Pier-less

Inspired by this (possibly early 1950s) sandwich plate, Nick and Nora wondered what happened to cause the Southport Pier and Theatre to go from the first image taken in the 1920s (below) in which the theatre and associated swimming baths were located right over the water...

... to the colour picture below taken in the late 1960s (the theatre is at the bottom left of the shot, next to the newly built Southport Olympic Pool).


As an aside Nora chuckles today at her childhood reasoning in which she believed that one had to have hosted an Olympic Games in order to have an Olympic pool. It is very safe to assume that neither Southport, nor the Gold Coast has hosted an Olympic Games. A Formula One Grand Prix on the other hand? Well that's another (true) story for later.

Scroll a bit further for another photograph with detail of the sandwich plate design, a transfer print and possibly machine applied colouration, certainly more sophisticated and subtle than the early hand-coloured tint on the china cup and saucer featured last week.


Unfortunately we can't find any detail on the plate's manufacture, except that it is, according to its stamp 'Opaline Glazed China Made In Japan'.

However, all that aside, the answer to the mystery of the disappearing water posed above is that 'tide and time wait for no man'.

And in the case of Southport it's literally true.

The township, established in 1875 was founded close to where the Nerang River emptied into an estuary now known as the Broadwater.

On its eastern side it was protected from the Coral Sea by a thin sand bar, known as The Spit, now home to international hotels, shops and international renowned marine conservation and research attraction and theme park Sea World.


The photograph at the left was taken in 1937. Compare with the photograph at the bottom right taken 70 years later. Now thick coastal vegetation covers 'The Spit' and land reclamation on the western of the Broadwater has created the Broadwater Parklands, providing a buffer from the occasional cyclone which has been known to menace the Gold Coast.

The old photographs are sourced from the Gold Coast City Council's outstanding Local History Library. If you're interested in knowing more check out the link and click on the pictures to your heart's content.