Highland Park Suburb Review

Summary: Never one of the signature ‘brand name’ suburbs of the Gold Coast, Highland Park happily flies under the radar as a solid, no-nonsense and very well-maintained pocket of mainly suburban living in a highly central spot relative to the city’s geography. This is a fairly compact suburb that nevertheless packs in quite a bit of residential housing on both the mid-and-higher end, as well as a decent array of greenery both in terms of its handful of parks as well as its general streetscape.

Its main benefits come largely due to its combination of relative quiet, as well as raw location – even from the rearward sections of the suburb, the Pacific Motorway is easily accessed in short order. Meanwhile its proximity to other busier suburbs such as Nerang or Robina mean you can access amenities relatively easily while benefitting from quiet while living in the suburb itself.

This is otherwise a fairly uneventful, family-oriented suburb with a solid level of house pride that makes it essentially a better-maintained, tidier and less-well-equipped version of neighbouring Nerang. It’s also still relatively well-priced as far as the Gold Coast goes these days, making it solid value for money considering how safe it is, as well.

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One of the less-discussed suburbs on the central Gold Coast largely due to its overall lack of ‘sexiness’ as well as its (relatively) small overall size, Highland Park nevertheless offers a sneaky-good option for those after some fairly quiet residential living without being isolated from key parts of the city.

The suburb shares quite a bit in common with neighbouring Nerang, enjoying many of the same benefits while sacrificing somewhat in direct access to amenities & as extensive an array of parks and wide green spaces. This is in return for Highland Park having a generally neater/tidier overall streetscape, as well as more peace and quiet overall due to a reduced amount of through-traffic compared to Nerang.

Similarly, Highland Park sits directly alongside the western border with the M1 Highway in a location that’s quite central relative to the present-day Gold Coast’s north/south axis. From a practical and convenience perspective, this means Highland Park is in a pretty ideal spot for accessing most of the city’s key highlights without too much of a trip required.

While it can’t boast having any of these major attractions within its actual borders – there’s no beach, or major shopping centre, or much in the way of entertainment offerings – all of these are still only a relatively short drive away. This allows residents here to access each of those when needed, then returning home to a quieter place to lay their heads, which is quite a good balance.

Major shopping centres like Robina Town Centre (¬12 minutes) and Pacific Fair (¬20 minutes) are readily accessible, and being able to hop on the M1 in short order also means that Gold Coast Airport is also only around ¬25 minutes away for additional connectivity. Even the beach at places like Surfers Paradise are reachable in about half an hour.

In addition, for those looking for rail-based journeys, Nerang Station is just over a 5 minute drive away from most of Highland Park as well. This provides the potential option for working in Brisbane in a pinch, although that’s still quite a long commute time in total (around 1 hour 20 minutes to Roma Street Station in Brisbane when factoring in the drive to the station), so not exactly ideal.

Otherwise, most people working locally will have to suffer from all the same morning traffic issues either on the M1 north/south crawl, or heading east/west along other main arterial Gold Coast roads that are typically clogged of a morning. This is a problem that’s not specific to Highland Park itself, however, although Highland Park having only one real main in/out road in Alexander Drive compounds this a little bit as everyone has to use it to get out of the suburb.

One of the other pluses is that you won’t necessarily have to leave the general Highland Park area for most daily needs in the first place anyway.

While it’s not home to a major shopping centre, the suburb’s Highland Park Shopping Plaza is a decent little spot that offers a smattering of amenities and dining, along with the likes of decently-sized IGA, chemists, basic bakery, etc.

It’s far from a full-blown actual complex, but is enough to get by for basic needs, although you’ll be paying a slight ‘IGA premium’ on grocery prices for many items compared to larger chains.

Highland Park also benefits in this regard from its direct proximity to Nerang, and all its big box retailers & fast food joints that lie just a couple of minutes away; they’re essentially ‘in’ Highland Park anyway, with the cluster of these amenities that lie alongside the highway offering spots to buy bigger home & other goods.

Bunnings, OfficeWorks, Pet Barn and various other retailers are all here, a boon to residents who can travel just a couple of minutes without having to drive to the bigger/busier Gold Coast shopping areas in order to visit the same stores.

Outside of these offerings, Highland Park is fairly lacking in any other kind of major dining or entertainment. Its shopping plaza has a couple little takeaway restaurants/cafes, but that’s about it. This isn’t the suburb for foodies or those who want any kind of major entertainment or ‘hangout’ scene, making it far less appealing for younger adults or those who prioritise trendy/buzzing atmospheres.

