'Rock'n'roll was everywhere': Youth culture history as heritage tourism on Queensland's Gold Coast

Abstract

Historically, the Gold Coast is a ‘young’ city and urban area inextricably tied to tourism, and a reputation for sun and surf. While this is undeniably true, another lesser known narrative bound to music-driven youth culture from the 1960s to the 1980s is also part of the Gold Coast's history. With ‘heritage tourism’ linked to popular music in recent years, this article examines how the Gold Coast's youth culture history may potentially inform new tourist practices in the country's sixth largest city. Regardless of whether such heritage tourism is ever adopted by the Gold Coast's governing bodies, mapping this relationship between music, youth and place offers a new perspective on an active Australian city— one often stereotyped as a place with a penchant for erasing its past and only looking to the future.