Study to examine US impact on Gold Coast’s history and culture through our 1880s beach girl

LADY Lucinda Musgrave lived in an age of flowing dresses but has found her place in history as the Gold Coast’ first beach babe.

She’s certainly more demure than the ‘beach babes’ of the modern day. Lady Jeanie Lucinda Musgrave (nee Field) is the American-born second wife of Sir Anthony Musgrave Circa 1865 and the city’s first ever beach babe. Picture provided by State Library of South Australia

LADY Lucinda Musgrave lived in an age of flowing dresses but has found her place in history as the Gold Coast’s first beach babe.

Nearly a century after her death the second wife of the state’s then-governor, Sir Anthony Musgrave, is now the subject of an international study that could redefine the city’s love affair with the beach.

Gold Coast City Gallery curator Virginia Rigney will travel to the US in November to spend nine weeks researching how American culture has shaped the Gold Coast in the post-World War II period.

Gold Coast City Gallery Senior Curator Virginia Rigney is going to America in November to research the city’s connections with the US. Picture: Richard Gosling

But Ms Rigney said the US had inspired the region’s vibrant beach life more than six decades before the war.

“It all started in the 1880s when Governor Musgrave decided to make Southport his summer residence rather than Toowoomba, after the encouragement of his wife Lucinda — an American,” she said.

“The idea of being by the water was something his wife encouraged and her life is something I want to research. Remember, sea bathing was illegal here until 1907 but America had long-since embraced it and so I intend to explore it.”

Lady Lucinda was born in 1833 in New York and grew up in the US, ultimately settling on the west coast in San Francisco where she married Sir Anthony in 1865.

Sir Anthony Musgrave. Picture: State Library of Queensland

After spending the mid-1870s in South Australia the couple moved to Queensland when Sir Anthony became governor.

The Gold Coast suburb of Musgrave Hill is named for the pair. He died in office in 1888 while Lady Lucinda lived a long life, dying in the UK in 1920.

Ms Rigney was one of four recipients of the Queensland-Smithsonian Fellowship program which gives researchers the chance to collaborate with the Smithsonian Institution.

The El Dorado Motel, Surfers Paradise, pictured circa 1958 was part of a wave of US-inspired motels to be built on the Gold Coast following World War II.

During her time in Washington DC, she plans to research the early connections between the historic south coast region, including the gazetting of Miami in 1924, something she said was inspired by the US city.

During World War II US soldiers under General Douglas MacArthur spent time on R and R on the Gold Coast, as well as those stationed in camps across the region, sparking a local interest in jazz and African-American culture.

General Douglas MacArthur (Left) while stationed in Australia in 1942.

Ms Rigney, who is closely involved in the creation of the Gold Coast cultural precinct at Evandale, said the strongest period of influence came after the war.

“Immediately after the war you get the signing of the ANZUS Alliance at a time when building restrictions were lifted and the modern city began to take shape and we saw this come through in the strip city form, beach shacks, motels and fashion,” she said.

Gold Coast History — Aerials: Surfers Paradise Narrowneck. 1977.

“We fell out of love with the US after the Vietnam War and began looking to Asia but in the 1980s it bounced back with the increasing development of the canal estates and the Miami Florida inspired high-rises.”

Ms Rigney said she would look at the work of late developer and engineer Jock McIlwain, who spent time in Florida.

An undated aerial picture of Surfers Paradise..