In addition, its local watering hole the Highland Park Tavern is a very minimal, bare bones version of a local drinking spot which will serve its purpose in a pinch but is hardly exactly spectacular. This is your typical semi-dated Aussie local pub with ample sports on TV and not much else, and is a bit dingy overall; there are honestly other, better, options for a drink and a feed just a short drive away.

Topography and layout-wise, Highland Park continues the trend of most of these suburbs to the immediate west of the highway of going from relatively flat, to gradually sloping uphill at first and becoming increasingly steep the further west you go.

As a result, much of the suburb sits on a reasonably steep incline, which reduces walkability but also offers the chance at some nice views in return for many of its homes built further up.

It’s also quite green in general, striking a decent balance between tidy and well-maintained streetscapes and some of the more ‘wild’ greenery that can be experienced in the suburb’s westernmost portions.

Being a pretty established suburb at this point – it “officially” became a separate suburb back in 2003, but existed in some form since the late 1980’s – means that most of its tree cover is mature at this point, and these days you can find lots of nice, tall trees in its residential streets.

Residents in Highland Park as well as local authorities also do a pretty good job of lawn and nature strip maintenance, giving it a neater and tidier feel than some of the other similar-generation suburbs in this general area.

The combination of simply having better-cut grass and less unruly parkland, as well as generally more renovated & maintained houses gives it a bit more of a ‘nice’ feel that offsets some of its aging at this point.

Park-wise, Highland Park underwhelms a little bit, which is ironic especially given its name. Its main parks themselves are generally longer/narrow ‘linear’ parks that are thin, a bit hilly and winding, and not flat as you might hope.

There’s no single real “flagship” park with tons of playground equipment and amenities or any kind of real central gathering point; it’s more a couple of smaller pocket parks in each section such as Lawrance Hinde Park and Fred Cass Family Park which have basic equipment and not much else.

The latter of these is basically a mini-forest more than a true park, and given its parks lie downhill they are also prone to getting a bit muddy after periods of decent rainfall.

It’s not a massive deal-breaker given there’s plenty of other parks elsewhere a short drive away, but you’d expect a little bit more given how otherwise family-friendly Highland Park is overall.

At least Explorers Way Park in its central area is dog friendly, which is a plus; it’s fenced and allows dogs off leash, and its long/extended nature makes for a good ground for pets to burn off energy or to have a walk yourself.

Highland Park also boasts good footpaths, often on both sides of its residential streets, which might sound like a minor thing but is still something of a rarity in many residential suburbs on the Gold Coast. This means you can walk most of the way throughout without having to continually cross the road, which is both convenient and safer for children as well.

The suburb in general is highly family-friendly. Not only is it highly safe – Highland Park boasts one of the lowest crime rates of any suburb on the Gold Coast (one of the benefits of being a ‘boring’ suburb) – but it offers decent options for schooling as well.

William Duncan State School is technically Highland Park’s only school within its actual borders, and serves as a decent quality if unspectacular co-ed school with dedicated teaching staff & strong community environment in and of itself.

In addition, for a suburb of this smaller size it offers a pretty good helping of daycare/childcare options reflecting its family-oriented nature, with each of Little School Highland Park, Goodstart Early Learning and Kinder Cottage providing safe, clean and hygienic options for those with little ones.

Its Little Snappers Swim School likewise provides a good facility for younger kids to get instructions and lessons in swim safety in a warm and patient environment, which is a plus.

It’s also home to a decent medical facility, with the Highlands Health Centre providing a mix of GP’s, pathology, physio and other medical services that can help the young & old alike.

In terms of general living, streetscape and atmosphere, Highland Park has mostly pluses, along with a couple of minuses.

Being home to only one single real main road in Alexander Drive helps reduce ambient traffic noise, although it can get congested during peak times & there is still a fair bit of noise that emanates off of the highway and can echo somewhat throughout the eastern portions of the suburb in particular.

Alexander Drive itself also gets a solid number of bus services, although as with anywhere on the Gold Coast you wouldn’t really want to rely on these on a full-time basis; it’s as car-centric as most other suburbs throughout the city.

However given much of Highland Park’s residential streets tend to branch off this one main road, and then branch off again into quieter back streets, this results in plenty of cute, quiet little cul-de-sacs and other peaceful streets to choose from when choosing a house here.

