the delightfully named Aloha Lane
We moved to Main Beach on the Gold Coast in 1957, when I was 4. We lived at 3546 Main Beach Pde, between Aloha Lane and Breaker St. Growing up at the beach in the 1950s and 1960s would have to be the best thing that could have happened to a kid. Parents were not overprotective with their children as they are now, and we ran wild on the beach when we weren’t at school.
Our well worn track to the beach – it is still there!
In the school holidays we would have breakfast, then we would be off to the beach until lunchtime. Lunch would be gobbled down and back we went, rain or shine. Of course when we were very young Mum came with us, but I remember best the times when I was alone or with my friends in the surf or scouring the beach for treasures. There were always treasures to be found, particularly after heavy seas, when all sorts of things would be washed up. We found endless dentures, sunglasses, coins (the favourite) and thongs.
today’s treasure from the sea
There was also this huge jellyfish – note my green thongs for a size comparison
a more scientific treasure hunter
a much bigger one
These were the days before sunblock. All we had was pink zinc, which would bubble on our noses and cheeks. We hated it, and despite Mum’s warnings that we would be sorry, we tried to get out without the dreaded zinc or a hat, which was considered uncool. I spent many days in the school room peeling skin from my nose and shoulders. I do regret the lack of sunscreen, but I wouldn’t change those beach days for anything.
I still love the beach, and we have an apartment at Main Beach less than a block from where our old house once stood. We don’t get there often enough. Main Beach has changed. There are high rise buildings now instead of fibro cottages and Tedder Ave is full of restaurants and shops.
the high rise apartments where our house once stood
Tedder Ave has shops and restaurants – there used to be 1 corner store
Even the beach has changed. When we first went to the coast there was a row of sandhills in front of our house. Numerous cylcones changed that and the beach is constantly changing with different weather conditions.
erosion caused by big seas
hardy plants are used to help hold the sand in place
I think it looks great as well as being effective against wind erosion
The surf is always there, however, and I love nothing more than diving into that first wave of the day. It feels just as good as when I was 10. I don’t stay there all day as I used to. I am now heeding my mother’s warnings. I go early in the morning before the sun is too strong, I wear sunblock and I wear a hat.
Nothing beats diving into those waves
…..and I swim between the flags
I intend to leave lots more of these at Main Beach
Our apartment is at Norfolk apartments on the corner of Breaker St and Main Beach Parade. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and is available for rent. Check out the website www.NorfolkApartments.com.au
Thanks for the marvellous pictures of Aloha Lane and Main Beach. You’ve just brought back such wonderful childhood memories for me, Deb – playing with you Kolkka kids was such fun in those days! Queensland Beaches are the best in the world! Love your footprint on the sand and your subtle humour of the ‘treasure hunters’.
By: sandra Hoopmann on August 19, 2010
at 12:41 pm
Just loved the pictures – I so miss the Australian beaches. As you know I grew up in Adelaide and lived at West Beach and then Glenelg. I miss my early morning walks along the beach and yes I too remember my Mother saying “put a hat on Pam”
By: Pamela Proctor on August 19, 2010
at 6:20 pm
Beautiful, even though we never lived at the beach – we lived in inner city Brisbane, I remember spending virtually every Sunday there in the Summer. We would drive down in the beige Kingswood at 6am and drive back @ 4pm – falling asleep in the car to 1970’s Greek folk music- with no seat belts.
Some of the best years of my life…
By: Mike on August 19, 2010
at 10:21 pm
Being a country kid, beach time was strictly twice a year holiday time when we’d travel to Qld and visit relatives at Hervey Bay. Id not been back for years and discovered a similar scene, our old holiday house was now a massive apartment, but the beach looked a wonderful as I remember it.
Main Beach looks pretty good to me.
By: Anna Johnston on August 19, 2010
at 11:23 pm
Love the footnote.
By: Jan on August 19, 2010
at 11:53 pm
Oh I just love this article and can identify with it all, except that we never owned a place. I wish my parents had bought at Mermaid Beach in the 60s where we holidayed every year ! My father has photos of Main Beach where he went as a young man, – was there a bridge then? – shacks, lots of sand, the old costumes – I should show you the photos some time.
By: mary D on August 20, 2010
at 4:15 am
The old Jubilee Bridge was there until about 1967-68. The highway was always so busy before that. The day the new bridge opened – bypassing Main Beach – my brother pushed our baby brother down the road in his stroller in front of our house in the middle of the road. We loved being cut off from the coast traffic, although we did enjoy sitting on the verandah on Sunday afternoon and laugh at the bumper to bumper traffic heading back to Brisbane.
