Viva Brisvegas!

Irony, pure irony.

That can be the only reason Brisbane’s locals proudly proclaim this picturesque, yet almost sleepy city, Brisvegas. There’s no world class entertainment, or round the clock partying, and not a gargantuan casino resort in site. In fact the only similarity I can see is that both cities bask in almost permanent sunshine.

Head an hour’s south to the fabled Gold Coast, and that’s an entirely different story.




Take a big chunk of Blackpool’s tackiness, add a pinch of the Aussies on tour mentality of Kuta in Bali, pour in a fairytale or two from Disneyland, and then mix it altogether with the chaotic high rise monstrosities of a nineteen seventies Benidorm and ladies and gentlemen, I give you Surfers Paradise, the capital of Australia’s Gold Coast. 

It’s such a shame. You’d be hard pressed to find a ten kilometre stretch of uninterrupted golden sands and surf to rival it anywhere in the world. Just keep your eyes looking east out to sea you can dream of paradise. A few hours later and eventually you have to head back to the reality of the concrete jungle behind you. The town planners of the past two generations should be hiding their head in shame, so bad are the hideous developments all around you. They are suffocating.
 
Still, Vegas this isn’t, even though it’s trying its darnedest to get there. The council earlier this year announced it had even cheekily invited its idolised big brother if it could be its twin city. A few months later that was followed by the news that the Gold Coast had become the official underbelly of Australia’s organised crime scene – was this to convince the Vegas crime lords that a partnership was truly the way forward?    

I am pretty sure the future is bright for this stretch of Brisvegas, as tourists continue to flock for its hedonistic pleasures, but my calling will still be the city of Brisbane itself, where I’ll take the irony of its peaceful parks and riverside location any day. If the pull of the beach is just too strong to ignore, then I’ll be heading north to the Sunshine Coast instead.