Australian Urban

Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast

Josh Blashki Season 1 Episode 3

This episode, I’m joined by Professor Andrew Leach, an urban historian and author of Gold Coast: City and Architecture. This episode dives deep into the story of Surfers Paradise, a hub of tourism and leisure on the Gold Coast. Once a modest 1920s seaside village, Surfers Paradise has grown into a bold urban experiment, characterised by speculative high-rise development, themed architecture, and the tension between its postcard-perfect image and its lived reality.