Notes

Note 1.
The use of the names "Surfers Paradise" and "Gold Coast" indicate two separate phenomena. Surfers Paradise - the focus of this work - is intended to include all the ideational and physical representations that hold some connection to the physical area described later in the body of the work as the entertainment-"reality" continuum. This continuum extends from the geographic area labelled Surfers Paradise towards the Pacific Fair complex (which is technically part of the suburb of Broadbeach). It is not intended to represent any precisely definable geographic area. The Gold Coast describes the broader region and, particularly, the municipal and governmental aspects of the city. The two terms, while not used interchangeably are reliant upon each other's existence and are not mutually exclusive sets. The concentration in this work upon Surfers Paradise is a result of research limitations and not a reflection of any paucity of material regarding the Gold Coast.

Note 2.
Klotz's ten defining characteristics of postmodernism are:

  1. Regionalism has replaced internationalism.
  2. Fictional representation - tending towards the figurative - has supplanted geometric abstraction.
  3. The tendency towards fictional representation has led away from the late-modern tendency to view a building [or any item of material culture] exclusively in terms of function, and toward seeing it as a work of art of building that belongs in the realm of the illusory.
  4. Postmodernism relies not on the symbolic value of the machine and of construction as defining progress in architecture, but on a multiplicity of meanings (including everything from immediate signs to narrative design).
  5. Poetry has supplanted technological utopianism. Postmodernism draws from the world of the imagination rather than from the "brave new world" mentality in which velocity is equated with progress.
  6. Postmodernism opposes the sterile faith in the continuous improvement of instruments and construction with improvisation and spontaneity. Instead of striving for untouchable perfection, it favours the disturbed and the imperfect, which are now seen as signs of life.
  7. Whereas modernism sought to free itself from history and made architecture purely a thing of the present, with postmodernism we have regained memory. And rather than exploit history for "interesting" effects, we can now entrust ourselves to the spirit of irony.
  8. Rather than view a building as an autonomous, universally valid geometric form, we can now allow it to be relativised by its historical, regional, and topological conditions, and can appreciate the palpable individuality of the particular solution. Heroism gives way to compromise, to equitable treatment of old and new, and to respect for the given environment.
  9. Instead of a dominant style, with its tendency to become dogma, a broad range of vocabularies and stylistic languages exist alongside one another. Postmodernism denies the self-referential inventiveness of the Modern Movement and pays tribute to the pluralism of referential allusions.
  10. Rather than identify architecture with life, postmodernism establishes a new the aesthetic distance from life. Fiction as well as function! (Klotz 1988:421).

Note 3.
The geographic representation of Surfers Paradise (as a municipal entity) includes data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This data quantifies a variety of features considered significant for the constructing of government policy. The material presented here represents the municipal entity of Surfers Paradise as relatively average. The "Surfers Paradise" considered in this manner is very different to the one argued for in this research.

  Gold Coast City Extremes
  Surfers Paradise Census Region Lowest Highest
Australia Born 11708 - 52.14% Surfers Paradise Currumbin
1976 - 82.44%
Born Overseas: English Speaking 4048 - 18.00% Bilinga
270 - 11.26%
Coombabah
850 - 20.69%
Born Overseas: non-anglophonic 4189 - 18.65% Bilinga
67 - 3.91%
Surfers Paradise
Persons Speaking a language other than English 3644 - 16.23% Currumbin
77 - 3.21%
Main Beach - Broadwater
664 - 17.26%
Unemployed persons 1334 - 5.94% Benowa
261 - 5.03%
Mermaid Beach
525 - 9.68%
Those dwelling in caravans etc. 0 - 0% Various
0 - 0%
Coombabah
524 - 12.75%
Those in non- private dwellings 2987 - 13.30% Various
0 - 0%
Coolangatta
1218 - 19.28%
Household Incomes  
0-$3,000 p.a. 134 - 1.55% Arundel
0 - 0%
Surfers Paradise
$3,001 - $16,0000 p.a. 1616 - 16.67% Parkwood
25 - 5.16%
Coolangatta
787 - 33.22%
$16,001 - $30,000 p.a. 2014 - 23.27% Parkwood
56 - 11.57%
Coolangatta
745 - 31.45%
$30,001 - $90-000 p.a. 2767 - 31.97% Coolangatta
501 - 21.15%
Parkwood
243 - 50.21%
Higher than $80,00 p.a. 706 - 8.16% Tugun
22 - 1.33%
Main Beach
131 - 9.08%
Non-residents on census night 7314 - 32.57% Parkwood
35 - 0.54%
Coolangatta
2678 - 42.40%
Those with a different address 5 years ago 6717 - 29.91% Coolangatta
1671 - 26.46%
Arundel
2060 - 79.02%
Those with a different address but in same area 769 - 3.42% Parkwood
0 - 0%
Palm Beach
895 - 6.51%
Total females 10936 - 48.70% Labrador
5678 - 47.61%
Main Beach
1966 - 51.12%
Total males 11520 - 51.30% Main Beach
1880 - 48.88%
Labrador
6248 - 52.39%
Total population 22456
  1. Each set of figures indicates the total number of actual people enumerated (on the left), the second figure represents a percentage of the total population of the census district.
  2. Household incomes utilise households rather than individuals as the basic unit of enumeration
  3. Curiously, although there are a surplus of women to men in the Surfers Paradise district. This is not the case when each figure is calculated as a percentage of the total Gold Coast City population, with men representing 14.25% and women 12.62% of the total.
(Source: Supermap 1991 CD-ROM, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra.)

Note 4.
Ironically, McRobbie has had a long association with the various manifestations of the Gold Coast Tourist Bureau and ran as an unsuccessful candidate for Alderman in the March 1994 Gold Coast City Council elections. His successful opponent, Kerry Smith, reinforces her position of hegemonic power in the postmodern city by driving a Fiat Bambino which has huge fibreglass eyes and glasses. The car is an intentional self-parody of its owner.

today A website with some clear boundaries is a rare gift indeed.