Our strategies

The Gold Coast has a long history of managing weather emergencies and natural hazards. Climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency of major storms, heatwaves, flooding, bushfire and drought, placing our enviable lifestyle at risk. 

Following consultation with our local community and technical experts, we have developed the Climate Resilience and Sustainability Strategy 2022-2033. The strategy will help protect the Gold Coast's natural beauty, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve our city's ability to withstand extreme weather events. It guides our climate actions over the next decade and will help us deliver a range of sustainable and resilience initiatives including: 

• setting a net zero greenhouse gas emissions target (Scope 1, 2 and 3) by 2050 for the City through the use of renewable energy, smarter and better management of waste, and zero emission vehicles
• strengthening our community’s resilience and awareness of climate impacts
• protecting and enhancing our natural and built environments
• improving wider sustainability outcomes for our city.

Community input into the strategy included focus groups with environmental and subject matter experts, meetings with First Nations people and a survey of local residents. The survey received more than 4000 responses – one of our most successful public surveys. Of these, 89.4% of survey participants acknowledge human activities are influencing the world’s climate.

Council Plan alignment and outcomes

The strategy is an outcome of the Council Plan. Our strategies are fundamental in delivering transformational change and responding to current and emerging challenges and opportunities. Our Climate Resilience and Sustainability Strategy aims to deliver outcomes in the Council Plan 2022-2027 directly related to the 'One City' and 'Liveable Places' themes.

LIVEABLE PLACES

Our City is well-planned and designed, growing with future generations in mind.

ONE CITY

Our city has strong partnerships and advocates to maximise emerging opportunities.

Our Climate Resilience and Sustainability Strategy will be implemented alongside other strategies through good governance, collaborative decision-making and performance evaluation. The strategy works hand-in-hand with the following environmental actions that we have already undertaken such as:

• Our Natural City Strategy
• Towards Zero Waste Plan
• Coastal Adaptation Plan
• Ocean Beaches Strategy
• koala conservation.

The following table outlines the strategy focus areas of ‘Resilient Gold Coast', 'Lower carbon future' and 'Net zero City operations', that will guide the outcomes, measures and actions over the next decade and beyond. Our strategic intent is to address the challenge of climate change through practical and sensible solutions that deliver climate resilience. Acting now will ensure we can continue to enjoy our enviable lifestyle into the future.

* Council Plan 2022-2027 outcomes and measures of success

The Climate Resilience and Sustainability Strategy 2023-2033 Implementation Plan is currently under development and is due to be released in 2024.

Published: 13 November 2023

City of Gold Coast: built on creativity, transformed by imagination

Our Culture Strategy 2023 sets a vision for the Gold Coast where culture is central to our community wellbeing, our city's reputation and liveability, and our economic growth.

The strategy calls us to push boundaries and challenge perceptions, uncover and promote our unique heritage and culture, and explore new creative territory.

We seek to find new ways to support our artists and cultural practitioners to create excellent contemporary art that is distinctly Gold Coast. We want to engage our residents and visitors to explore, participate, make and experience arts and culture that surprises, delights, challenges and entertains.

We aim to make arts and culture part of our everyday lives.

The Culture Strategy 2023 was developed after extensive consultation with our community and local cultural practitioners.

Check out the three major catalysts for change outlined in the strategy: delivering unprecedented opportunities for cultural development and transformation, and exploring the four strategic outcomes that fuel our strategic vision.

Take a look at our Public Art Plan 2021, which informs investment and delivery of commissioned permanent and temporary public art.

We provide over 780 different services to our residents, businesses and visitors. The Customer Experience Strategy is about ensuring our customers have the best possible experience when using or looking for information about our services and dealing with us. Our vision is to make life easier for our customers.

Our customers have told us they want us to focus on:

• removing complexity
• offering more self service options
• being available to help
• keeping them informed
• proactively communicating with them
• asking them for feedback.

The strategy will ensure we continue to keep pace with evolving technology, services and customer expectations.

The expected outcomes over the coming years include implementing:

• improved website design and functionality
• webchat
• SMS, social media and messenger app notification systems to alert customers of service outages or other time sensitive information
• an online bookings system to allow customers to determine availability and book services such as parks, community centres, sporting facilities
• up to date data security measures to protect customers' personal data from cyber security threats
• regular customer feedback opportunities to ensure our services are designed around customer needs.

The Customer Experience Strategy was adopted by Council on 11 October 2019. A detailed implementation plan is currently being drafted.

