Gold Coast Highway Queensland –New South Wales
Gold Coast Highway at Second Avenue looking north towards Surfers Paradise, featuring the Light Rail in the median
General information
Type	Highway
Length	39.6 km (25 mi)[1]
Route number(s)	State Route 2
Former route number	National Route 1 Alternate National Route 1
Major junctions
North end	Binstead Way Oxenford, Queensland
	Pacific Motorway Olsen Avenue Oxley Drive North Street Ada Bell Way Hooker Boulevard West Burleigh Road Duringan Street Tugun Currumbin Road Pacific Motorway
South end	Sugarwood Drive Tweed Heads West, New South Wales
Location(s)
Major suburbs	Southport, Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach, Burleigh Heads
Highway system
Highways in Australia National Highway • Freeways in Australia Highways in Queensland Highways in New South Wales

Gold Coast Highway links the coastal suburbs of the Gold Coast in south eastern Queensland such as Miami, Mermaid Beach, Tugun, Bilinga and across the border of New South Wales to the Tweed Heads suburb of Tweed Heads West. At 39.6 kilometres (24.6 mi)^[1] in length, the highway runs just west of Pacific Motorway at Pacific Pines to Pacific Motorway at Tweed Heads West. It passes through the numerous popular tourist areas including Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach, a commercial centre at Southport, residential areas, shopping centres and the Gold Coast (Coolangatta) Airport.

It is characterised by a variety of urban landscapes, ranging from:

• high-density high rises between Southport and Broadbeach
• low rise apartments in Palm Beach and Bilinga
• low-rise residential areas at Miami, Tugun and Labrador
• shopping at Southport and Broadbeach
• entertainment precincts at Broadbeach and Surfers Paradise
• historic motels at Mermaid Beach
• light industry at Arundel
• native bushland at Coombabah Lake wetlands, Burleigh Head National Park and Currumbin Hill
• parklands, sport and recreation at the Southport Broadwater Parklands and many smaller reserves
• coastal views at Currumbin Creek

The highest point of the highway is 42 metres at Currumbin Hill.^[2]

History

The Pacific Highway in Surfers Paradise in 1952

Gold Coast Highway has existed since at least 1966, based on a page from a 1966 street directory.^[3]

The section between Currumbin in Queensland and Tweed Heads in New South Wales was formerly part of Pacific Highway. The first stage of the Tweed Heads bypass, a two-lane road connecting Pacific Highway (today Coolangatta Road) at Bilinga across the border to Kennedy Drive at Tweed Heads West, was opened in 1985 at a total cost of $3.6mil, with the second carriageway completed in December 1986;^[4] the second stage, bypassing Tweed Heads South connecting Kennedy Drive over Terrenora Creek to Pacific Highway (today Minjungbal Drive, renamed 19 February 1997^[5]) was completed on 15 November 1992, at a total cost of $46 mi,^[6] and Pacific Highway redefined to use this new alignment.

The Tugun Bypass, connecting Pacific Motorway at Tugun Hill in Queensland to Pacific Highway about 1 kilometre north of the interchange with Kennedy Drive at Tweed Heads West in New South Wales, opened in June 2008, extending the motorway around (and under) the Gold Coast Airport. The former alignment of Pacific Highway within Queensland was quickly re-declared as part of Gold Coast Highway; the New South Wales government eventually followed a year later.

The passing of the Roads Act of 1993^[7] through the Parliament of New South Wales updated road classifications and the way they could be declared within New South Wales. Under this act, Gold Coast Highway was declared as Highway 31 on 1 May 2009, from the state border with Queensland to the interchange with Pacific Motorway at Tweed Heads West (subsuming the former alignment of Highway 10, Pacific Highway, which was re-declared to use the Tugun bypass).^[8] The highway today, as Highway 31, still retains this declaration.^[9]

Road conditions

Northbound towards Beach Road, Surfers Paradise

An aerial view of the highway as seen from a helicopter during the Gold Coast 600 in 2019.

The highway is divided along the entire length, mostly with four lanes. There are some six lane segments (often as bus lanes). It is also predominantly well lit at night, with a few exceptions such as Currumbin and Burleigh Heads. Median fencing to prevent pedestrians crossing has also been introduced in areas such as Mermaid Beach. The highway at Surfers Paradise is subject to congestion during events, notably during the Gold Coast 500 held each October when part of the highway becomes part of the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit at Paradise Waters. The highway width is reduced to two lanes (one carriageway) and the speed limit reduced to 40 km/h.

