Paul Weston: The Gold Coast tourists who go to the beach to hide

They suddenly arrive in a Broadwater park - these are the Gold Coast’s least photographed tourists.

THEY suddenly arrive, under the Norfolk pines in a Broadwater park, the view east to Sea World. These are our least photographed tourists. Our Gold Coast homeless.

Beanies tucked down across their ears. Hands inside tracksuit pockets. Last of the day’s grey sky as they line-up, like waiting for a rollercoaster ride. They bow heads as a volunteer says grace.

A homeless camp site by the beach on the Gold Coast.

Lasagne and curried sausages. Cup cakes from the boutique Frosted Kitchen for dessert.

“It’s a full banquet,” Ru Taylor from The Movement Gold Coast says, before giving a big hug to a middle-aged woman who has just arrived from the hospital’s mental health unit.

Their homes are toilet blocks, a park bench, their vehicle, an old friend’s couch.

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Just more than half of the 100 at Labrador are lucky enough to find a roof over their heads. Many are middle-aged men, but there are some in their early 20s.

“We see a lot more females (on the streets) in Southport and Surfers Paradise,” Ms Taylor says.

Some are “food insecure” and cannot pay the electricity. All have some sort of psychological challenge, like the dark clouds arriving with the first of the rain.

A camp site for the homeless by a Gold Coast beach.

Two girls, aged 19 and 20, just a few blocks north in the CBD, are being cared by a case worker with St Vincent’s de Paul.

“One of the girls had a good job in the courthouse in Brisbane. They sacked her,” the welfare worker says. “She’s in a bad relationship, evicted from their unit. They’re sleeping in their car.”

This weekend, at Angels Kitchen at the Lawson Street community centre, those girls will receive a meal from cooks who volunteer their services.

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During the week they can attend a free breakfast hosted by the Southport Uniting Church in nearby Short Street. Again about a 100 turn up.

The words of the volunteers echo like a choir. To a person they say: “You can get a meal every day of the week on the Gold Coast.”

A Gold Coast beach where the homeless camp out.

The homeless are becoming more tribal, expecting that feed. The worst of it, they say, are the drugs, and the prostitution. The women in the pack earning the money.

Ru Taylor only knows they hang around together. “There is four to six to one group. They look out for each other. When some are asleep, others are awake,” she says.

Down on the border, John Lee, the founder of You Have a Friend, at dawn checks the camp sites. He is furious about this well-intentioned plan to put homeless in “people pods”.

A “friend” camping out was recently glassed. He read about Southport councillor Dawn Crichlow’s support of pods, sees them as “dog kennels’, fears what drunken louts will do to them.

Councillor Dawn Crichlow with new homeless pod called, People Pod, being built by Peter Whiffin at the Community Opportunity Centre at Southport. Volunteer Brendon Fiander is inside. Picture: Jerad Williams.

The Labrador volunteers hand out sleeping bags only for them to be stolen from the homeless. Their suggestion? Let them sleep in the Mal Burke car park but council boost security.

“Can you imagine having to go to sleep at 5.30pm. Freezing cold. Often hungry. And most of all, looking at no hope for the future. Then when you wake in the morning, if still safe, you have a day of nothing, a future of nothing,” Mr Lee says.

Back under the pines, Ms Taylor gives Bonney MP Sam O’Connor a pair of gloves as they hand out meals. “It’s just amazing, so inspiring,” he says, looking at the volunteers.

But where do these people come from?

The Movement Gold Coast's Ru Taylor with Bonney MP Sam O'Connor helping feed the homeless at a Gold Coast park.

“We are seeing as it gets colder a lot of new arrivals from other states. We’ve had a surge of people from South Australia,” Ms Taylor replies.

Leaving and taking one last glance at this Broadwater – one wonders how this sunny place will continue to attract all sorts of tourists, including the homeless, and still be able to extend a warm handshake.