Gold Coast City Council buys $10 million Eaglemont estate for Springbrook eco-tourism

The Gold Coast council has purchased a sprawling luxury estate in Springbrook for more than $10 million, which could serve as “a landing spot for a cableway”, Mayor Tom Tate says.

The City of Gold Coast on Tuesday announced it had purchased the Eaglemont Estate next to the World Heritage-listed Springbrook National Park, with plans to redevelop the 63-hectare site into a nature tourism offering.

“We’ll have walking trails and the buzzword at the moment is glamping,” Cr Tate said.

“Another market where people are happy to indulge in nature but at the same time have the comfort of five stars.”

While Cr Tate said Eaglemont Estate would initially be redeveloped into an eco-tourism offering, later stages could see it used as a drop-off point for a controversial cableway project.

What is Eaglemont Estate?

Eaglemont Estate in the Gold Coast hinterland is within walking distance of popular hiking trails around Purling Brook Falls, at Springbrook National Park.

The national park is part of Australia’s World Heritage-listed Gondwana rainforests — an ancient ecosystem, internationally recognised for its rare flora and fauna.

Eaglemont was owned by late neurologist and professor John Corbett for the past two decades, but was listed for sale earlier this year.

The estate encompasses a luxurious house, tennis court, garden maze, magnesium pool and worker cottage, along with a nursery and natural spring water bore.

Before that, it was a dairy farm connected by trails to Tallebudgera and an old defence force outpost.

Cr Tate said the council would develop a master plan for the estate over the next six months, including community consultation.

“[We want to] reflect on the previous owners and their heritage so people can see what it was like back in the old days,” he said.

“I would like to see an education centre so they can reflect on the history, Indigenous history and first European history to arrive there.

“I’d like to see a timeline so people can see this is how the Gold Coast started.”

How does it connect to the cableway?

The council voted earlier this month to begin devising a possible route for a cableway that would take tourists from low-lying Gold Coast areas, across the hinterland ranges to the summit at Springbrook.

The project, first proposed in the late 1990s, has already faced opposition from some traditional owners amid fears it could threaten the area’s cultural values and World Heritage status.

Moreover, given the cableway would run through a World Heritage-listed area and national park, it faces a stringent and complicated environmental approval process.

But Cr Tate said the council’s purchase of Eaglemont Estate meant “there’s one less objection because we’re the landowner there”.

“The cableway is more than a cableway,” he said.

The state government has also voiced its support for a cableway at Springbrook.

In January, the council is expected to discuss an alternative cableway proposal that would take a different route further north, outside of the World Heritage-listed area.

Cr Tate said he had already met with the private consortium behind the alternative proposal to discuss the matter.