National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 65 | October 2003


Taming Queensland’s Gold Coast
Early Real Estate Sales Plans
Palm Beach estate: between Burleigh, superb ocean sites & frontages, & Currumbin, about half a mile from Elanora the new railway stopping place / for sale by public auction on the ground on Easter Saturday 31st March at 11.30 a.m. 1923, A.M. Newman in conjunction Chandler & Russell (Brisbane : A.M. Newman in conjunction Chandler & Russell, 1923)



Palm Beach estate: between Burleigh, superb ocean sites & frontages, & Currumbin, about half a mile from Elanora the new railway stopping place / for sale by public auction on the ground on Easter Saturday 31st March at 11.30 a.m. 1923, A.M. Newman in conjunction Chandler & Russell
(Brisbane : A.M. Newman in conjunction Chandler & Russell, 1923)
map ; 49.7 x 83.6 cm.
Map Collection, nla.map-rm3691

A land of sand dunes and mangroves the southern coastline of Queensland, now known as the City of the Gold Coast, did not see significant settlement until about the 1920s when real estate developers ‘discovered’ the area. A recent acquisition by the Library of an early real estate sales plan of the ‘Palm Beach Estate’ for land sales on 31st March 1923 reflects the interest in the area which has continued unabated ever since.

Lacking the bright, decorative colour and illustrations of many of its contemporaries, except for a brief reference to the ‘The home of palms, ferns, staghorns, etc.’ the black and white map offers the prospective landowner the opportunity to purchase land for £5 cash deposit/allotment of 16 perches at the rear of the estate or 23 perches along the esplanade. (A perch is equivalent to 4.72 metres.) Five pound per allotment quarterly with interest at six per cent secured the land. How long the payments were to be made is not documented.

Another plan acquired at the same time offers land for sale in May 1891 from the Wilston Estate, which now comprises part of the Brisbane suburb of Enoggerra. Again in black and white the map features line drawings of the old Wilston House and a stylised European impression of the landscape. No indication is given of the expected land price to be realised by the auctioneer, John Cameron.

Regarded as ephemeral and usually printed on poor quality paper, surviving copies of early real estate sales plans are now rare. The two plans complement a large collection already held in the Library gathered by Sir John Ferguson, of Bibliography of Australia fame, which focused on the Sydney/Hunter River regions of New South Wales. They provide a very detailed, somewhat surrealistic insight into developer’s expectations for fulfilling the Australian dream of owning one’s own piece of real estate.
— Maura O’Connor, Map Curator

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