Gold Coast

Is the Gold Coast safe?

Yes. The Gold Coast is a safe holiday city, and the ocean is a bigger threat to visitors than crime. Queensland Police recorded 3 murders in the Gold Coast council area in 2025 and 14 over the three years 2023 to 2025, about 0.7 per 100,000 people a year among 691,000 residents. That is lower than Queensland as a whole, where the Australian Bureau of Statistics counted 90 homicide victims in 2025, about 1.6 per 100,000.

The things that actually go wrong here are rips, car break-ins and late nights in Surfers Paradise, plus the occasional big storm. We score the Gold Coast 83 out of 100, level with Brisbane, its neighbour to the north, and a little below Sydney (85).

Rips and the surf

The UK Foreign Office calls rip currents the main hazard for all swimmers and surfers in Australia, and the Gold Coast is a city built along open surf beaches. Surf Life Saving Queensland counted 12 beach-related drownings in the state in its 2024–25 volunteer patrol season, all of them outside patrolled areas, and 42% of them in the Gold Coast region. Its Gold Coast volunteers made 469 rescues that season, more than in any other region. In 2022 the city council said Surfers Paradise needs more lifeguard rescues than any other beach on the coast, and that tourists and day-trippers are two and a half times more likely to need rescuing than locals.

That pattern tells you what to do:

• Swim between the red and yellow flags. Lifeguards watch that stretch of water.
• Do not swim at night, alone or after drinking. Nobody is watching outside patrol hours.
• If a rip takes you, float, raise an arm and let it carry you. Swimming straight back against it exhausts even strong swimmers.
• Sharks live along the whole coast. The Queensland Government advises swimming at patrolled beaches with shark control equipment, and leaving the water at once if lifeguards sound the siren or ring a bell.

Car crime and theft

In the year to September 2026, Gold Coast police recorded 274 robberies, about 40 per 100,000 people, plus 2,352 car thefts and 3,951 thefts from or break-ins to vehicles. Per resident, car crime runs at almost exactly Greater Brisbane's rate. Most of it hits parked cars and holiday rentals rather than people in the street.

Leave nothing visible in a hire car, especially at beach car parks and theme park lots, and keep car keys away from the front door of a holiday apartment. Do not leave phones and wallets on the sand while you swim. The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary also warns of fake accommodation websites, so book through known platforms and never pay a stranger by bank transfer.

Surfers Paradise after dark

Gallup's 2025 report finds 66% of Australians feel safe walking alone at night. On the Gold Coast, night-time trouble is concentrated around the bars and clubs of Surfers Paradise. The Surfers Paradise police division recorded 783 assaults in the year to September 2026, compared with about 1,100 in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley; neighbouring Broadbeach, with its casino and restaurants, recorded 483.

The beachfront esplanade, Broadbeach and Burleigh Heads are busy and fine for an evening walk. After the clubs close, stay on lit main streets, avoid arguments in taxi queues and use the tram, a taxi or a ride app rather than walking long distances alone.

Roads and getting around

Queensland's crash data show 17 road deaths in the Gold Coast council area in 2024, about 2.5 per 100,000 people, and 91 over the five years 2020 to 2024. Three of the 2024 fatal crashes involved a pedestrian. That is a lower rate than Greater Brisbane's (about 3.2).

Traffic drives on the left, so look right first when crossing, and cross busy roads at the lights. Hire cars are where most visitors take on road risk: if you have just landed from a long flight, rest before you drive.

Cyclone Alfred, floods and heat

The Gold Coast sits at the southern edge of Queensland's cyclone belt, and the 2025 season showed what that means. Cyclone Alfred moved slowly down the Coral Sea before crossing the coast at Bribie Island on 8 March 2025. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the Gold Coast Seaway recorded a gust of 107 km/h, a March record, and seas of 5 to 8 m between Brisbane and northern New South Wales scoured millions of cubic metres of sand from the beaches, leaving dune cliffs up to 6 m high. Upper Springbrook, in the Gold Coast hinterland, recorded 1,146 mm of rain in seven days, and the Logan and Albert rivers reached major flood. More than 500,000 homes and businesses across south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales lost power.

Cyclone season runs from November to April, and summer storms bring hail and flash floods in other years too. Follow Bureau of Meteorology warnings, stay off closed beaches and never drive through floodwater. In normal weather the air is clean: Australia's population-weighted PM2.5PM2.5Tiny airborne particles 2.5 micrometres across or smaller. They reach deep into the lungs and are the air pollutant most linked to early death.More in the glossary was 4.5 µg/m³ in 2024. UV is extreme for much of the year, so cover up and use sunscreen. Dial 000 for police, fire or ambulance. For crocodiles and box jellyfish further north, see our Cairns page.

How we scored it

Health and environment (92) and violent crime (88) are the Gold Coast's strongest factors, and road safety (87) is a little better than Brisbane's. Natural hazards (74) is the weakest, because of rip currents and the cyclone and flood risk Alfred exposed, along with night safety (74), where assaults around the Surfers Paradise clubs put it level with Brisbane on the same Gallup share. Theft (80) reflects car crime, not pickpocketing.