Gold Coast, Queensland local updates
Parking is free at both City of Gold Coast car parks at Pratten Park in Broadbeach, but each has a time limit: 3 hours between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday at the North car park, and 4 hours between 8.30am and 6pm every day at the South car park. Outside those times, the City says parking at both is available 24/7 and unrestricted.
Parking is free at both the Doug Jennings Park car park and the Philip Park car park on The Spit at Main Beach. The City of Gold Coast says there is no charge at either. Doug Jennings Park has a listed capacity of 700 to 799 spaces and Philip Park 200 to 249, and both are off Seaworld Drive.
Parking at the Broadwater car park in Southport costs $3.60 an hour, and the City of Gold Coast says you pay between 9am and 7pm, Monday to Sunday, public holidays included (Anzac Day is excluded). It is a large outdoor car park inside Broadwater Parklands on Marine Parade, and the City lists its capacity as 650 to 699 spaces.
The City of Gold Coast’s Cypress Avenue car park in Surfers Paradise costs $9.20 for a day, or $3.20 an hour, and you pay between 9am and 7pm every day of the week, public holidays included (Anzac Day is the exception). The car park is open 24 hours, and parking is free outside those paid times.
The most you can be charged at the Bruce Bishop car park in Surfers Paradise is $21 for a calendar day, with one entry and one exit. The City of Gold Coast runs the car park at 10 Beach Road, and it takes cards only: no cash is accepted, and only Mastercard and Visa work.
Bus stops on Main Beach Parade have been closed since Tuesday 13 October, and more close on Sunday 18 and Monday 19 October, so routes 70, 704 and 705 stop in different places around Main Beach and Surfers Paradise until Tuesday 3 November. The closures are for the Gold Coast 500, and most of them lift at 5am on Tuesday 27 October, two days after the race weekend.
From about 5am on Monday 19 October, the streets of the Gold Coast 500 circuit in Main Beach and Surfers Paradise turn one-way, anti-clockwise, and the Gold Coast Highway runs with reduced lanes until 5am on Tuesday 27 October. The track itself is shut to all vehicles from 6am to 6pm on Friday 23 October and from 7am to 7pm on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October.
Parking at Pacific Fair is free for the first 4 hours each day. After that you pay by the half hour, from $10.00 for 4 to 4.5 hours up to $40.00 for more than 10 hours, unless you spend $300 or more on the day and have your parking validated at Concierge, which makes the whole day free.
Feast on Fifth, the free street party in Palm Beach, runs from 4pm to 9pm on Saturday 17 October, but Fifth Avenue closes well before that. The road is closed between the Gold Coast Highway and Cypress Terrace from 10am to 11:59pm, and the organisers list car parks as closing earlier, from 9am.
The City of Gold Coast’s Carey, Athol Paterson and Cloyne Road car parks in Southport all charge $3.20 an hour or $9.20 a day, and you pay between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Saturday. Parking at all three is free outside those times, and charges apply on public holidays except Anzac Day.