grundy and his team showed off the other features including Dolly Dimples, a computerised hippopotamus which sang songs in the style of Mae West and Space Probe III: a space simulator.

Just days after Grundy’s launch, Skater’s Paradise, another 80s Gold Coast icon, opened its doors with its new $1.5 million rink.

Grundy’s slides opened in early April 1981 and were an immediate sensation.

Just weeks after their launch, the slides gained immediate immortality when the band Australian Crawl arrived on the Gold Coast to film music videos for their new album, Sirocco.

Footage of the band riding the slides was used for the music video of Errol, the album’s second single.

Now, 40 years later the slides and Grundy’s are both long gone, but Errol and its footage of those glory days, remain in regular rotation on television.