This study explores the availability, visibility, advertising and promotion of low-alcohol products at licensed venues, through an audit of licensed venues in four entertainment locations in the popular tourist destination of the Gold Coast, Queensland.

The Gold Coast City Council commissioned this study to investigate independent screen production activity and capacity in the City of Gold Coast. The study focuses on the activities of screen workers who live and work on the Gold Coast, or those who may live outside...

The combination of the projected rise in extreme heat as a result of global warming and the high levels of humidity at the Gold Coast present a serious risk to the health and wellbeing of the region’s population.

Smart cities are no longer limited to a handful of metropolitan branded cities; as a large number of mid-sized cities have now joined the trend to become smart. Australia has also introduced its Smart Cities Plan in 2016; emphasizing the opportunities and challenges Australian cities...

With over half a million people, the Gold Coast is currently the sixth largest city in Australia and one of the most rapidly developing urban areas in the country. Unfortunately, it is also highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and has been hard...

Light rail as a means for inner-city transit is undergoing a renaissance across Australia. Introducing a new mode of public transport, light rail projects can become catalytic agents for urban renewal. Unable or reluctant to deliver light rail infrastructure, Australian governments have turned to the...

Encouraging greater levels of physical activity is a key policy focus in many urban areas, given the link between this and improved physical and mental health outcomes. The majority of previous studies on walkability however, have focussed on walking for transport; and generally consisted of...

This report sets out initiatives that seek to position the Gold Coast to retain its competitive advantage.

The Draft Transport Operations Plan for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (GC2018) has been released for public comment until 28 February 2017. In the Draft Transport Operations Plan, you will find Games-time travel options for spectators, Games workforce, visitors, residents, businesses and freight transporters.

This paper uses nostalgia, and especially 'social nostalgia', as a key to exploring the impacts of changes in the caravanning landscape since the early part of the twentieth century, using the Gold Coast as a case study. It shows that whilst the caravanning landscape has...

This paper outlines the Gold Coast Icon project, a research project being undertaken by the Council of the City of Gold Coast that aims to explore and reveal the places and spaces that tell the quintessential and important stories of the Gold Coast’s development during...

The Surfers Paradise Meter Maid wears a gold bikini to promote the region of Surfer’s Paradise on the east coast of Australia. The “celebrity” Meter Maid first appeared in 1964 and can be mapped to coincide with a range of conflations during that time where...

Since 1998 the National Institute of Economic and Industry Research has prepared an annual State of the Regions report for the Australian Local Government Association. The report includes coverage of urban as well as country regions.

This paper reviews the institutional context of the Gold and Sunshine Coasts in addressing urban resilience to climate-related disasters.

This paper proposes an urban design model for the governance of accessibility to the inviting, secure and comfortable places associated with the values found in restorative environments.

This paper reviews the history of regulatory planning on the Gold Coast, encompassing decisions affecting the form and development of its earliest settlements through to its periods of greatest construction and most streamlined decision–making.

This paper conducts an exploratory pilot research project to examine the question of - “how do local residents and tourists perceive the problem of beach erosion and to what extent are they willing to support beach nourishment initiatives”?

This paper discusses the impacts of physical neighbourhood environments on the social life — a component of social health — of older people. The research is focused on where, in the neighbourhood, the social life of older people takes place.

This paper examines this unusual case in order to determine how successful a newly created CBD can be and what factors are important in its planning.

This paper aims to report the occurrence of preloading within a Gold Coast sample. The aim is to assess: Who is preloading; Where they are preloading; Type of preloading; How much they are preloading; What motivates people to preload?

Executive Summary Recent experience shows that action to improve the efficiency and outcomes of city transport systems, linked to well-planned urban development, can deliver substantial economic, social and environmental benefits to the community and to government. The Australian Capital Territory Government is implementing a strategy...

This paper investigates the security of high rise high density accommodation at the Gold Coast – a premier Australian holiday destination. Surfers Paradise has one of the highest population densities in Australia at 3,279 persons per square kilometre and over 70 percent of the residential...

Development conflicts can emerge as a result of different meanings, values and attachments to places. This paper will review the on–going (2005–2013) development conflict on the Southport Spit, one of the last significant undeveloped public green spaces on the Gold Coast. Our aim is to...

Since early 2012 all governments have been cutting back their investments in climate change adaptation. This paper explores the paradox of a declining response in the face of an increasing risk in the Gold Coast

This paper looks back at how the Commonwealth Games came to be, Australia’s experience of staging the event and contemplates how the Gold Coast will deal with that legacy and surmount perceived and unexpected complications that will inevitably surface before the 2018 Games’ Opening Ceremony.