Main Beach Pavilion and Southport Surf Lifesaving Club are heritage-listed beach buildings off Macarthur Parade, Main Beach, Queensland, Australia. The Main Beach Pavilion was designed by Thomas Ramsay Hall and Lionel Blythewood Phillips of the architectural firm Hall and Phillips and built in 1934 for the Southport Town Council. The Surf Lifesaving Club was also designed by Hall and Phillips and built adjacent in 1936 for the club. They were added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 1 March 1995.
History
The Main Beach Pavilion and Southport Surf Lifesaving Club were constructed on Main Beach at Southport, in the mid 1930s by the Southport Town Council. The Main Beach Pavilion was erected in 1934, and provided public bathing facilities. The Surf Lifesaving Club was built 1936, and provided dormitory space, equipment shelter and club room facilities for the surf lifesavers. Both buildings were designed by Hall and Phillips.
The buildings were erected during an important stage of the development of Southport. There was rapid growth in coastal regions during the 1930s as bathing in sea water became increasingly popular as a recreational pursuit. The majority of the population by the late 1930s benefited from paid holiday leave, increasing leisure time and the opportunities for extended holidays. Councils of various coastal regions were competing for holiday trade by instigating beautification schemes and programmes for the provision of public facilities on the beaches. Many public and commercial buildings were designed during this period in Southport by Hall and Phillips including the Council Chambers (1934), the Pier Theatre (1926), accommodation units (1928), a service station (1929) and various business premises as well as two bathing pavilions and lifesaving clubhouse.
South East Queensland has a long tradition of beach-going, resorts were developed from the 1860s when Sandgate and, to a lesser extent Cleveland, were premier coastal destinations. Southport developed as an alternate resort when Sandgate became more accessible with the introduction of the Sandgate rail line in 1882. Logging in the Southport area commenced in the late 1850s, and by 1875 the first sales of land opened the area for settlement. By the 1880s major Brisbane families favoured Southport as the principal sea-side area. The construction of major schools, banks and hotels stimulated Southport's growth as a fashionable nineteenth century resort as did the presence of the Queensland Governor's residence in the 1890s. The South Coast rail extension from Beenleigh to Southport was opened in 1889 making Southport more accessible from Brisbane.
With increased accessibility and popularity of the beaches during the late nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, the necessity for bathing controls was soon realised. By 1906, Section 109 of the Local Government Act prescribed that individual local councils control swimming and swim-wear, nominating standards for bathing costumes, segregating bathing and defining bathing areas.
Main Beach Pavilion
In the first decades of the century councils permitted privately owned bathing sheds on the beaches, which provided direct access to the water after changing. In the 1920s custom became more relaxed toward bathing in public. Sea water bathing, formerly encouraged for its curative powers, was gradually becoming a recreational pursuit. South coast councils, realising the possible financial benefits from holiday makers provided firstly public dressing sheds and, later, bathing pavilions.
During the 1930s, various councils of the coastal regions of south east Queensland such as Southport Town Council, Coolangatta Town Council and Nerang Shire Council on the south coast, as well as Redcliffe City Council and the north coast councils, competed for an increase in holiday visitors. Chambers of Commerce and Progress Committees urged councils to develop and beautify foreshore area. The Southport Town Council adopted a beautification plan in the mid-1920s which included the erection of bathing pavilions.
Two bathing pavilions were built, one on Main Beach and the other on the Esplanade close to the Southport railway station. The contractors for the Main Beach Pavilion were Lee & Barnby, who constructed the building at a cost of , half of which was subsidised by the Queensland Government. The pavilion was built as a single storey brick and concrete structure, with change rooms, showers and lavatories. It contained separate sections for men and women, each with 204 lockers and eight showers with seven lavatories for women and five for the men, an ambulance first aid room and an entertainment hall for dancing.