The Gold Coast, 1950s

This silent newsreel clip shows people sunbaking on the Gold Coast. Warm temperatures and golden sands were a magnet to holidaymakers from the 1950s onwards, swelling the population from around 21,000 people to over 100,000.

This clip also shows the early development of the Gold Coast canals which are now such a feature of living in the region. Roughly 400 km of canals have been constructed forming an environmentally significant network of waterways.