How Highway realignment would transform Gold Coast Arena project

A transport upgrade proposed for the Gold Coast back in 2007 is back on the cards. It needs to finally happen, writes Keith Woods.

An image from the final draft Masterplan for the Broadwater Parklands released in December 2007 showing the proposed realignment of the Gold Coast Highway.

Everybody likes to talk about what’s wrong with Southport.

There’s the obvious issue with homelessness and disadvantage being concentrated in the suburb.

There’s the transport problems which see the Gold Coast Highway and surrounding roads clogged.

There are the drug takers and other “colourful” characters who line Scarborough St, in part thanks to the presence of the Gold Coast’s only courts complex.

There is far less discussion about what is right with Southport.

This is a shame because there is plenty that is good – and learning from past successes can help with the debate about the suburb’s future.

Head and shoulders above everything else on the positive side of the ledger is the Broadwater Parklands.

This magnificent public space has become one of the city’s great meeting places – home to the Gold Coast Show, the sparkling Aquatic Centre, multiple successful outdoor concerts and the city’s best playgrounds.

The Great Lawn at the Broadwater Parklands in Southport.

It’s worth remembering that the Parklands in their current form only opened to the public in 2009.

The redevelopment of the area was timed to celebrate Queensland’s 150th birthday and came thanks to investment by council and the state government pushed for by then Southport MP Peter Lawlor.

It’s been a roaring success ever since. However a delve into the Gold Coast Bulletin archives reveals that a significant part of the original 2007 masterplan never came to fruition.

That was a proposal to realign the Gold Coast Highway to be parallel with Marine Parade, thus making Carey Park a part of the expanded Parklands.

“The potential alignment of the highway parallel to Marine Parade is an important opportunity to consolidate Carey Park into the parklands,” masterplan documents stated.

An image of the Broadwater Parklands masterplan published in the Gold Coast Bulletin on December 10, 2007 showing the proposed realignment of the Gold Coast Highway.

The eminently sensible suggestion – one not as daunting as it sounds – is once again being considered by councillors as they debate how best to deliver the planned Gold Coast Arena.

Like everything else proposed for the Broadwater Parklands in 2007, it was a good idea back then. It remains a good idea now.

Unlike the tidy, safe and well-used Parklands on the other side of the highway, the condition of Carey Park is a sad state of affairs. A grubby stretch of land, dominated by a car park and rough sleepers.

Move the Highway so it can be incorporated into the Broadwater Parklands, however, and the situation is transformed.

Transformed, too, would be plans for the Gold Coast Arena. As proposed, it would be squeezed into a tight site. As a stunning new facility within an expanded Broadwater Parklands, surrounded by its trees and walkways, it would be a different proposition.

An early artist’s impression of how the proposed Gold Coast Arena might look at the existing Carey Park site. Picture: Gold Coast City Council.

One more thing about how plans for the Broadwater Parklands were advanced back in 2007.

Although today it would be seen as one of the best investments council and state have made in this city, at the time there were voices of opposition.

“I am very angry (then Premier) Anna Bligh is spending $32 million on a new parklands on the Broadwater,” an M Waddington from Pimpama told this newspaper. “Premier, are you not aware that homelessness and a shortage of housing are huge issues on the Gold Coast. Some people wait up to 10 years to be housed.

“Come on, attend to the people’s need, not recreation.”

How little times change. Similar comments are being made today in opposition to the Arena plan.

But done right, it can be as successful as the Broadwater Parklands. Finally moving the Highway is key to that success.

Follow @keithjwoods

Originally published as How Highway realignment would transform Gold Coast Arena project