Wake up Australia: The Gold Coast is so much more than its theme parks and beaches

The Gold Coast might have been the butt of the joke on national television, but it’s our city that’s having the last laugh.

Have you been paying attention?

When it comes to the Gold Coast brand, the answer from too many Australians seems to be “no”.

Tendered as evidence is a segment on Channel 10’s game show Have You Been Paying Attention last week.

It was only 30 seconds on national television, but it summarises just why the rest of Australia needs to wake up to the reality – and fabulosity – of this city.

Catherine Martin, Austin Butler, Olivia DeJonge, Baz Luhrmann, Tom Hanks attend the Australian premiere of ELVIS at Event Cinemas Pacific Fair on June 04, 2022 in Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

Last Monday, host Tom Gleisner asked the show’s panel if they could recall the new tourism slogan for the Gold Coast … and the following is how that played out:

Tom Gleisner: Gold Coast Tourism has a new slogan … what is it?

Lloyd Langford: What happens on the Gold Coast, stays on your criminal record.

Ed Kavalee: Gold Coast: beautiful one day, herpes the next.

Lloyd Langford: We took the plastic out of the ocean and we put it into our faces.

Tom Gleisner: Sorry Tom Tate and everyone from the Gold Coast.

Sam Pang: Is it something like play all day?

Tom Gleisner: That’s close enough, it’s “play the day away”.

Now, admittedly, this panel consisted of comedians, but their answers were telling. As the proverb says: many a true word is spoken in jest.

The fact is that while everyone knows our name, not everyone understands just who and what the Gold Coast is in 2022.

Underwater ribbon cutting at "Wonder Reef", the Gold Coast's new $5m dive site. Photo: Supplied

We’re no longer the white shoe brigade, we’re not (just) Schoolies in Surfers, we’re even so much more than theme parks and beaches.

And the funny thing is, this weekend, the joke was on every person who has ever underestimated this city.

I truly hope any and every GC hater, whether comedian or completely serious, was paying attention when the Glitter Strip played host to the A-list at the premiere of Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis epic.

It’s not just the fact that the blockbuster movie was made here, but what every person involved had to say about this city.

Take it from David Wenham, the Aussie actor famous for Lord of the Rings and now the role of Hank Snow in Elvis.

“Baz said it himself – this is the greatest place he’s ever worked and lived,” says Wenham.

“You can’t get a much better endorsement than that. The facilities for film and television here are amazing. The crews that live and work here are amazing and the Coast is a great place to be for a lengthy amount of time.”

But the best twist in this tale is how even Baz himself was caught by surprise when it came to the Coast.

When Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and her team attempted to sell the city to the director, he admits he was sceptical. Why? Because he still believed in those old Gold Coast cliches.

“They were telling everyone how great it was and one of her team said that the Gold Coast was the hipster capital of Australia and I was a bit like, ‘that’s not how I remember it’,” Luhrmann says.

“(Now) we consider the Goldie our new home, half my tribe is still there, my two kids are still there, we still have a house there, half my team has houses there now; we’ve all fallen in love with it.

“I love the Gold Coast. I’d film my next movie here in a heartbeat.”

Drinks with a seriously good view. The Pool Bar at The Langham, Gold Coast. Picture: Supplied.

Just as much as we should sell our city with Destination Gold Coast’s La La Land-themed ‘play the day away’ ad campaign, we need to make sure everyone gets the message that the Gold Coast has changed. For the better.

It’s not STDs and silicone, it’s Baz Luhrmann and bug rolls from Rick Shores.

It’s not drunks but hip distilleries. It’s not plastic fantastic, it’s family-friendly.

During Covid, the city invested more than $1 billion in new products and experiences … and it shows.

We’re just over two weeks away until the much-anticipated opening of Australia’s newest luxury resort hotel, The Langham Gold Coast at Jewel Residences, Surfers Paradise.

Then there’s the new $5m Wonder Reef dive site off The Spit, described as ‘the greatest show on earth’, opening tomorrow – with more than 16,000 divers tipped to visit in the next 12 months.

While the Gold Coast is no game show, the truth is that if you haven’t been paying attention to this city … you really are a loser.