I stayed at the Gold Coast last weeked, at Tugun Beach near Coolangatta. A nice enough spot, with miles of uncrowded beaches and not overdeveloped by Gold Coast standards, though the towers of Surfers Paradise in the distance produced a rather surreal effect. We stayed at a pleasant place called the Golden Riviera, and the neighbouring places had the usual names – Costa del Sol, Malibu etc. I haven’t been to the Riviera or Costa del Sol, but Malibu is not a patch on Coolangatta, and the pictures of European beaches I’ve seen don’t impress.
So the thought struck me – do villas on the Riviera have names like Noosa and Bondi? I doubt it. Still, Australia has at least advanced since the days when beachside locations were named after Brighton and Margate.
John Quiggin 
Thank the Gods for that too…..they’re not beaches, they’re mudflats
Yes, we’ve become highly independent-minded in many ways, PrQ – I thought our elected representatives showed great originality, imagination, entrepreneurship, and even daring, when they named our consumption tax the ‘GST’ instead of the VAT or some other superior Northern Hemisphere appellation.
Actually, we pinched the name ‘GST’ from the Kiwis, backed when they had a miracle economy.
The Gold Coast is OK, I guess. It’s a pleasant place to take the kids. In practice, I’d prefer to drive another 50 km and go to the beaches over the border – Fingal, Tyagarah… even Seven-Mile beach south of Byron. To be honest, I don’t care what a beach is named after as long as it is a good beach. Not mudflats.
And what makes a good beach? Well, clean sand. White, but not too white. That long beach on Whitsunday Island (what is it called?) reflects so much sunlight from the sand that you need sunglasses against the glare. Nice place, but I couldn’t stand too much time there.
Whitehaven??