Where the businesses actually are on the Gold Coast

The region’s major industrial estate, and it is in the City of Gold Coast, not Logan City. Both localities sit south of the Albert River, and the Yatala Enterprise Area is a local area plan of the City of Gold Coast planning scheme. Yatala held 1,405 residents at the 2021 Census with more than 300 businesses established within its boundaries, including the Yatala Brewery, the heavy machinery manufacturer Kanga Loaders and a Gilmour Space Technologies advanced manufacturing facility completed in mid 2024. Stapylton held 430 residents and carries an industrial park, several quarries, a landfill, a green waste to energy power plant and distribution operations. The estate area in hectares, its precinct names and its employment are not published in the sources checked.

Southport is the central business district and the largest suburb by population, 36,786 people at the 2021 Census, and the business area was declared a priority development area in 2013. Gold Coast University Hospital at 1 Hospital Boulevard opened on 28 September 2013 at a cost of approximately $1.8 billion, an 800 bed teaching hospital across approximately 170,000 square metres. With Griffith University and Gold Coast Private Hospital it forms a precinct reporting more than 200 hectares, 16,000 jobs, more than 1,000 researchers, 150 clinical trials and two light rail stops. Australia Fair on Scarborough Street opened in 1983 and holds 233 stores.

Population 26,412 at the 2021 Census. Cavill Avenue and Cavill Mall are described as one of the busiest shopping strips in Queensland, and the nightlife precinct is reported as attracting approximately 20,000 visitors daily. The high rise accommodation stock includes Q1, Soul, Circle on Cavill and the Hilton. The suburb hosts the Gold Coast Marathon each July, the Australian Sand Sculpting Championships and Australia’s largest Schoolies Week. Cavill Mall carries the council’s highest footpath dining rate.

Population 6,786 at the 2021 Census, holding The Star Gold Coast, formerly Jupiters Hotel and Casino, and the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre. Pacific Fair sits here, and Broadbeach Mall and the Oracle Boulevard dining precinct carry the restaurant trade. Broadbeach South is the southern end of the original light rail line and the start of the Stage 3 extension to Burleigh Heads.

The dining and retail strip between Southport and Surfers Paradise. Main Beach carries its own footpath dining rate of $0.80 per square metre per day for 2026-27, between the $0.90 rate in the Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach malls and the $0.60 rate everywhere else in the council area.

Robina held 25,659 residents at the 2021 Census and holds Robina Town Centre, Robina Stadium and the main campus of Bond University. It is the southern commercial and office centre. Varsity Lakes, 16,493 residents, is the terminus of the Gold Coast railway line. Everything south of Varsity Lakes, including Burleigh Heads, Palm Beach, Currumbin, Tugun, Bilinga, Coolangatta and Gold Coast Airport, has no heavy rail.

Burleigh Heads held 10,572 residents at the 2021 Census and carries the James Street retail and dining strip of cafes, delis, hairdressers, retailers, chemists, restaurants and charity stores. West Burleigh holds shopping and a small industrial area. Light rail reached Burleigh Heads with passenger services commencing 9 August 2026.

Currumbin held 3,278 residents at the 2021 Census and holds the heritage listed Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on both sides of the Gold Coast Highway adjacent to Flat Rock Creek. It hosts the Swell Sculpture Festival each September. Palm Beach, Currumbin, Tugun and Bilinga sit between the Varsity Lakes rail terminus and the border with no heavy rail and no light rail.

Coolangatta held 6,491 residents at the 2021 Census and shares an economy with Tweed Heads in New South Wales, with the state border running along Boundary Street on the headland ridge. Retail centres on Marine Parade and the Strand Shopping Centre, and the suburb hosts Cooly Rocks On each June. Gold Coast Airport is not in Coolangatta: it sits in Bilinga with part of the runway extending across the border into Tweed Heads West. The airport reports more than 6.5 million passengers annually and a terminal expansion that doubled its footprint to 30,000 square metres.

The central trade services belt that maintains the Southport, Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach building stock. Nerang held 17,048 residents at the 2021 Census and holds light industrial parks housing panel beating, motor vehicle wrecking, trades, printing and equipment hire, with its current railway station opened in 1997. Molendinar, 6,450 residents, holds the Molendinar Industrial Estate, a Queensland Government project supported by the council which commenced development in 1969. Arundel, 11,171 residents, holds Arundel Plaza and the Biggera Creek Dam flood mitigation structure.

Coomera held 20,225 residents at the 2021 Census, and holds Dreamworld, officially opened on 15 December 1981, and Westfield Coomera, opened on 11 October 2018. The marine precinct sits on the Coomera River. The Boat Works reports more than 100 individual marine trade businesses and more than 1,000 skilled marine professionals on site, 150 berths, travel lifts to 300 tonnes and approximately 100 refit sheds with 20 metre air draft. Gold Coast City Marina and Shipyard at 76 to 84 Waterway Drive reports more than 90 marine businesses on site, berthing for vessels from 10 metres to 75 metres, and a river dredged to 3.5 metres at lowest astronomical tide.

Village Roadshow Studios on Entertainment Road, adjacent to Warner Bros. Movie World, holds nine sound stages including Stage 9, the largest sound stage in Australia at 80 metres by 47 metres by 18 metres high, three water tanks including the largest purpose built water tank in Australia at 1,200 square metres, and twelve production offices. Screen Queensland records the nine stages as 10,844 square metres and the studio records them as 15,380.7 square metres, and that difference is not explained in either source. The City of Gold Coast Film Commission offers production incentives of $50,000 to $250,000, requiring a minimum $750,000 Gold Coast spend and 50 per cent local crew employment.

Pacific Fair at Broadbeach, Robina Town Centre, Australia Fair at Southport with 233 stores, Westfield Coomera which opened on 11 October 2018, and Harbour Town at Biggera Waters. Retail trade was 5,093 businesses at an index of 1.09 at 30 June 2024, and retail provided 57,490 employee jobs in 2021-22, 10.7 per cent of every employee job in the council area.

Woongoolba, Steiglitz, Norwell and Jacobs Well, on the southern side of the Logan and Albert river mouths. The 2020-21 Agricultural Census recorded 5,140.9 hectares of broadacre crop out of 11,346.6 hectares of holdings across the whole council area, and $66.7 million of the $68.4 million agricultural gross value was crops. It is a small sector in a large council area, and it is why the Gold Coast still has cane haul roads and rural haulage operators in the far north.