Perhaps the most famous part is a resort known today as 'Surfers Paradise'. It's a glizy and glam place, with the skyline lit up by a multitude of casinos, shopping malls and nightclubs. But it wasn't always like this. Indeed the town formerly known as Elston was still a very rural, remote and largely unvisited town as late as the 1950s.
So what's the secret to transforming a small and insigificant seaside town into one of Australia's major tourist hubs? Targeted capital tax breaks? Relaxed planning laws? Investment in infrastructure?
Apparently not. Instead it was down to the ingenuity of local entrepreneur Bernie Elsey who, in 1965, decided to employ 'meter maids' in gold lamé bikinis to feed the parking meters along the strip. People soon flocked to Surfers Paradise where, rather than have militant parking wardens dole out fines, they would find glamous young girls to feed their meter for them and, if they returned late, leave a calling card for them to pay later.
The region has never looked back. (Actually part of the explanation was also the building of road and rail links, a couple of risky but eventually profitable high rise developments and massive investment in marketing campaigns, though that all sounds a bit too boring).
2 comments:
Talk about desperately trying to fit a story around a picture.
You may be interested to note that the London Borough of Havering has adopted a similar policy. Head down Romford High Street any night of the week and you'll find a gaggle of scantily-clad women more than willing to fill your meter.
Good form, reckon you should have at least one picture of some fitties in each of your stories.
Then when you come back you can get a job at the Telegraph...
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