Paul Weston: Why the Gold Coast’s next 'world class' tourist attraction needs to be The Spit

A prominent site has been identified as the perfect place to host a world class new tourism attraction on the Gold Coast.

THE Gold Coast is in desperate need of a new world-class tourist attraction. As for locating it, the answer is the city’s prime commercial leasing can be found on The Spit.

Fires late last year destroyed the Binna Burra Lodge and caused the city’s backpacker market to stumble. It is reported fewer grey nomads will arrive this winter, helping bushfire communities down south.

Three parcels of Crown land on The Spit on the Gold Coast

If the coronavirus crisis was neutralised now, the Gold Coast would have lost at least $500 million. Our Asian markets, not just China, will weaken, just as new flights are headed to Korea.

Late on Wednesday, legislation supported by both sides of the House backed Labor’s plan to create an Ocean Park at The Spit and go to the market on Crown land leases.

“I can remember as a young girl going down to the Spit with my parents,” Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told Parliament.

“As a young adult at university I would go there as well. On my recent holidays I was at Peter’s Fish Market which is iconic to the Gold Coast. I was in disguise. A couple of people recognised me. There is no better place to get fish and chips and sit by the water to eat them.”

When the crews from Disney and Marvel were here filming, they stayed around Broadbeach and Main Beach, and told the Premier about running up the beach north of Surfers Paradise. “They said to me, ‘This is world-class, there is nothing like it anywhere else in the world’. If international visitors are already saying that to me, imagine what they are going to say when this precinct is cleaned up, opened up and preserved for future generations,” the Premier said.

The best location for a new tourist attraction is north of where the Premier ate fish and chips – the large grassed area just south of the Sea World car park.

The ASF consortium wanted to build 40-storey plus towers there as part of the Broadwater cruise ship terminal, which was sunk by Labor.

ASF consortium's supplied images of their Gold Coast Integrated Resort with proposed hotel, casino resort development to be built on land between Sea World and Palazzo Versace on the Gold Coast

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The new laws reflect public sentiment during the Spit Master Plan and limit development to three storeys.

“What is needed there is a world-class tourist attraction. The site would cost about $3 million annually in rent. You would need to get 10,000 people through the gate,” a development source says.

“It is right next to Sea World. You are now developing a tourist attraction cluster.”

Similar scenarios have worked at Singapore’s Sentosa Island, and in Orlando, Florida and Anaheim, California where Disneyland or Universal Studios keep families holidaying longer.

“It must be world class. It can’t be another roller coaster ride,” the development source said.

The Spit master plan process - a new aerial showing Sea World and Sheraton Mirage.

Consultant plans show a ferry service linking the Spit site west across the Broadwater to Parklands near Sundale Bridge, within walking distance of the light rail station near the Southport Croquet Club.

The development industry source says a 10,000 sqm site near the Southport Yacht Club, about a quarter of the size of the block near Sea World, could also be developed into a tourist attraction. More shops or accommodation would not be profitable there.

What about the other site, the Gold Coast Fishermen’s Co-operative, where trawlermen are trying to negotiate a new lease, just next to where the Premier ate seafood?

Crowds line up for the fresh seafood on offer at the Gold Coast Fisherman's Co-op. Picture: Luke Marsden.

“It should be quality landscaped, at the expense of the council. That’s a really good tourist attraction for the city. Boats could be kept clean. It should be left there,” the source said.

Big and small, the tourism industry here – after summer and winter losses – could finally produce a catch welcomed by all tourists.