Town and Country Motel: Famous Gold Coast landmark demolished 30 years after Fairlie Arrow hoax

A famous hotel which was at the centre of one of the Gold Coast’s most bizarre crimes is being demolished. Now it can be revealed what is replacing it. SEE THE PICTURES

A FAMOUS hotel at the centre of one of the Gold Coast’s most bizarre crimes is being demolished.

The wreckers have moved in on Nerang’s Town and Country motel, which will be gone within days to make way for a five-storey office building approved by the Gold Coast City Council in late 2019.

The Town and Country motel at Nerang being demolished. Photo: Scott Powick Newscorp

The motel, which operated for decades, found international fame in December 1991 when it was used as the hide-out of singer Fairlie Arrow during a kidnapping hoax.

Artist impression of the office building which will replace the Gold Coast's Town and Country Motel at Nerang.

Artist impression of the office building which will replace the Gold Coast's Town and Country Motel at Nerang.

Ms Arrow claimed she had been snatched by a “demented and infatuated” fan who left her blindfolded, gagged and her arms and legs tied to a four-poster bed before being dumped on a road.

In fact, she was staying at the motel, which would go on to trade on the infamy with its marketing phrase “check in and hide out”.

Singer Fairlie Arrow as pictured in magazine Penthouse following her faked kidnapping.

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Area councillor Peter Young said the demolition marked “the end of an era” for Nerang.

“It has been forlorn for a long time but I’m sure its walls had some stories it could tell,” he said.

The office building planned for the 5625 sqm site is being built by Turner Property Investing.

How the Bulletin reported Arrow being found.

The hoax unravelled quickly.

The commercial development will have a partial sixth storey and will contain five levels of office space, two levels of carparking and a cafe which will be on the ground level.

A planning report filed with the council revealed it had been designed to “present an attractive facade” next to the M1.