Gold Coast Show 2019: History of the Gold Coast show

THE Gold Coast Show has been part of the city’s fabric since the earliest days of the 20th century. This is the story of the city’s annual event.

THE Gold Coast Show has been part of the city’s fabric since the earliest days of the 20th century.

More than 130,000 people attended last year’s Gold Coast Show, revitalising the event after several years of uncertainty after a disastrous move to Bundall.

The event, is celebrating 118 years of fun in 2019.

The first show was in 1901 and it was called the Southport Show.

The Gold Coast Show in 1992.

In its earliest years the event was held at Woodroffe Park in central Southport where annual celebrations of produce were held for the growing community from 1901-19.

The outbreak of World War I in 1914 just weeks before that year’s show did not deter organisers who pushed ahead regardless.

But just five years later the event faced its first major hurdle – it had become too big for Woodroffe Park.

A member of the Australian Army doing a display in the 1960s. Picture: Bob Avery

Organisers secured a move to nearby Owen Park on Queen St which would become the show’s home for more than 70 years.

But by the 1980s the big development boom was on and show organisers were told it was time to leave.

The search began for a new site and by June 1986, a site was found at Parkwood. It had just become a horse and greyhound racing site.

The first show at Parklands was expected to be held in August 1987 but was delayed.

The final show at Owen Park was held in August 1988 and the event was relocated to Parklands in 1989.

Children with a goat at the Gold Coast Show in the 1960s. Picture: Bob Avery

Delays continued to plague the move and the final show of the 1980s was postponed from August to October 1989.

According to reports in the Bulletin in 1989, the crowds turned out in a big way.

Grey clouds, wind and dust did not deter keep thousands of determined thrillseekers with hordes packing into Parklands for three days filled with balloons, fairy floss, rides and dagwood dogs.

The show was opened by Queensland premier Russell Cooper who had seized the state’s top job from Mike Ahern weeks earlier.

Cooper, who lost the 1989 state election about two months later, spoke fondly of visiting the show as a young man with his wife Penny.

The show still had a strong agricultural focus in the 1970s.

Show president Garth Carey told the Bulletin he was confident the relocated event would flourish.

“It is going to be hard to compare this year’s show with any other because it is the all-new show on all-new grounds,” he said.

“The benefits of the Parklands showgrounds are absolutely limitless.”

And flourish the show did.

A young boy on a tractor at the show in the 1960s. Picture: Bob Avery

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Parklands became its permanent home and crowd numbers grew throughout the 1990s as the once two-day show grew to a three-day extravaganza.

However, in 2003 the State Government announced the site’s tenants would be forced to leave Parklands to make way for development.

The Newman Government later signed off on a deal to relocate the show to Bundall in 2012, something that was confirmed in late 2013 before the bulldozers moved into Parklands and cleared away the facilities.

Part of an equestrian display in the 1970s.

For a brief period in late 2013 it seemed the show would return to Owen Park but the move was halted by the government.

The move to the Gold Coast Turf Club proved difficult for the show which saw visitor numbers plummet.

It moved back to Southport last year.

Originally published as Gold Coast Show 2019: History of the Gold Coast show