When It's Hot In Brisbane...

Long before Surfers Paradise became the Gold Coast's holiday destination, the southern sea-side town of Coolangatta was the place to see and be seen.

Named for a clipper which ran around in 1842, Coolangatta was quickly settled for its proximity to the Tweed River and its fertile volcanic soil and stayed popular for its temperate climate and lovely swimming beaches.

Coolangatta is the Queensland part of a twin town, the other being Tweed Heads in New South Wales. The two grew up together and the only things that have divided them during all this time have been the 1919 flu pandemic (when State borders were closed), State of Origin (Queensland vs NSW in rugby league) and daylight savings which NSW has and Queensland does not.

Coolangatta was the place to do the Hokey Pokey, learn to surf and find a summer romance. During the 1940s it was also a place for Australian and American troops to enjoy some R&R.

And naturally where there is a holiday spot there are souvenirs. The pin dish on the left shows the main street with the Coolangatta hotel on the right. The hotel is still there, just not exactly in that form.

The cup on the right features the skyline of Coolangatta with St Augustine's Catholic church in the background. Here's a closer view.

And Nick and Nora are delighted to report that the church is still here. See, there are some things about the Gold Coast that stay longer than two minutes.


A variation of the view is found in Frank Hurley's 1950 book on Queensland which undoubtedly created a lot less controversy than this book on Queensland.

The land feature dominating the scene on the cup and the photograph is called Razor Back and it features a lookout that sweeps across the headland.

So popular Coolangatta has been that it was the subject of not one but TWO songs:

The 1920s jazz era, Coolangatta Is The Place For Me, and

The 1953 classic It's Hot In Brisbane But It's Coolangatta.

Both sites have MP3 recordings but at the time linking were unavailable.

Shame isn't it? Complain to your local parliamentarian. Preserving local history properly is a much better way to spend... I don't know, let's say $900,000 than on some third-hand rewrite of Queensland history.