Holiday Of A Lifetime

Just three years after the first land sales, Southport's first hotel was built - named, appropriately enough, the Southport Hotel.

Established for largely for intrepid holiday makers as well as cedar-getters and farmers who used Southport as a base to transport their wares throughout the Queensland colony, the Southport Hotel stood near the mouth of the Nerang River as it emptied into the Broadwater.

Of course by 1954 the Hotel had changed a bit.

Indeed freshly remodelled, according to this colour ad which appeared in The Courier-Mail 1954 Queensland Annual.

Of course - stop me if you've heard this one before - it's no longer there.

The Southport Hotel was demolished in 1967 for the construction of the city's first fully undercover, air-conditioned shopping centre called Sundale which opened in March 1969.

And in turn, it was demolished in 2003 to make way for a residential high rise.

I give it 40 years.