Dressed for success

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This was published 10 years ago

Dressed for success

Sand castle:  It's all about the beach at the  recently refurbished Sheraton Mirage on the Gold Coast.

Sand castle: It's all about the beach at the recently refurbished Sheraton Mirage on the Gold Coast.

Julietta Jameson returns to a made-over Mirage to find they're both a lot less flashy second time around.

The first time I visited the Sheraton Mirage on the Gold Coast, I brought with me a strapless, mermaid-shaped evening gown with an enormous fishtail fanning from the knee. I thought I looked fabulous.

Forgive me. It was 1987 and I was a freshly minted cub reporter who had been invited to the resort for a big opening party thrown by the original owner, Christopher Skase. The flashy tycoon may have been bound for infamy, but at the time I was breathless at the glamour of it all.

The resort was "ah-mazing, dahling", an Italianate cacophony of pink marble and shiny brass encased in a sprawling Miami-white building. There were water features, classical statues and expensive artworks.

But nearly 25 years later, the resort still clung on to the decade's decor. A somewhat tired version of the pink marble and brass palace remained, despite the property changing hands several times.

Finally, in 2011 India's Pearls Group bought it and decided enough was enough. It would inject more than $20 million into shaking off, once and for all, the decade taste forgot.

Say what you like about Christopher Skase, but in this case, he had a brilliant eye for an opportunity.

I'm remembering that party as I visit the Sheraton Mirage for only the second time. I'm surprised to see that, much like my refined sensibilities, the resort has been toned down.

With such a wad of cash spent and given the Gold Coast competition's propensity for glamour, I had been expecting something spectacular, something that would not just stand out from but body-slam the pack.

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Instead, I am met with the kind of cool creams and dark woods the hotel industry loved so much in the first decade of this century, but is turning away from in favour of more bespoke design. I confess to being initially disappointed.

Then I notice the Mirage's unique asset: its phenomenal uninterrupted ocean views.

Earlier, my driver filled me in: "Say what you like about Christopher Skase, but in this case, he had a brilliant eye for an opportunity.

"In the early 1980s, there was pretty much nothing at the northern end of Main Beach save some scrub and sand," he said.

"The absolute stroke of genius in it was the fact that this was and remains the only hotel site with absolute beach frontage. With all other Gold Coast hotels, visitors have to cross at least one road to get to the sand."

I realise it's this amazing advantage the low-key interior has been designed for. It frames it rather than fights it, as the previous decor arguably did.

The result, I realise within about five minutes, is supreme relaxation, which is, after all, what you want from a beach resort.

It helps that the original bones of the place are great. The low-rise sprawl oriented to the water needed no major work.

Big changes were made to the pool lawn area. It was slanted awkwardly in places, so landscapers moved in with sandstone and decking and created flat zones for loungers. There are Spanish leather chairs in the foyer and in the rooms the carpet was individually woven.

The former fine-dining restaurant has been converted to function space, leaving the onsite food and beverage options to Pearls Bar, the Oyster Bar seafood restaurant, Terraces buffet, and the pool restaurant, which serves salads, burgers and the like.

And Surfer's Paradise is only just down the road, after all. Not that I would have known it. I rolled from bed, to beach walk, to buffet, to pool, to beach walk, back to buffet and back to bed. And repeat.

That's the ultimate beauty of the Sheraton Mirage Gold Coast and perhaps Skase's greatest, possibly only, legacy here, that one constant from '80s marble to 21st-century chic: the amazing piece of land the resort occupies and the wonderful beach access it affords.

TRIP NOTES

WHERE 71 Seaworld Drive Main Beach, Gold Coast, Queensland; phone (07) 5577 0000.

HOW MUCH Rooms start at about $250 a night.

TOP MARKS Quality and comfort over flash.

BLACK MARK Seating solo breakfast guests in the worst tables possible, despite there being plenty of space.

MORE INFORMATION sheratonmiragegoldcoast.com.au.

The writer was a guest of Sheraton Mirage Gold Coast.

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