Cavill Ave: Truth about Gold Coast’s most famous street
Cavill Ave is the Gold Coast’s most famous street and its mall became an instant icon. But something went wrong along the way and it became an “eyesore”. This is the true story of what happened.
Gold Coast
Don't miss out on the headlines from Gold Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE bulldozers have moved in and demolished the beachfront section of Paradise Centre, bringing to an end a blight on the city’s heart for 30 years.
In the 1980s the corner of Cavill Mall and The Esplanade was one of the Gold Coast’s most photographed locations as the home of the Grundy’s Entertainment Centre slides and a must-visit stop for tourists.
By the end of that decade, the slides were gone and the area at the eastern end of Cavill Mall fell into disrepair.
Gold Coast development: $1.4B Jewel towers decade-long history since its 2011 unveiling
Now it’s getting a $30m makeover, with city leaders keen to make Cavill Ave and the mall the jewel in the city’s crown again.
While the mall itself is less than 50 years old, Cavill Ave has a story that began a century ago with the arrival in the suburb of Elston of hotelier Jim Cavill.
He opened the Surfers Paradise Hotel on the corner of Ferry and South Coast roads in 1925 and named it after a subdivision proposed for the area.
It soon became so famous the area was renamed Surfers Paradise in 1933.
The street fronting the hotel was named for Cavill following his death in 1953. It was at the centre of a rapidly growing city with the region’s first high-rise built just one street away.
Around the same time the idea of a mall was pitched to the then-South Coast Council by Sonja Grodek.
The original idea was for the road between Orchid Ave and the beach to be blocked off and umbrella-covered seating installed to create a major restaurant area.
It won the backing of the Surfers Paradise Chamber of Commerce in the early 1960s and engineer Jock McIlwain conceived a design that eventually was shown to the Gold Coast City Council.
McIlwain’s idea was for a single-lane of traffic to continue on the northern side but this was not supported.
It took until November 1975 for a trial mall to be supported and created. It opened in early 1976.
The mall of the late 1970s and early 1980s featured plenty of dining and umbrellas as well as hanging plant baskets.
By the early 1980s, it became clear there was support for a permanent mall, something that was approved by Mayor Keith Hunt.
Grundy’s amusement centre and its famous outdoor water slides arrived in the early months of 1981, bringing even larger crowds to the area.
Construction of the $600,000 project began in May 1982.
The seats, tables, giant chess set and many of the coffee shop facilities disappeared, with businesses immediately furious about the downturn sparked by the works.
Charlies Coffee Shop manager Peter Drake said takings were down by between half and three-quarters.
He said he was getting ready to start redecorating and the staff had been kept busy dusting and washing instead of serving customers.
Chemist Ernie Target said the work was having “a very serious” effect on his business and takings were down by 90 per cent.
“Once they start on the footpath we might as well stay home,” he said.
“Once it is done it will be marvellous, I’m just not sure how we will get through in the meantime.”
The work was finished within months and the revamped mall opened in September 1982.
A giant sunken chess board was created as well as an information booth which was leased to the Gold Coast Visitors Bureau.
Alderman Hunt told the Bulletin he was happy with the new Cavill Mall.
“The Cavill Mall has held special significance for this city for a long time,” he said.
“Long before the razzamatazz of Surfers Paradise grew around it, Cavill Mall was the pivot of a happy holiday atmosphere, presented and encouraged by those who laid the first foundations of what we see today.
“In days gone by the girls and boys used to sit on the running boards of their Buicks and Austins and party on, long after the hotels had closed.”
FULL DIGITAL ACCESS: JUST $1 FOR FIRST 12 WEEKS
Ald Hunt’s joy at the mall and hopes for what it would become were short-lived.
He died in office just a handful of months later.
The mall underwent significant revamps again in the 1990s as Grundy’s disappeared but by the early 2000s the area was in need of a big facelift after significant wear and tear.
A plan for a massive revamp of Surfers Paradise, including road widenings, failed to get funding and became an election issue in 2004.
Council spent $6m revamping the foreshore in the late 2000s but a more significant redevelopment failed to gain wider support in the wake of the global financial crisis.
However, calls to transform the area into the Gold Coast’s version of King George Square never went away.
With a masterplan for Surfers Paradise now being developed, Cavill Ave and its mall are set for a new lease of life.
Originally published as Cavill Ave: Truth about Gold Coast’s most famous street
‘Saved me over $1000’: Simple trick to save thousands
Forget about how many shopping days until Christmas, it’s time to start saving for summer holidays … and it might not be as tough as you think
Naughty nanna: Boozy beachside lunch ends in nasty crash
A Gold Coast grandmother’s decision to get behind the wheel after a long-lunch has landed her in hospital and in big trouble. Read what happened.