Projects and improvements

1. Labrador: Between Government Road and North Street, along a section mostly called Frank Street. The Highway was upgraded from a single carriageway to a divided 4 lane highway. A new bridge with a 4 lane crossing was completed across Loders Creek in 2007. The road upgrade resulted in a thoroughfare similar to that in Surfers Paradise, with a narrow median and narrow road reserve due to limited space and to minimise property resumptions. One of the two lanes in each direction was initially designated a transit lane (buses and vehicles with 2 or more occupants), but this designation was removed in 2013.^[10]

Bridge over Tallebudgera Creek

2. Broadbeach to Miami: Bus lanes were added along the route as well as changes to bus stops, u-turns, traffic lights, signs, lighting and the median strip. The first phase (Alexandra Avenue to Hilda Street) was finished in mid September 2008. The second phase (Hilda Street to Chairlift Avenue) was largely completed in July 2009.^[11]

3. Tugun: The most notorious bottle-neck was at Tugun, where the Gold Coast Highway joins the Pacific Highway 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) north of Coolangatta was eliminated with the opening of the Tugun Bypass in June 2008. Some minor changes and improvements near Stewart Road in Tugun have coincided with the completion of the bypass to deal with the changed traffic flow.

Upgrade projects

Public transport

Gold Coast Highway looking south near Birt Ave with Sun City building on the left. Image taken in 2007, before the upgrade. This section of the highway is now 2 lanes each way.

Major intersections

State	LGA	Location[1]	km[1]	mi	Destinations	Notes
Queensland	Gold Coast	Oxenford–Gaven boundary	0	0.0	Binstead Way (west) – Pacific Pines, Maudsland	Northwestern terminus of highway and State Route 2
					Entertainment Road (north) – Oxenford Heslop Road (south) – Gaven	Northbound entry to Pacific Motorway via Entertainment Road Northbound exit from Pacific Motorway via Heslop Road
		Oxenford–Gaven–Helensvale tripoint	0.2	0.12	Pacific Motorway (M1) – Springwood, Beenleigh, Tweed Heads	Interchange also provides limited access to Westfield Helensvale
		Helensvale	1.1	0.68	Discovery Drive (north) – Helensvale Town Centre Drive (south) – Westfield Helensvale
			1.5	0.93	Gold Coast railway line
		Arundel–Biggera Waters–Labrador tripoint	6.9	4.3	Olsen Avenue (State Route 4 south) – Ashmore Oxley Drive (State Route 4 north) – Runaway Bay	Parts of the road west and east of this intersection are alternatively named Brisbane Road
		Southport	11.2	7.0	North Street, to Smith Street Motorway (State Route 10) – Gaven	Parts of the road north of this intersection are alternatively named Frank Street Parts of the road south of this intersection are alternatively named Marine Parade
			12.7	7.9	Ada Bell Way, to Queen Street (State Route 20) – Ashmore	Parts of the road south of this intersection are alternatively named Ferny Avenue and Remembrance Drive
	Nerang River		13.1– 13.4	8.1– 8.3	Sundale Bridge
	Gold Coast	Surfers Paradise	17.0	10.6	Via Roma (State Route 24) – Bundall
		Broadbeach	20.0	12.4	Hooker Boulevard (State Route 90) – Carrara
		Burleigh Heads	26.4	16.4	West Burleigh Road (State Route 80) – Reedy Creek	Parts of the road south of this intersection are alternatively named Tweed Street
	Tallebudgera Creek		28.0– 28.1	17.4– 17.5	Bridge name unknown
	Currumbin Creek		32.4– 32.6	20.1– 20.3	Estuary Bridge
	Gold Coast	Currumbin	32.7	20.3	Duringan Street, to Currumbin Creek Road (State Route 98) – Currumbin Valley
		Tugun	34.2	21.3	Tugun Currumbin Road – Currumbin Waters
		Bilinga	37.7	23.4	Terminal Avenue – Gold Coast Airport
			38.1	23.7	Coolangatta Road – Coolangatta, Tweed Heads	No right turn northbound into Coolangatta Road
State border			38.5	23.9	Queensland – New South Wales state border
New South Wales	Tweed	Tweed Heads West	39.6	24.6	Pacific Motorway (M1) – Tugun, Tweed Heads South
					Sugarwood Drive – Tweed Heads West	Southern end of Gold Coast Highway and State Route 2
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Incomplete access       Route transition

Trivia

• Musician David Grohl was famously arrested in a northern Surfers Paradise section of the Gold Coast Highway after electing to drunkenly ride back to his band's Marriott hotel on a rented moped scooter following the Foo Fighters' performance at the Big Day Out in January 2000.^[17] Grohl reportedly blew an alcohol level of 0.095 at a sobriety checkpoint on the Gold Coast Highway and was subsequently jailed for one night.^[18]

See also

• Highways in Australia
  • List of highways in Queensland

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gold Coast Highway.

• South Coast Region traffic cameras