Gold Coast Australia and its interesting history reveals a popular Australian city that sits in a beautiful southeastern corner of the Australian state of Queensland which itself sits in the northeast corner of the west coast of this island nation. Anyone who is traveling through Queensland and intending to visit Gold Coast will happen upon an extremely fascinating and popular city.

Within Queensland, Gold Coast is the second-largest city in terms of population and the sixth largest in the country. Additionally, of the non-capital cities located in any of Australia’s states or territories, it is the largest of all. The city itself is widely renowned for the quality of the sunny climate and the subtropical weather it is a constant year-round presence.

The city is a big draw for surfers of all abilities and can brag about a number of outstanding beaches for surfing. In fact, a few of them are regular stops on a couple of professional surfing tours. Along the shoreline, there is a huge number of skyscraper-type apartment buildings in which many of the city’s more important people reside. To the west, the city can boast of a beautiful rain forest.

Gold Coast takes a backseat to no Australian city when it comes to the quality of its nightlife and it is a fact that sightseers and tourists understand this and are eager to partake of the nightlife. In fact, the city can rightfully point out the quality of numerous attractions and tourist spots that help to make Gold Coast almost as popular as Sydney. There are also over 400,000 residents in the city.

The first European to lay eyes on the area which eventually became Gold Coast was the famous English explorer James Cook, who sailed past the area on his ship Endeavor. He noted its location in his log on May 16th, 1770. In 1802 another explorer named Matthew Flinders noted its location on the survey charts he was compiling for the region north of the relatively young colony of New South Wales.

Australia is a land that brags on occasion of being partly colonized by prisoners. Indeed, more than a few escapees from the prison colony at Moreton Bay hid out in the area after escaping. Additionally, other prisoners who had been transported there found ways to stay after serving out their sentences. Colonization began in 1823 by John Oxley, who set landed at Mermaid Beach.

The modern day birth of the area in terms of its popularity probably kicked off in 1925 due to the efforts of the locally famous developer and hotel builder and owner Jim Cavill. Through his efforts — owing in part to his construction of the Surfers Paradise Hotel — the area known as Elston began to grow. The city took on the name Gold Coast in 1958; six years after Cavill had passed away.

These days, Gold Coast Australia is proud to note that well over 10 million visitors a year stopped in to take advantage of the nightlife, the many opportunities for surfing and other water recreation and a myriad of tourist attractions spread all around the city. Sitting like a jewel on a particularly beautiful stretch of coastline, tourists find the city extremely beautiful and completely fascinating.