Southport Mall: How pedestrian attraction ruined suburb’s CBD

A council-led project was dubbed the worst mistake in Southport’s history, sparking a furious campaign to demolish it and save the suburb.

The Gold Coast has had plenty of controversial changes over the decades.

From building the light rail to creating the Broadwater Parklands, some have been more welcome than others but all have divided the community, be it over what those changes would mean for them, or the cost of the project.

But few were more controversial than the Southport Mall, a major 1980s initiative of the Gold Coast City Council.

This week marks 25 years since the mall was reopened to traffic after a decade-long campaign by then-area councillor Dawn Crichlow to have the mall ripped up.

Ms Crichlow told the Gold Coast Bulletin at the time the site of traffic on the road was long overdue.

Southport Mall and the Nerang Street entrance to Australia Fair, Southport, Queensland, in the early 1990s.

“It’s been 10 years and three months but we finally did it and today’s celebrations have had a real family feel to them and this is the future of Southport,’ she said.

“It has been the one platform that I had not been able to produce and deliver on and now I finally can.”

The official opening at 5pm of Nerang Street was marked by the setting off of gunfire with a cannon by Ms Crichlow who said she took great joy in it.

Inside the mall

The day was marked by street performers and face painters who decorated what remained of the mall sidewalk while residents inspected the new-look street. According to Cr Crichlow a great deal of effort went into marking sure the street suited by retailers and shoppers.

“We wanted to make it a street while still retaining the shopping mall feel to it and I think that’s what we’ve done,” she said.

“Already is has been a success and we are starting to full up vacant positions which have been here for so long.”

Senior Constable Sean Miles patrolled Southport mall.

And retailers agreed, saying they were glad they no longer had to worry about going broke

“It has to be better than what we had before, just because what we had was not working,” said manager of Birkbeck’s Hourglass Jewellers Norm Clark.

“People were not using the mall, no one was shopping here and those that were coming were not the types you wanted to come to your shop anyway.

“We were not suffering as much as other people because we are an established business but I do not know those who had to go out of business.”

The entrance to the mall from Scarborough Street.

Southport’s mall was first proposed in 1986 to be built on Nerang St near the Gold Coast Highway.

Pedestrian malls were all the rage at the time, with the idea coming a decade after Cavill Ave was enclosed and years before Broadbeach’s was built.

It was included in artist’s impressions of the McDonnell and East department store building, which was built the same year but only lasted for a short time.

The mall was demolished rapidly.

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

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

It initially featured a large stage area and fountain.

Construction occuring in September 1998 to rebuilt the road.

It immediately attracted criticism from local business owners, including Ms Crichlow, then a local florist, who staunchly opposed its development.

She later campaigned on the back of the issue and was elected as a councillor in 1991.

The restaurant closed the same year and was demolished.

Future Robina councillor Jan Grew served as the mall’s manager in the early 90s.

Today there still remains one legacy of the mall – a large stone carving which was installed to mark Australia’s 1988 bicentennial. now sits on the north eastern side.