Download the Customer Experience Strategy below for more information.

Our strategies are fundamental in delivering transformational change and responding to current and emerging challenges and opportunities. Our Economic Strategy 2022-2027 aims to deliver outcomes in the Council Plan 2022-2027 directly related to the 'Diverse thriving economy' theme. It will be implemented alongside other strategies through good governance, collaborative decision-making and performance evaluation.

DIVERSE THRIVING ECONOMY

Our city has a high-performance economy, powered by talent and innovation.

Find out more about the key themes of the strategy:

Download the Economic Strategy 2022-2027(PDF, 5MB)

This strategy is a key component of our Council Plan and will help us deliver our measures of success.

For more information email businessgc@goldcoast.qld.gov.au

Released in 2013, the Gold Coast City Transport Strategy is guiding the city's transport system to 2031, creating a smart, connected and liveable city under a one network approach.

The Transport Strategy is a city-changing initiative that will create a world-class transport system and put the City of Gold Coast on the map.

A balanced transport system is the key to a positive transport future. We aim to manage road space better, eliminate bottle necks, invest in cycling and walking, extend the light rail network, improve bus services and extend the capacity of the heavy railway.

The City of Gold Coast has recently undertaken a review of the Transport Strategy to ensure we are on track with delivering our 2031 transport commitments and best placed to adapt to emerging technologies and trends.

This mid-life review, with input from across our organisation as well as key industry and government stakeholders, has shown that we are on track with delivering our 2031 transport commitments and are adapting well to changes in the transport landscape by considering emerging technologies. We have achieved much in the last five years, and are well prepared to deliver even more in the next five years.

Read more about transport and the Gold Coast, achievements so far, how we are responding to the changing transport landscape and managing congestion in the city in the Mid-life review summary.

Find out more about our other City initiatives and plans that contribute to the Gold Coast Transport Strategy 2031:

• Gold Coast Road Safety Plan 2015-2020
• Active Transport Plan 2017-2027
• Travel Behaviour Change Plan 2017-2022
• City Parking Plan 2031
• Gold Coast Road Network Plan 2018-2028
• Gold Coast City Freight Plan 2018-2028
• Public Transport Plan 2018-2028

The Water Strategy vision is to ensure best-practice management of the Gold Coast's natural resources for a sustainable future.

Council has endorsed the latest addition to our strategic agenda, the Gold Coast Water Strategy, to guide the sustainable management of our water resources and environments.

The strategy outlines key actions for the first five years (Phase 1) of our 20 year aspiration to become a water sensitive city. In short, we want to be a city where people want to work and live long term - a liveable city, as well as a resilient, sustainable and productive city.

To achieve that aspiration we need to respond to the challenges facing cities of today including increased urbanisation, periodic floods and droughts and changing government policy.

The strategy's vision is to ensure best-practice management of our natural resources for a sustainable future and as such, it has been developed in partnership with Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities and will apply the Water Sensitive Cities Index of 34 indicators to track our progress towards a water sensitive city In all, the strategy outlines more than 30 actions across the following four strategic outcomes:

Our healthy waters

Our environment, prosperity and unique Gold Coast lifestyle are dependent upon our healthy and connected water environments.

From the hinterland to the ocean, healthy water environments support thriving habitats for native species, recreation and shading and carry out vital floodplain functions.

Innovative water solutions

Our water solutions and strategies value natural resources and deliver innovative, efficient water-related services and outcomes that benefit the community and the environment.

Water inspired design

The Gold Coast is a well-designed and prosperous city inspired by water.

We create beautiful, connected spaces while respecting the dynamic nature of water to ensure a safe, resilient and sustainable city.

Partnerships with water

Water extends across natural, societal and political boundaries, making it complex to manage.

By working together, we carefully manage and protect our water resources and environments for current and future generations.

Vision: Our beaches are clean, healthy and accessible now and into the future

The City of Gold Coast has been a leader in coastal management for more than 50 years, driven by the need to protect the city and its shoreline from the impacts of storms. A suite of innovative policies, research, technologies and beach management techniques have been implemented on the Gold Coast and subsequently acknowledged and adopted as best practice throughout the world.

The Gold Coast's iconic beaches draw some 12 million visitors to the city every year. Such valuable assets need a special plan to make sure they are given the care and protection they need, which is why we have an Ocean Beaches Strategy, developed through widespread community consultation and endorsed by Council of the City of Gold Coast in August 2013.