It’s nice to be able to have a chance at a house without cars constantly whizzing by, although these tend to command something of a price premium.

For housing in general, Highland Park is basically something of a “two-tier” suburb. There’s next to no density here outside of one or two townhouse/villa complexes; around 90% of the suburb is detached houses, and these tend to come in two distinct styles depending on whether you live in the “low” or “high” sections of Highland Park.

Most of its low-lying homes further down the hill and closer to the highway are single-storey, early-90s-era brick homes, which were part of the ‘initial’ batch of houses built in the suburb. While they’re a little older, residents have generally done a good job keeping them up to scratch and maintained.

Meanwhile, heading further up altitude-wise likewise scales the size (and purchase prices) of the houses along with it.

Many of Highland Park’s larger double-storey-and-more homes are perched on its various hillsides in order to take advantage of the panoramas on offer. These generally come with an east-facing aspect that can provide pretty scenic views all the way out to the likes of Surfers Paradise in some cases, especially as you head up to the higher streets such as Armstrong Way, etc.

While this can be undeniably pretty, it’s also not the greatest suburb for those who are adamant about having a flat yard. This can also increase difficulty with the likes of yard maintenance & lawnmowing, so is a factor that older potential residents in particular might want to keep in mind unless you’re willing to pay someone for garden upkeep.

There’s also one, final additional layer to the residential ‘onion’ that is Highland Park’s housing offerings. Other than its more built-up areas, slices in its westernmost pocket as you head further out to spots like Winderadeen Drive and its branching streets provides another environment almost entirely.

This is a section where block sizes suddenly balloon massively, and the vibe of the suburb transitions closer to essentially semi-hinterland-style living.

In exchange for being slightly further from the highway, this area allows for the ability to have things like large sheds, pools, tennis courts, potentially even horses & the like… along with a massive back yard that basically becomes ride-on-mower-mandatory. Plus, even less through-traffic and ambient noise than other parts of the suburb which are already fairly quiet in themselves.

It’s another layer of versatility that adds to the already decent amount of choice of lifestyles that Highland Park offers.

Price-wise, Highland Park is still pretty good value for housing relative to the rest of the Gold Coast, although that obviously also contains quite a wide level of variance given the different scales/block sizes of the houses on offer in each part of the suburb.

Median house prices currently sit at $952,600.00 which is still substantially below the average on the Gold Coast, and should you look to snag one of the handful of townhouses on offer instead then that figure also drops considerably more.

All this while still giving you access to the safety/convenience of the suburb as a whole makes for a pretty good deal given how much the city’s housing prices have ballooned in the present day.

Those after apartment living will want to look almost anywhere else, however, as Highland Park is almost entirely lacking in this regard. There’s the odd cluster of newer townhouse/terrace style development happening here, including newer build-outs aiming to offer scenic views, but it’s pretty small in scale overall.

The Verdict

Highland Park’s overall level of balanced lifestyle with semi-decent affordability makes it a pretty safe choice for those looking for a mid-level home that’s not too isolated from basically anywhere else in the city.

It’s far from an ‘exciting’ suburb – in fact, it’s almost the exact opposite – but for those who don’t care about such things and just want a decent and convenient place to live without having to worry about safety, that can actually play out as an advantage.

It’s got enough basic amenities to get by, as well as proximity to larger ones nearby, and its central position means you can work basically anywhere else on the Gold Coast while living here and it won’t be too much of a hike in the mornings.

It’s a solid if unspectacular choice for families (and younger couples looking to start a family), as you can provide a relatively quiet life for the kids while still taking them to more eventful spots without a hassle.

Its hilly layout may be a little bit of a barrier to older retirees, and its lack of dining or entertainment options may bore younger & more active people, but for almost anyone else there’s few negatives to living here… unless having an amazing dining scene or immediate beach access is top on your priority list. And if so, you’ll likely be paying significantly more on the mortgage for housing than you would in Highland Park in return for it anyway.

In all, Highland Park simply sits on one of the best all-round ‘pockets’ on the Gold Coast in terms of value for money these days in our opinion (the Worongary/Highland Park/Nerang corridor), and even if you have deeper pockets and want a fancier house, the suburb can still deliver that while living higher up and enjoying nice views anyway.

Overall, this is simply one of the better value-spots you’ll get in return for your home loan in the city in the present day – and that’s about all most people can ask for.