Flashback: 25 years since the Gold Coast said goodbye to iconic Grundy’s Entertainment centre in Surfers Paradise

GRUNDY’S, the iconic Gold Coast entertainment centre was one of Surfers Paradise’s most popular locations in the 1980s. This week marks 25 years since its closure. Here’s what happened in its final days.

EVERYONE has a story about the time they visited Grundy’s.

The Surfers Paradise institution is fondly remembered as one of the city’s great attractions during the boom era of the 1980s and 90s as a new generation of visitors and people moved to the Gold Coast.

From its famed merry-go-round to its beachfront slides, Grundy’s was the place to be and have fun.

But all good things come to an end.

REMEMBERING THE GOLD COAST’S EARLY ATTRACTION

Gold Coast History: Grundy's waterslide at Surfers Paradise. Supplied photo.

This week marks 25 years since the closure of the centre was announced to a shocked Gold Coast.

Grundy Organisation vice president of leisure and administration Robert Graham made the journey to the city to makethe announcement, which threw 80 people out of the work.

And he admitted they had been unable to find anyone to take over the operation of the centre once their lease expired in September 1993.

GOLD COAST REMEMBERS REG GRUNDY

Cavill Mall during the 1980s.

Paradise Centre general manager Alan Fogg said America’s biggest amusement centre operators were almost certain to take up a 10-year lease on half of the 5280sq m site.

The centre’s owners, a Japanese corporation, footed a $2.5 million bill to redevelop the rest of the centre as a food hall and hoped that it would be able to re-employ some of the remaining Grundy’s staff.

Mayor Lex Bell declared the closure to be “something of a tragedy” because it had become an important part of the Gold Coast.

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Grundy’s famous slides next to Cavill Mall, mid-1980s.

“But I feel confident the replacement will provide a suitable alternative and the development is timely,” he said.

Around 3 million people went through the doors of Grundy’s between its opening in March 1981 and the day of its closure being announced.

A record attendance was set in the first week, when 25,000 people bought tickets in one single day.

Grundy’s founder Reg Grundy.

Mr Graham told the Gold Coast Bulletin at the time the decision to close was prompted by falling patronage, reduced income and high rents.

“And we have made a conscious decision to concentrate on our core area of television,” he said.

The staff were told at a special function.

Mr Graham promised Grundy’s would trade “aggressively and tenaciously” until its closure and voted to “go out with a bang”.

Grundy’s from the air.

Mr Fogg said the five or six independently licenced business which operated within the Grundy’s lease area would be relocated elsewhere in the centre, with the new operators to spend millions redeveloping the site with “the latest attractions”.

“It will be something similar to Grundy’s but more up-market for the whole family,” he said.

Mr Fogg said Grundy’s would remove the existing attractions.

Grundy’s closed in 1993.

Grundy’s in Surfers Paradise operated throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s with its range of famous rides and games including the Go-Gator, Pong and the shooting gallery.

Its iconic slides overlooked Surfers Paradise beach and later closed in 1987.

They became internationally famous after appearing in the music video for the Australian Crawl song Errol in 1981.

The merry-go-round was later relocated to Broadbeach where it remains today.

Timezone took over the Grundy’s lease and continues to operate in the Paradise Centre today.

Melinda Murphy and Joshua Dunmore riding on Grundy's Entertainment Centres Go Gator roller coaster, January 12, 1987.