Southport was originally known as Nerang Creek Heads. It was named Southport because it was the southernmost port of the colony of Queensland. In the late 1800s the Governor of Queensland bought a home near Southport and for several months of the year those on government business had to travel to Southport. This meant that the area became fashionable. By the 1890s “a trend had begun for the families of graziers and Brisbane gentry to visit the Southport seaside and, accordingly Southport became the summer watering hole of wealthy squatters and sheep farmers from the darling Downs.”  (Off the Plan: The Urbanisation of the Gold Coast edited by Caryl Bosman, Aysin Dedekorkut-Howes, Andrew Leach page 33) When the Jubilee Bridge was opened in 1925, visitors could finally access the South Coast from Southport to Surfers and right down to Burleigh Heads. 

The Southport School, founded in 1901, was once the largest boarding school in Queensland. My father, Tom Frazer, was sent there to board  for a brief period. When his grandfather died in 1937 he had to leave school to help with the running of the property Werona.

By the 1950s, Southport was the central entertainment location of the Gold Coast. It was also the administrative centre, with a central business district. During the wool boom many of the wealthy graziers of Western Queensland owned holiday homes in Southport. Throughout my childhood, Surfers’ Paradise and Toowoomba were always spoken of as being the preferred retirement destinations for people from far Western Queensland.  It was said “One’s always got plenty of water, and the other is always green!”

I have all the usual fun surf-n-sand memories of going on holidays to the beach. I also have more than a few memories of feeling anxious and afraid during the alcohol fuelled disputes among the extended clan who always met up at the iconic Surfers’ Paradise Beer Garden or the Pacific Hotel Southport. Being taken to visit attractions like the Currumbin Bird Sanctuary, Santaland, and the Nobby Beach Chairlift to Magic Mountain were the stuff of great memories. 

There was also always a generous supply of  ‘tangibles’ to take home for future entertainment out on the property. I remember the joy of arriving home with a supply of shells that I had collected. I used them to try to copy some of the craft work that I’d seen being sold everywhere in the beach shops. Lacking grout, or any glue more substantial than Clag, I had used up all of Dad’s tubs of window putty before I showed him my ‘creations’! He was pretty good about it, but said that we had better not break any windows before we next went to town.

Needless to say the image below is not of one of my own shell covered boxes. It is however a good example of the style that inspired me.