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 post-war era.

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 women were groomed to perceive beauty and women’s power and...

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 changed there is a resurgence of nostalgia for the simplicity...

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.