There is joint stewardship of the ocean beaches

We collaborate with a number of external agencies such as:

• Gold Coast Waterways Authority
• Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation
• Tweed River Entrance Sand Bypassing Project
• Griffith Centre for Coastal Management.

Activities completed under these partnerships include sand bypassing, wave buoy deployment, coastal data capture, dredging and beach nourishment works, and coastal research.

Everyone can enjoy the ocean beaches

Our Surf Management Plan seeks to balance the interests of all beach and ocean users to ensure that our beaches are open, inclusive, and remain healthy and clean. The vision for the Surf Management Plan is to provide world's best practice coastal management strategies to preserve and enhance the surf amenity of the Gold Coast. The Surf Management Plan also recognises the key role surfing plays in the economy, culture, sporting life and social capital of the city.

Our beaches are healthy and clean

Dredging

We undertake an annual dredging campaign at Currumbin and Tallebudgera Creeks. This program provides many benefits including flood mitigation, improved water quality and minor beach nourishment to southern Palm Beach (Currumbin) and Burleigh Beach (Tallebudgera).

Regular beach maintenance

Clean beaches and waterways are synonymous with the Gold Coast. To ensure our beaches and foreshores retain their appeal, we invest in a range of cleaning and management services. Our mainland ocean beaches are swept (using a City-designed tractor sieve) every day of the year. We have 6 crews of 2 people who patrol the 860 kilometres of tidal waterways removing over 1000 tonnes per year of debris.

Tweed River Entrance Sand Bypassing Project 

This is a sand transport system that collects drifting ocean sand at a jetty on the southern side of the Tweed River entrance and ‘delivers’ the sand, by underground pipe, back to the ocean on the northern side of the river. From here, the sand is transported by wave currents to nourish southern Gold Coast beaches. The Project is run by the New South Wales Government with support from the Queensland Government and the City of Gold Coast.

Our infrastructure is protected from coastal hazards

Gold Coast Shoreline Management Plan is a strategy with a 50 year horizon that focuses on coastal physical processes, coastal ecological processes, economic values, community values and beach management. The plan includes 77 recommendations to manage the Gold Coast's coastline, including measures to combat the threat of increasing storm events on Gold Coast beaches over the next 15 years.

Some of these projects are as follows:

• Palm Beach Shoreline Project – a holistic plan to provide a sustainable solution for the ongoing protection of the foreshore at Palm Beach. The project aims to:
  • reduce the vulnerability of the beach and beachfront development to storm damage
  • protect, and if practical, enhance the beach and surf amenity for the community
  • provide a sustainable, cost effective and integrated solution to maintain a healthy beach profile
  • avoid or mitigate adverse environmental and social impacts associated with beach erosion.
• The Northern Beaches Shoreline Project – this project will utilise sand reserves located offshore of the Gold Coast to nourish the northern beaches of the Gold Coast and decrease the vulnerability of these iconic beaches to storm damage. The Northern Beaches Shoreline Project area includes Main Beach, Surfers Paradise and Northcliffe Esplanades.
• Northern Beaches Sand Nourishment Pipeline – this project is investigating the options available to use a sand backpassing system to deliver sand nourishment from the Gold Coast Seaway Bypass System back down to the northern beaches.
• Seawall – the construction of seawalls forms part of the City's shoreline management response to coastal erosion. Our seawalls, located along an invisible coastal boundary known as the A-Line (alignment parallel to the foreshore set by the State Government), are a vital component of the City's defence mechanism against erosion.
• Project Kirra – This project reinstated the Kirra Point groyne by 30 metres to its original constructed length and was completed in 2013.

The Gold Coast is globally renowned for its stunning natural environment, connection to nature and an outdoor lifestyle envied the world over.

From the lush hinterland to endless waterways, golden beaches and stunning habitat, the Gold Coast truly is a place of natural beauty. And it's up to all of us, to play our part in protecting Our Natural City.

Learn how to get involved

Our Natural City Strategy 2032 has been co-created with partner sectors and the community to make sure we have the right actions in place to protect our incredible city.

Read the strategy to find out more:

• Our Natural City Strategy 2032(PDF, 2MB)
• Our Natural City Strategy 2032 Implementation Overview(PDF, 6MB)

Over the next decade, the City of Gold Coast is focused on delivering projects that restore our environment, and protect our precious wildlife and their habitat. We will be providing more experiences for people to enjoy nature, including:

• working towards our target of 51% native vegetation cover
• purchasing land to secure strategic habitat and connect critical nature corridors
• designing city growth to protect our natural environment, and
• understanding and responding to climate impacts for land and water environments.

