Aborigines named Queensland's south coast, Kurrungul, which was a word meaning endless timber. This area was a meetinig place for the many tribes where they would come to camp and fish in it's many estuaries and creeks. Captain Cook sailed here in 1770, and named both Point Danger and Mount Warning, but it was n ot until the 1840's that this area became popular to the European settlers. These settlers came, not for the beaches, but for the timber.

The Cedar supply began to draw a large population of cutters in the mid 1800's. The town of Merang was used as a home base for this industry. The settlers soon began to inhabit the surrounding valleys and polains for farming cattle, sugar and cotton. The settlement reached as far as the southern end of Moreton Bay along the mouth or the Nerang River.

The Governor of Queensland, Musgrave, built his vacation home on a hill just north of Southport. At this time the coastal surroundings began to gain a reputation of being a resort town for the rich and famous. After the finish of the railway in 1889, numerous hotels and guest houses were built up and down the area's coastline.

The permanent population of the region slowly increased until 1925 when a new coastal road was built between Brisbane and Southport. That same year, Jim Cavill built the Surfers Paradise hotel 2 kms south of Southport in a place called Elston and then the real tourism boom began with the help of new automobile technology. Elston residents successfully lobbied to change their towns name to Surfers Paradise in 1933 but in 1936 The Surfers Paradise hotel burnt down. It was quickly re built with a much grander structure complete with a zoo out the back.

By the end of 1940s real estate speculators had started to call the area the Gold Coast and this was officially adopted by the council on October 23 1958. The high rise developments began in the late 1950s and continued in earnest into the 1970s and 80s as it firmly established itself as Australias most well known holiday resort and Japanese investment in the 1980s made the skyline soar. The city is now home to one of the worlds tallest residential building (Q1) and boast a population of 500,000 making it Australias sixth largest city.

When planning a trip to the beaches of the Gold Coast be certain to look into all of the amazing Broadbeach hotels. With just a little research on the net you can find the best Broadbeach accommodation to fit all of your vacation needs http://www.goldcoastinformation.com.au/accommodation/gold-coast/broadbeach-accommodation.html.