By: bagnidilucca on August 20, 2010
at 8:01 am
Goodness me that is a giant jellyfish! I’m glad you put the thongs next to them to show us a size comparison! 😮
By: Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella on August 20, 2010
at 9:50 am
[…] here and here to see a lovely Australian […]
By: Cadiz shines in the sun « Bagni di Lucca and Beyond on April 18, 2011
at 5:14 am
Wow, Debra, this looks like a truly amazing beach. What a wonderful place to grow up. Thanks so much for mentioning this on my blog! Would you mind stopping back by with the other link?
Kathy
By: Kathryn McCullough on August 6, 2011
at 1:04 am
[…] more on marvellous Main Beach click here and here. LD_AddCustomAttr("AdOpt", "1"); LD_AddCustomAttr("Origin", "other"); […]
By: Here comes the sun « Bagni di Lucca and Beyond on September 19, 2011
at 8:48 pm
[…] here and here for more on this lovely […]
By: Does anyone know why seagulls stand on one leg? « Bagni di Lucca and Beyond on November 18, 2012
at 9:41 pm
[…] when I am gone is the beach. I grew up living beside one of the best beaches in the world, Main Beach on Queensland’s Gold Coast. I went back to my childhood beach for a swim before heading […]
By: First spring swim | Bagni di Lucca and Beyond on September 12, 2016
at 12:06 pm
Pretty lucky, Debra, growing up at Main Beach. A bit warmer, I think, than Victoria’s Gippsland.
By: Coral Waight on October 15, 2016
at 5:20 pm
Hello, my name is Daniel Del Prete. My father lives & is Tuscan…painfully so…. and my mother is Monegasque.
Its a long story that probably one day will become a book of how i came to be and born in Carlton Melbourne.
How ever my early years were in Yackandandah, Victoria.
Since 1977 i have lived in Main Beach.
I have recently sold to a developer and decided to write a white paper about Developers within Main Beach over the years.
Im guessing your old house in Main Beach was opposite a big Pink House that looked Spanish or even a touch Mexican on a double block on the beach front. Any old pictures of your old house ? Or any other house on that block ?
Any idea who owned it or when it was built and who it was bought by ?
It has become an enigma within conversation.
Thank you & kindest Regards, Daniel Del Prete.
By: Daniel Del Prete on June 14, 2025
at 10:50 pm
Hello, my name is Daniel Del Prete. My father lives & is Tuscan…painfully so…. and my mother is Monegasque.
Its a long story that probably one day will become a book of how i came to be and born in Carlton Melbourne.
How ever my early years were in Yackandandah, Victoria.
Since 1977 i have lived in Main Beach.
I have recently sold to a developer and decided to write a white paper about Developers within Main Beach over the years.
Im guessing your old house in Main Beach was opposite a big Pink House that looked Spanish or even a touch Mexican on a double block on the beach front. Any old pictures of your old house ? Or any other house on that block ?
Any idea who owned it or when it was built and who it was bought by ?
It has become an enigma within conversation.
Thank you & kindest Regards, Daniel Del Prete.
By: Daniel Del Prete on June 14, 2025
at 10:54 pm
Hello Daniel, you are correct that our house was opposite the pink house. We rented our house from Nancy Orchard, who owned the house next door. Her house was called Wyerie (not sure of spelling). Ours was called Tisma. Nancy’s house was in the corner of Main Beach Parade and Aloha Lane.
The 2 blocks and probable the one next to ours were sold for the developers of Bouganvillia, the unit block that is now on the site.
I don’t have pictures of our house or Nancy’s apart from a photo of us as children on her front steps.
My father built a house in the beach front in 1968 for his friend George Lewis. It was next door to Tom Perrin’s house and real estate office. I have a photo of the old house that was there. The photo is actually of my father and his friends with the fish they caught.
If you think they might be of interest I can find them and send them to you.
I feel very lucky to have spent my childhood at Main Beach!
By: Debra Kolkka on June 16, 2025
at 8:52 am
Thank you, that would be great. Any old pictures of main Beach you might have had then. Even pictures of Tedder avenue.
Do you remember Brad the butcher ?
Do you have pictures of the old Pink house ? Any idea who owned it and when it was built ? I suspect you would have seen it being built and what was on the double block before the Pink house was built ? When i first came to Main Beach, i lived within the sand dunes when i was 13 right next to an old hotel which was a mental home i think for some time. San Suzi or something like that i think. Any information of Main Beach Parade and in fact anything else you remember of growing up in Main Beach that would assist in information of the old Developers after Main Beach was a mineral sands mining pit. In the BBC archives i came across a documentary which was filmed in 1965.
Thanks again.
Daniel.
By: Daniel on June 16, 2025
at 7:38 pm