The Gold Coast is a city on the Pacific coast of southeast Queensland, Australia. It has a population of 569,997 (2016). It borders the capital city of Brisbane to the north and Tweed Heads in New South Wales to the south. [3] From the 1920s, tourism in the Gold Coast boosted the local economy. The Gold Coast was declared a city in 1959 and the first skyscraper was built in 1960. The Gold Coast developed rapidly from the 1980s with the construction of skyscrapers, and its contemporary symbols are the city's "white shoe brigade" developers, neon lights and organized crime, especially the extremists and the Russian mafia. [4] At the end of the 20th century, with the opening of theme parks, the city's tourism industry became diversified, and in the early 21st century it became an international film production destination. The Gold Coast is now Australia's sixth largest city and an internationally renowned tourist city. Its coastal and mountain landscapes have attracted many new immigrants and tourists from all over the world. Its cultural and creative industries, fisheries, urban planning, information construction, racing, water sports and biotechnology are also leading the world.