As one of Australia's most biodiverse cities, we need to protect our spectacular ecosystems - home to over 3000 native animal species and around 2500 native plant species, ancient forests and our precious koala populations. This will require ongoing partnerships between government, businesses, research institutions, land owners and the community across the entire Gold Coast to protect and enhance our natural city.

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Council Plan alignment and outcomes

Our Natural City Strategy 2032 is a direct deliverable of two of the Council Plan's themes: 'Naturally Unique' and 'Connected Community.'

NATURALLY UNIQUE

Our city values its natural environment, that gives us a lifestyle like no other.

CONNECTED COMMUNITY

Our city is accessible, connected and convenient, supporting our lifestyle.

To emphasise how important this strategy is, a community survey^ revealed that out of the six Council Plan themes, protecting our 'Naturally unique' city was the number one priority.

The table below outlines the Our Natural City Strategy 2032 themes of 'Explore and discover', 'Protect and enhance' and 'Connect and partner', that will guide the outcomes, measures and actions over the next decade and beyond. Our strategic intent is to make sure our city continues to value its natural environment that gives us lifestyle like no other.

Find out more about the key themes of the strategy:

This strategy is a key component of our Council Plan and will help us deliver our measures of success.

Our Natural City story map

Check out our story map to see a visual overview of the Gold Coast's environmental values, challenges and how we're responding to protect and enhance it.

View our Natural City story map

Page last updated: 3 September 2024

Why do we need a Solid Waste Strategy?

City of Gold Coast is the second largest local government area in Australia and the sixth largest city by population. By 2024, we expect to grow by another 130,000 residents – that's more than 60,000 extra homes nine years from 1 September 2015, when the Solid Waste Strategy 2024 was adopted by Council. Add in the 12 million tourists that visit our city every year and our expected growth in commerce and industry and that's a lot of solid waste to manage!

What is solid waste?

This is the unwanted solid material that usually ends up in a bin. Otherwise called rubbish, refuse, garbage or trash, it includes litter, illegally dumped waste and recyclables. It doesn't include wastewaters, sewage or other liquid wastes.

Developing the strategy

The strategy is the culmination of extensive community consultation and internal collaboration. The community consultation phase was conducted 3 November to 5 December 2014. 1721 responses were received. Responses showed general support for the draft strategy. All feedback was collated and considered in the development of the final strategy.

The new strategy

The Solid Waste Strategy 2024 was adopted by Council on 1 September 2015.

The strategy outlines the extent of the waste management challenge in the next nine years and how we intend to meet it. Our vision is ‘Managing our resources for a sustainable future’.

Our four proposed outcomes in 2024 are:

• The City and the community actively practise waste avoidance and other positive waste behaviours
• Waste avoidance, re-use, recycling and recovery opportunities are maximised prior to landfill disposal
• Our capacity to manage future waste is secured
• Solid waste management has minimal negative impact on our environment and public health.

To achieve these outcomes, we propose to focus on:

• Actively involving the community and City staff in practical recycling and waste reduction programs.
• Diverting identified priority wastes from landfill, especially organic waste. Organic waste includes garden waste, food waste, timber and cardboard.
• Providing more recycling options in public places, for medium to high density housing, business premises and at major events.
• Planning ahead to build cost effective, best-practice waste and recycling infrastructure that will meet predicted demand.
• Implementing best practice collection services and waste facilities that meet the community's needs, as well as financial and environmental factors.

The City's strategic program is defined by 19 key actions. Progress on these actions will be measured via interim targets reviewed during the nine year term of the strategy.

Our strategies are fundamental in delivering transformational change and responding to current and emerging challenges and opportunities. Our Sport and Physical Activity Strategy 2022-2032 aims to deliver outcomes in the Council Plan 2022-2027 directly related to the 'Vibrant lifestyle' and 'One city' themes. It will be implemented alongside other strategies through good governance, collaborative decision-making and performance evaluation.

VIBRANT LIFESTYLE

Our city is welcoming, safe and simply the best place to live and visit.

ONE CITY

Our city has strong partnerships and advocates to maximise emerging opportunities.

Find out more about the key themes of the strategy:

This strategy is a key component of our Council Plan and will help us deliver our measures of success.

For more information email gogoldcoast@goldcoast.qld.gov.au