Cleaning Up The Gold Coast

With Australia’s Gold Coast announced to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games, moves are afoot to clean up the tourist spot to make it more family-friendly.

Some local councilors and members of the Games bid committee have launched a move to relocate the strip’s nightclubs to outlying industrial areas.

One, Surfers Paradise councilor and mayoral candidate Susie Douglas, said Waikiki, Hawaii, was a model in successfully separating its nightclub precinct from the tourist areas.

Police agree with the move to relocate the clubs: they have long claimed that 42 percent of the alcohol-related crime on the Gold Coast was in the entertainment strip.

Of late, they have also warned of the rise of organized crime in the area. This month they threatened to close any nightclub which allows in outlaw motorcycle gangs. Two have already been closed down in recent times.