Jubilee Bridge: Gold Coast’s historic crossing between Southport and Surfers Paradise which opened in 1925
The wooden bridge that transformed Gold Coast travel celebrates its centenary this month, marking a pivotal moment in the city's expansion from ferry crossings to modern infrastructure.
The Gold Coast has always loved a big celebration, especially when it comes to major infrastructure getting built.
Many will remember the big crowds which came out for the launch days of light rail’
s first two stages in 2014 and 2017, with similar numbers expected next year for the launch of stage three.
But our love of a big opening and the opportunity to be among the first to test new infrastructure dates back even further.
Among the first to be documented was on January 24, 1889 when the rail line to Southport was opened “with much pomp and gusto” as crowds packed onto a dusty Scarborough St for the occasion.
Everything from local bands to the Volunteer Defence Corps were out for the day.
Fast-forward nearly 37 years to another big day, just a short distance from the railway station – the opening of the first bridge to cross the Nerang River, finally connecting Southport to what is today known as Main Beach.
This month marks 100 years since the Jubilee Bridge opened to the public in November 1925.
In the early 20th century, the Myers ferry service connected Southport to surrounding suburbs, and it was a horse and buggy ride to Surfers Paradise.
But as the region’s population grew in the aftermath of World War I, it became clear a bridge was needed.
Construction of the bridge began in 1924 to finally make life easier for residents and the burgeoning tourist market.
The timber Jubilee Bridge ran from the end of Queen Street in Southport to a site just south of the modern-day Southport Yacht Club in Main Beach.
The bridge’s name commemorated the 50th anniversary of Southport’s first land sales in 1875 and originally featured a central span which would rise to allow boats to cross between the Broadwater and Nerang River.
The first pylons were installed on the Main Beach side and gradually it rose in the months afterwards.
The bridge’s opening in November 1925 was a big occasion, with hundreds of locals bringing their cars down and parking them on Queen Street, ready to test out the new bridge.
Its opening coincided with the opening of Jim Cavill’s famous Surfers Paradise Hotel further south, with the new bridge providing an easier journey to the watering hole which helped spark the transformation of the region.
The bridge proved popular immediately but less than a decade later, it was already struggling to deal with the amount of traffic it was carrying, requiring a widening in 1933.
The rising span was removed and it was possible to have two vehicles crossing side-by-side, however overtaking was banned.
Then-Gold Coast Historical Society secretary June Redman, who died in 2018, recalled the bridge fondly in a 2009 interview in which she said crossing to Main Beach in the 1940s and 1950s was a harrowing experience.
“As children, we used to cross the Jubilee Bridge when we’d walk from my grandmother’s house in Southport to go swimming at Main Beach,’’ she said at the time.
“You would get splinters in your feet if you were not wearing shoes.
“I always dreaded driving across the bridge because there were ridges to guide the car’s tyres and it was quite easy to slip out of them.’’
The Jubilee Bridge’s time came to an end when it was replaced in 1967 by the Gold Coast bridge, today known as Sundale Bridge, and soon thereafter dismantled.
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