Wild BNE

Border patrol: rainbow bee-eaters use the Gold Coast Airport perimeter fence as a hunting perch. Unless you are a southern Gold Coast local, you might barely know Bilinga. Driving along the Gold Coast Highway, it comes across as simply being a part of Tugun, and the beachfront is more widely known as North Kirra Beach. Even the Gold Coast Airport terminal, situated within Bilinga, is known by the alternate name of Coolangatta Airport! For those in the know, however, it is a small but quite beautiful part of the Gold Coast, with a gorgeous coastline in particular.

Early morning colours on the heathland at Pine Ridge Conservation Park. Featured areas: (1) Pine Ridge Conservation Park, (2) Runaway Bay Marina, (3) The Broadwater foreshore, (4) Suburban Hollywell. Image courtesy of Google Maps.  Hollywell is not one of the premier tourist destinations on the Gold Coast, but for those interested in coastal landscapes, a visit should be essential! Inside this suburb remains the last coastal wallum heath found on the Gold Coast mainland, preserved as part of Pine Ridge Conservation Park. Before European settlement, this vegetation type would have covered the entire area, right down to the dunes bordering the Broadwater. Things changed in 1890, when