gold coast

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Gold Coasts No.1 Website fiasco

A couple of weeks ago the local newspaper - The Gold Coast Bulletin - released it's new website/news portal which at the time didn't interest me so much as the newspaper itself fails to interest me.

Although there has been a couple of blog posts which I found not only amusing but also revealing inspiring me to put my thoughts out there.

Now the first thing that just makes a joke out of the four page wrapper is that sub headline. "Gold Coast's No.1 Website..." umm..so that is Gold Coast is No.1 Website? This was throughout the non labeled promotional piece. Now you could expect such much mistakes from a blogger but not mainstream media, It's an absolute embarrassment for the residents of the region. No wonder that no other media touched the story.

They also boldly claim to be the regions No.1 website just days after launching the site? Can they back that up with anything other than puffery? No and perhaps that's the reason for the misspell.

They also make, what I would call defamatory, claims such as 'The Gold Coasts tourism operators finally have a single place to concentrate their marketing efforts after many years of needing to use multiple small ineffective websites', really. I'm sure the ACCC would find that somewhat interesting.

Should the owners of websites relating to the Gold Coast be a little upset. Absolutely and so should the Gold Coast Council and Tourism Queensland.

The posts that made me post:
We're Way Ahead
Murdoch Owns The Gold Coast: Is Everyone OK With That?

The other points expressed in those posts are the fact that how did Auda (the domain regulator) let city names slip to the corporate sector?

The other post is somewhat disturbing revealing monopoly domination of media, now seemingly both offline and online.

Great work by both of those bloggers.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Shankar dada Zindabad - filming on the Gold Coast

Its always fun when you wander along the beach and run into a movie crew! This week the crew filming the movie Shankar dada Zindabad where completing some of their filming for the movie on the beaches of the Gold Coast.

Shankar dada Zindabad is being made by filmmakers from Teluga, India aka Tollywood. The movie stars Chiranjeevi and Karishma Kotak.

Photo: The film crew used Currumbin Beach on the Gold Coast as one of their shoot locations.

Photo: Karishma Kotak and Chiranjeevi in action on the set of Shankar Dada Zindabad.

Photo: Karishma Kotak and Chiranjeevi taking a minute after shooting a scene.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Soldiers on the March

The Soldier Crab lives in sandy estuaries and mangroves, and occurs in massive groups that seem to emerge from nowhere all at the same time. A small army of Soldier Crabs inhabits the calm waters of the Spit (Doug Jennings Park) on the Gold Coast - pictured below.

Soldier crabs will comb the sandy intertidal zones scooping up this debris with their front claws and eating it. The crabs will then deposit the waste sand that is left over in compacted balls called pseudofaece. The photo above shows a small 'army' of Soldier Crabs moving across the beach, also seen is the pebbling effect of the beach being their compacted waste.

It is thought that their spontaneous arrival is triggered by the falling tide. If disturbed, they burrow into the sand with a corkscrew motion, disappearing as quickly as they arrived. In the photo below one little fella is just poking his head out for a look behind his mate.

The Soldier Crabs are also the only crabs that can walk forwards rather than sideways.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

The Gold Coast for Shopping

I'm not much of a shop-aholic although many people enjoy a little retail therapy particularly when there is a bargain to be had.

During June the Gold Coast goes bizarre! No not really it just has a bazaar. It's just Surfers Paradise at nightclub closing time that gets a little bizarre! Anyway, for the whole month the entire city and it's businesses really turn it up with mini events, fashion shows and retailer discounts.

I think it was intended to give tourism a bit of a boost during the slow month of June, but it's a bonus for a local as June is kinda boring without any big ticket items except for State of Origin footy.

The coast has a huge array of places to go window shopping and bargain hunting, check out Gold Coast Shopping Centres for a list of the major retail shopping complexes on the Gold Coast. Apart from the major centres there are a number of areas that contain boutique shopping experiences and bargains just the same check out Tedder ave on Main Beach and Marina Mirage for designer clothes, art and lovely cafes. Also at Broadbeach you can also find apart from the impressive range of restuarants some very interesting little shops with things you just won't find at the major centres.

For more info on the Bazaar check out Gold Coast Bazaar.