A new exhibition is celebrating 50 years of holiday making on the Gold Coast, a popular holiday destination south of Brisbane.


KATHY McLEISH: Sun, sand and surf. The Gold Coast has always promised it all and generations of Australian holidaymakers have the souvenirs to prove it.

The "All that Glitters" exhibition has collected contemporary art and 50 years of memories and kitsch from one of Australia's best-known holiday destinations.

VIRGINIA RIGNEY: Just about anyone in Australia has either come and had some holiday here at some time or one of their friends or family has. So it has memories for people even if they came when they were seven or eight in the 1950's.

KATHY McLEISH: The exhibition highlights the unique spirit of the Gold Coast. In the 1920's it was a collection of beachside villages destined to grow.

VIRGINIA RIGNEY: There were a lot of these little family run hotels, family run amusements, family run theme parks that kind of grew together. They formed a progress association and were determined that the name be changed to Surfers Paradise and they finally succeeded in the early 1930's.

JOHN PUNCH: I think of the things that people did and they were on the spot ideas and they had to make them work and that's the essence of Surfers Paradise and the Gold Coast. Things that weren't planned that did work.

KATHY McLEISH: By the 50's and 60's it was setting the benchmark on fun for a nation.

VIRGINIA RIGNEY: I think the key thing about the Gold Coast was, that it was a place where you could just let your inhibitions go and in the 1950's you could come and go dancing five, six nights a week. You could have a really elegant meal in a restaurant, you could wear beautiful clothes, or you could go to a Hawaiian Luau night and you could do all these improbable fantastic things that you just couldn't do anywhere else in Australia. It was a whole place dedicated to fun.

KATHY McLEISH: Community interest made the exhibition possible. All the objects were loaned by local residents.

VIRGINIA RIGNEY: The Gold Coast City doesn't have a collection of its own of this kind of material so we think it's really important to profile it to residents and to say, "do you think we should collect this kind of material? It's part of our history."

KATHY McLEISH: Supporters would like to see a more permanent reminder of days gone by, a lasting memory of the nation's fun and holiday capital.

GUEST: Well I lived here nearly 35 years so this is really walking down memory lane.

GUEST: I think this is creating a great deal of fun and nostalgia and people will go home saying, "Oh gosh, remember when".