Spend your next holiday in Coolangatta on the Gold Coast of Australia
Coolangatta, in Queensland, Australia is the most southerly suburb of the Gold Coast, right on the border with New South Wales. In former times the area was a convict settlement, and then a centre for the logging and fishing industry. Now tourism is also a thriving business, and the fishing fleet supply fresh seafood to restaurants on both sides of the state border. This area is the location for Gold Coast Airport, and is the southern gateway to the Gold Coast region. Attractive beaches and rain forest covered mountain ranges can be easily visited by anyone staying in the region.
The area has some interesting historical connections. Mount Warning and Point Danger got their names from Captain James Cook, the British explorer, who sailed up the coast here in 1770. Point Danger is an excellent place for watching marine life, dolphins and occasionally humpbacked whales can be seen from here, as well as all sorts of sea birds.
After a short career as a convict station, Coolangatta became an important focus for the logging of red cedar from the area. The Tweed River developed as a port and the twin towns of Coolangatta (Queensland) and Tweed Heads (New South Wales) developed on either side of the state boundary. With the arrival of the railway the area began to see its first tourist visitors, coming from Queensland’s state capital, Brisbane, and from New South Wales.
The early visitors went to the local beaches: Coolangatta Beach, Greenmount Beach and Rainbow Bay for swimming and surfing, and in 1911 the first surfing club in Queensland was established, the Tweed Heads and Coolangatta SLSC. At this time the first guest houses and tourist hotels started to be built in the area.
Nowadays the area is the site of Gold Coast Airport, which in fact straddles the border with New South Wales. The airport is just five minutes drive from the central accommodation and shopping area. The beaches are still just as popular for surfing and swimming, and the local pathways and cycle tracks are part of the Southern Points Promenade and the Oceanway networks, making it easy to explore the coast either on foot, or on two wheels.When it comes to places to stay, there is no shortage of Coolangatta Gold Coast accommodation on offer.
In the centre of town there are plenty of interesting shops and excellent eating places. Sea food restaurants are a speciality of the area and are always kept supplied with fresh catches by the Tweed River fishing fleets. Nightlife is excellent too, and there is often live entertainment in the pubs and clubs.
If you are in town on 31st December then you can experience two celebrations. The twin town (Tweed Heads, NSW) is in a different time zone, so you can watch their fireworks at 11 pm, Queensland time, before watching the Queensland display an hour later.
The Gold Coast area is a relatively small tourist destination, and other parts of the Gold Coast can be easily reached by car. There are many golf courses and other sports in the region, as well as several major theme parks, and some of Australia’s most important national parks. All these can be easily reached from Coolangatta.
