Guide to Coolangatta Queensland Australia

Coolangatta is the southernmost town on the Gold Coast, pressed against the New South Wales border and sharing its streets with Tweed Heads. Its beaches face north instead of east, which shelters them from the prevailing wind and swell, and its headlands produce some of the most famous surf in the world. The airport is five minutes away.

Known For

• Sheltered north-facing beaches at Greenmount and Rainbow Bay
• Snapper Rocks and the Superbank
• Point Danger lookout on the state border

Cooly, as locals call it, has a different mood from the northern Gold Coast. Norfolk pines line the foreshore, the buildings are lower, and the town still feels like the family beach resort it has been for more than a century. It is busiest in summer and during its big winter festival, and pleasantly quiet between.

The layout is simple. Marine Parade runs along Coolangatta Beach, with Griffith Street and its shops one block back. Greenmount Hill divides the main beach from Rainbow Bay, and beyond that are Snapper Rocks and Point Danger, where Queensland ends.

Things To Do in Coolangatta

Coolangatta and Greenmount Beaches

The main beach is a broad crescent of sand with flagged swimming areas at both ends, patrolled by the Coolangatta and Greenmount surf life saving clubs. Because it faces north, the water is usually calmer than at the open beaches, and Greenmount in particular is a favourite with families. A paved promenade follows the foreshore through Queen Elizabeth Park, where art and craft markets are held on the second Sunday of the month.

Greenmount Hill and the Coastal Walk

A path climbs from the beach over Greenmount Hill, with lookouts shaded by pandanus and views along the full length of the Gold Coast to the towers of Surfers Paradise. It drops into Rainbow Bay and continues to Snapper Rocks and Point Danger, an easy two-kilometre walk that is among the most scenic on the coast. In the other direction the promenade leads to Kirra Hill and Kirra.

Rainbow Bay and Snapper Rocks

Rainbow Bay is a small, protected beach tucked beneath Point Danger. At its eastern end, Snapper Rocks is the starting point of the Superbank, a long sandbar that on a good day lets surfers ride for hundreds of metres towards Kirra. It is the home break of several world champions, and professional contests are held here. Even when the surf is small, the rocks are a fine place to watch the action at close range.

Point Danger

The headland of Point Danger straddles the state border. The Captain Cook Memorial and Lighthouse stands exactly on the line, so visitors can have a foot in each state. The lookout takes in Duranbah Beach and the Tweed River mouth to the south, and from June to October it is one of the best land-based whale watching spots in Australia. A memorial here remembers the hospital ship Centaur, sunk off the coast in 1943.

Events

Cooly Rocks On, held in early June, fills the town with 1950s and 1960s cars, rock and roll bands and dancers for several days and is one of the largest nostalgia festivals in the country. The Coolangatta Gold, a gruelling surf ironman race along the southern beaches, is another highlight of the calendar.

Across the Border

Walk a block up Boundary Street and you are in New South Wales. Twin Towns, the large services club in Tweed Heads, hosts touring shows, and river cruises and fishing charters leave from the Tweed marinas. From October to April, New South Wales is one hour ahead of Queensland because of daylight saving, something to keep in mind for bookings on the other side of the street.

Where To Stay

Coolangatta has a good spread of accommodation for its size, most of it within two blocks of the beach.

Apartment hotels are the mainstay. Mantra Coolangatta Beach and Oaks Calypso Plaza both face the beach on Marine Parade, with pools and self-contained apartments, and a line of older towers along the foreshore offers similar views at lower rates. Rainbow Bay has a cluster of smaller apartment buildings a few steps from the sand, popular with surfers and with families who return each year.

For something with more character, The Pink Hotel is a small retro-styled boutique hotel in the main street, with a rooftop and a bar below. Motels and backpacker accommodation cover the budget end.

Kirra Beach Tourist Park, a council-run park a short drive north, has cabins and powered sites. Rooms are hard to find during Cooly Rocks On and the summer school holidays, so book well ahead for those periods.

Eat & Drink

The surf clubs make the most of the setting. Coolangatta Surf Life Saving Club sits right on the main beach, Greenmount Surf Club looks down the coast from its deck, and Rainbow Bay Surf Life Saving Club overlooks the bay and the line-up at Snapper Rocks. All three serve relaxed bistro meals and cold drinks to visitors.

Griffith Street and Marine Parade have a steady run of cafes, with good coffee and breakfast easy to find, and The Strand shopping centre has a dining level facing the beach. Cafe DBar, on the headland at Point Danger, pairs breakfast and lunch with a gallery and wide ocean views.

For the evening there are Italian, Thai, Japanese and modern Australian restaurants along the beachfront, and the Coolangatta Hotel, a large pub on Marine Parade, is known for live music. Eddie’s Grub House, beneath The Pink Hotel, is a dive-style bar with burgers and bands. At Kirra, the rebuilt Kirra Beach Hotel and the restaurants at Kirra Point add further choice a few minutes away.

History

Coolangatta is in the country of the Yugambeh-speaking peoples and their Bundjalung neighbours. The town takes its name from the schooner Coolangatta, wrecked on the beach near here in 1846. A township was surveyed in the 1880s to serve the border customs post, at a time when goods moving between the colonies were taxed.

The railway from Brisbane arrived in 1903, and guest houses, including the original Greenmount, made Coolangatta one of the first seaside resorts in Queensland. Surf lifesaving began here in the early 1900s. The railway closed in 1961, the airport grew in its place, and from the 1960s the point breaks made the town a centre of Australian surfing.

Getting to Coolangatta

Coolangatta is about 100 kilometres from Brisbane, a drive of 75 to 90 minutes on the Pacific Motorway. Gold Coast Airport is three kilometres from the town centre, with taxis, rideshare and buses covering the trip in a few minutes.

Frequent buses run north along the Gold Coast Highway through Currumbin to the light rail terminus at Burleigh Heads, where trams continue to Broadbeach and Surfers Paradise. The nearest railway station is Varsity Lakes. The town centre is flat and compact, and most visitors get around on foot.

Nearest Airport: Gold Coast