Gold Coast development: world’s tallest high-rise tower planned for Surfers Paradise site
A Gold Coast developer behind one of the city’s biggest shopping centres pitched a plan to build the world’s tallest high-rise in Surfers Paradise. Here’s what council had to say
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The Gold Coast is a city which is constantly looking out for new tourist attractions.
It’s no surprise given that tourism is our biggest industry and was worth more than $6bn before the Covid-19 pandemic.
While many theme parks and novelties have been built in the past 60 years, there are plenty more which were proposed but never eventuated.
Here are 10 of the most memorable developments and tourist attractions ever proposed for the Gold Coast.
THE ICON GEYSER
Proposed in February 2012 by Gold Coast teacher Bill Ross, it was to be the world’s largest offshore water jet.
It was expected to be built 300m off Surfers Paradise and would shoot water more than 150m into the air.
It was conceived as a clock of sorts which would grow in size for short periods every 15 minutes, reaching its maximum height on the hour every daylight hour.
It was expected to cost $15m and had the backing of then-mayor Ron Clarke.
However the Gold Coast City Council 2014 ultimately chose to not investigate the project any further.
POLYNESIAN FOLK WORLD
Dreamworld bosses hoped to capture lightning in a bottle twice less than five years after the theme park opened.
Plans were unveiled in February 1986 for a $12m Polynesian-style entertainment and commercial development earmarked for a 1.6ha site on the Nerang River off Southport’s Brighton Parade.
The two-storey complex was house two licensed restaurants, bars, a nightclub, specialty shops, offices, marina, and manager’s residence.
It was to have a South Sea island theme, with a wide boardwalk and marina on to the river.
But the Gold Coast City Council was flooded with objections from locals who insisted that any kind of tourism infrastructure would have damaged the residential character of Southport.
The project ultimately failed to gain the support of either the state government or council.
THE BIG CLUBBIE OF WAVEBREAK ISLAND
The Big Clubbie of Wavebreak Island was proposed as the Gold Coast’s next major tourist attraction in one of the more bizarre ideas the city has seen.
The $180m, 109-metre colossus would include a recreation of Uluru, measuring 200m long, 140m wide and 55m tall.
On top would be a 54m high bronze surf lifesaver planned to revolve three times a day and act as a barometer by way of his lifesaver’s cap and briefs.
Inside the lifesaver’s reel was to be the Reel Restaurant, accessible by a central lift, chairlift and four separate walkways up the rock.
The rock structure was to be 15 storeys high and house a 6000-seat amphitheatre, a 500-roon hotel, a recreated rainforest with revolving barges over a coral reef floor and a casino or conference room with restraints, shops, museum and observatory.
THE BIG BIKINI GIRL
Surfers Paradise Chamber of Commerce boss and perpetual mayoral candidate Brian Shepherd was never short of an idea.
But in the late 1980s he spun his tallest tale with a proposal which raised plenty of eyebrows.
He announced plans to build the world’s tallest bikini girl statue.
Like the colossus of Rhodes, it was meant to stand across the Gold Coast Hwy, with motorists to drive underneath it on their way into Surfers Paradise.
Understandably the Gold Coast City Council under then-mayor Lex Bell was not keen to proceed.
DISNEYLAND GOLD COAST
Gold Coast-based Sport Minister Mr Mick Vievers visited Disneyland in late 1997 with former Expo chairman Sir Llew Edwards, fuelling speculation that the government was negotiating a deal with Disney Corporation to set up shop in Queensland.
Initially led by the Borbidge Government and continued by Labor after it won that year’s election, taxpayers ultimately stumped up around $2m.
Operating under the working title of ‘Starland’, former premier Wayne Goss was brought in to lead the charge and was sent to the US by the Government to negotiate with the Walt Disney company.
Ultimately Premier Peter Beattie wasn’t willing to throw more money at the project and it never went ahead.
EVANDALE ISLAND
In 2009 the Gold Coast City Council commissioned a design competition to create a new-look Evandale, securing 61 entries from across the country.
The winning design was a bold concept, the Island of Culture which was to sit in the middle of the Nerang River.
It was to connect by pedestrian bridges on three sides to Evandale, Surfers Paradise and Chevron Island.
Within its walls were housed the mayoral chambers, performing and visual arts facilities, some council staff offices, restaurants and public spaces.
Its perimeter was to be wrapped in a luminous ‘scalloped glaze curtain’ which would glow at night.
Evandale would have had its existing buildings demolished and replaced by parkland, paths and trees.
DIVE!
Oscar-winning film director Steven Spielberg submitted plans to built a submarine-themed restaurant on the Gold Coast in early 1999.
The Dive! chain of restaurants was to be part of a $12m redevelopment of the Paradise Centre.
It would have been the third restaurant in the chain.
Council approved the project in March 1999, just as the original Los Angeles restaurant closed.
The project never went ahead.
COUNCIL HEADQUARTERS
In 2008 the council eyed off a major $1.35bn redevelopment of the Bruce Bishop Carpark site to create a new headquarters.
Led by the newly re-elected mayor Ron Clarke, the council considered a plan by a Sydney developer to create the city’s first “iconic civic headquarters”, reminiscent of China’s “bold designs”.
The “town hall”, dubbed “GC4200”, was put forward by Winten Property Group after expressions of interest were opened for the site.
Developers were asked to provide designs that would maintain the existing 1600 carparking spaces.
The unusually shaped building was to include a council chamber and administration, full council fit-out, a transit centre with retail and food outlets, an arts and culture centre, 500 carparks and office space.
Once the financial crisis hit, the project was scrapped.
ZARRO’S ARROW
Developer Pat Zarro unveiled plans for the world’s tallest building in late 1984.
The $100m, 170-storey tower was earmarked for a site on the corner of the Gold Coast Hwy and Hamilton Ave – a site occupied by St Vincent’s Catholic Church.
The tower was to house the world’s highest revolving restaurant, with the peak topping out at 445m above ground level on a concrete pier base set in existing rock 42m below the ground.
It was predicted that a million visits a year were set to go to the top of the Surfers tower, which was tipped to have a lift which could travel to the top in just 60 seconds.
By 1988 contractual problems had delayed construction, by which time its cost had risen to $280m and its height to 195 storeys.
In 1990 Zarro put the site up for sale amid denials of financial trouble.
SKYLINQ
In early 2014 SkyLinQ, a company which claimed to have UK-based backers, unveiled plans for a $220m, 24km-long cableway to run between Southport and Sanctuary Cove, via The Spit.
It ambitiously hoped to get the project built before the 2018 Commonwealth Games and submitted the plans to the state government. However, the idea never progressed.
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