Coolangatta
This southern city lies close to the Queensland and New South Wales border. Gold Coast Airport is based here and it’s possible to fly to the southern area of the Great Barrier Reef and back from Gold Coast in a day. So you can have it all!
Coolangatta is a great introduction to Queensland. North-facing beaches Greenmount and Rainbow Bay are popular swimming and surfing beaches. Walk around the connecting headland between Greenmount and Coolangatta.
Beach anglers fish for bream, snapper or tailor. Snapper Rocks and Duranbah – known as Flagstaff beach – is renowned for its great surfing.
Coolangatta and nearby Tweed has historic links. Captain Cook named Point Danger and Mount Warning as he sailed up the coast in 1770. The Tweed River was developed as a port from the 1830s to ship cedar.
In early land surveys in 1883, the Twin Towns of Coolangatta and Tweed Heads were laid out on each side of the border. Coolangatta’s charms were discovered by holiday makers in the 1880s. Visits from Brisbane and northern New South Wales gravitated to the pretty beaches.
Move forward to early 1900s, and bathing boxes were the norm – to protect the modesty of sea bathers. Coolangatta has Queensland’s first surf life saving club – formed at Greenmount in 1909 and guest houses started to appear.
Coolangatta offers loads of activities – dive sites at Kirra and Cook Island to the south. Stand on Point Danger to spot dolphins, see circling birds, spy migrating humpback whales and the sense of the jagged coastline.
Shopping, dining and markets on the second Sunday of the month make this an entertainment precinct. Events are plentiful with ‘Wintersun’ in June celebrating rock ‘n’ roll, and A La Carte on the Beach is a food feast in September.
Stand on New Year’s Eve on a vantage point and watch two sets of fireworks – New South Wales then Queensland an hour later – courtesy of daylight saving.
The Southern Points Promenade forms part of the Gold Coast Ocean way network, 36km of walkways, bikeways and viewing platforms. The Captain Cook lighthouse is worth a view.
Gold Coast Tourism’s Warner Street Visitor Information Centre can help you get the most of your visit.