Love And Devotion

History is funny.

Things you take for granted take on a new allure when you stop to take the time to look at them closely.

For example, take a look at this 1946 souvenir pin dish of the Southport Pier:


Any clearer?

So what you might say.

It's an average example of its type. Not in perfect condition - the paint surrounding the photographic image has worn away, the glass itself has air bubbles from its manufacture.

And besides, who's to say that it was made in 1946 anyway?

Maybe you need a closer look:


Still not sure?

No, we don't blame you.

It look several minutes of squinting through a high intensity thread counter magnifying glass to provide the vital clue to this piece of ephemera's date.

And so you'll just have to take Nick and Nora's word for it.

On the billboard outside the Southport Pier theatre is a poster for the underappreciated classic Devotion.


And what's not to love? The luscious Ida Lupino, the darling Olivia de Havilland, the man whose voice could give you gravel rash Sydney Greenstreet.

The movie alas plays to mixed reviews, the tortured love triangle of 19th century literary heroines Emily (Lupino) and Charlotte (de Havilland) Bronte and the rector they both loved... ah, more melodrama than drama.

Charlotte: I know nothing. I understand nothing. And yet, I have dared to write 200,000 words about life! [tosses manuscript on floor]

After which she died, Charlotte that is - Olivia turns 91 on Monday, July 1.

And yet, no one dies in a movie quite as well as Olivia de Havilland - witness her Oscar nominated turn in Gone With The Wind.



Devotion, hopefully less melodramatic but no less entertaining, to preserving our local history, like the Southport Pier, is part of our aim here at Nifty Knick-Knacks.

We hope you continue to enjoy.

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.

Pier Into The Past

Welcome to Goo-een.

Name doesn't mean anything to you?

Well that's because it's better known to the world as Southport and not its original Aboriginal name.

Now a suburb of the Gold Coast, Southport was once a township in its own right. Established in 1875 as a southern port for the colony of Queensland, it didn't end up doing too much heavy lifting ship wise and instead became a popular fishing and day trip spot for those from Brisbane.


Amongst its long forgotten history is the Pier Theatre which jutted proudly eastwards from the sea wall opposite.

Built in 1927, it survived fire and cyclones for about 40 years before it was torn down completely. The need for a cinema met in 1969 in the biggest and best of these new fangled things from America called 'Shopping Centres'.

At the time the Southport Pier Theatre was the must take-home sourvenir of a trip to Southport.

Over the next few weeks Nick and Nora's Nifty Knick Knacks will profile some of the souvenirs that show off this seaside attraction.

What happened to the Sundale Shopping Centre is a story for another time.


Pictured is a Delphine China cup and saucer made by JH Middleton and Co and produced between (based on the stamp) 1930 and 1941. The image on the cup and saucer is transfer printed and hand coloured.


Take a look at the palm trees in the picture - that's some mighty breeze coming up from the south - positively cyclonic.