What Would It Actually Be Like to Live in Currumbin?

A Day Around Dream Home Art Union Draw 434

There are places you visit.

And then there are places where, within about 24 hours, you start mentally relocating your entire life... Currumbin is dangerously good at the second one.

It has that slightly unfair combination of beautiful beach, good coffee, proper restaurants, surf, creek, bushland and Gold Coast sunshine — without feeling as though somebody has turned the entire suburb into a theme park.

And right now there’s another reason to be looking very closely at this little pocket of the southern Gold Coast.

Dream Home Art Union Draw 434 puts a $10.2 million prize package right here on Currumbin Headland.

The prize centres around an extraordinary multi-level home at 7 Katta Avenue, along with a private guest house, $400,000 in gold bullion and a new MY26 Land Rover Defender. Entry starts from $5.

But instead of giving you another room-by-room tour, we thought we’d answer a much more interesting question:

If you actually won it… what would living in Currumbin be like?

Quite possibly, something like this ↓↓↓

6:07am: Coffee and the view.

You wake up... Not because an alarm is screaming at you... Because the room is getting lighter.

Then comes that slightly ridiculous moment when you remember this is where you live now.

Draw 434 sits high on Currumbin Headland, with views taking in the Pacific Ocean, Currumbin Creek, the surrounding green and the Gold Coast coastline.

So before emails, before breakfast and before anyone has had a chance to ask you for anything, there is surely only one sensible thing to do.

→ Coffee.

→ Deck.

→ Bare feet.

→ Done.

The official prize brochure describes the home as sitting between the treetops and sea, and when you look at its position it isn't difficult to understand why.

And this might be the first great difference between holidaying in Currumbin and actually living here.

There is no rush to fit Currumbin into your day.

Currumbin is your day.

7:02am: Shoes on. Down to the beach.

Currumbin Beach is the kind of beach that makes a morning walk feel considerably less virtuous than it really is.

Golden sand. Ocean rolling in. Surfers already out. Locals walking dogs. Someone carrying a board under one arm and coffee under the other.

At the southern end is one of Currumbin's unmistakable landmarks: Elephant Rock.

Climb the stairs to the viewing platform and you can look north along the Gold Coast and south towards Coolangatta. Between June and October, it can also be a spot for watching migrating humpback whales offshore.

It is difficult to imagine getting bored with that.

Although we'd be willing to conduct a very long-term experiment to make sure.

8:11am: Now we can discuss breakfast

Currumbin takes breakfast surprisingly seriously.

You could wander into The Salt Mill on Pacific Parade for another coffee and something to eat, try Kinship Currumbin, or head towards the creek and settle into Tarte Beach House when you're in the mood to turn breakfast into more of an occasion.

And this is the bit we love.

These aren't destinations requiring a major expedition from the Dream Home Art Union Currumbin prize home.

They're part of the neighbourhood.

You can be drinking coffee near the beach in the morning and back home wondering whether 9am is too early for the pool approximately five minutes later.

We vote no.

10:26am: Beach… or creek?

This is where Currumbin gets greedy.

Having a beautiful ocean beach apparently wasn't enough.

It wanted a creek as well.

Currumbin Creek winds towards the ocean beside parks, walking areas and calm stretches of water where you'll regularly see kayaks, stand-up paddleboards and families making a morning of it.

Then there is The Alley, where Currumbin Creek meets the ocean — one of the best-known surfing spots on this stretch of coast.

So your difficult Saturday morning decision becomes:

Surfboard, paddleboard, swim… or go home and use your own pool?

These are problems we are prepared to have.

12:43pm: Lunch with the Pacific basically sitting at your table

There are surf clubs with a water view.

And then there is Currumbin Vikings.

The Currumbin Beach Vikings Surf Life Saving Club is perched alongside Elephant Rock so close to the Pacific that “beachfront” almost feels inadequate.

Grab lunch, sit overlooking the water and watch the coastline stretch away towards the Gold Coast skyline.

Experience Gold Coast describes the Vikings deck as one of the area's standout vantage points, while Currumbin Beach itself has long been one of the southern Gold Coast's defining stretches of coastline.

This is the sort of place visitors make a point of finding.

If you lived in Draw 434?

It's your local.

Which feels mildly outrageous.

2:18pm: Take the Defender inland

Remember that Land Rover Defender included in the Dream Home Art Union Draw 434 prize package?

This is where it starts making even more sense.

Point it west.

Within roughly 15 minutes of leaving the beach, Currumbin starts changing character. Houses thin out, the road follows the creek and suddenly the coast has given way to lush Currumbin Valley.

The Currumbin Rock Pools are a local favourite for a freshwater swim, while further into the valley you're heading towards rainforest, mountains and the green folds of the Gold Coast hinterland. Experience Gold Coast describes the rock pools as only about 15 minutes from the beach despite feeling a world away.

This may be Currumbin's best trick.

Beach life and hinterland life aren't competing holidays here.

They're the same Saturday.

4:37pm: Home. Pool. Absolutely nothing urgent.

Back at Katta Avenue, things become difficult again.

Pool?

Spa?

Sauna?

Ice bath, if you're one of those alarming people who voluntarily gets into freezing water?

The Draw 434 home also has a gym, fire pit, outdoor kitchen and multiple decks.

And because there's a self-contained guest house, friends and family can come to stay without everybody slowly driving one another mad by day three.

The main residence and guest house form part of a prize property valued by Dream Home Art Union at $9.25 million, with the wider Draw 434 package valued at $10,218,381.

Which brings us to approximately 5:41pm.

Our favourite time.

5:41pm: The Currumbin Headland show begins

This is where we'd be.

Back on the deck.

Something cold in hand.

Shoes once again deemed unnecessary.

Currumbin Headland gives the home an extraordinary outlook across ocean, creek, hinterland and coastline. The property itself was designed by acclaimed architect Paul Uhlmann and occupies a 1,138sqm site in this elevated position.

And while Currumbin's beach faces east — making sunrise the obvious coastal star — late afternoon brings its own show as the light changes over the hinterland and Gold Coast landscape.

You know that hour of the day when everyone else is fighting traffic, thinking about dinner and wondering where the weekend went?

You'd be looking out over Currumbin.

Possibly wondering whether you should cook outside or go out for dinner.

Again: dreadful problems.

What if this wasn't a holiday?

Dream Home Art Union Draw 434 includes the Currumbin home, private guest house, $400,000 in gold bullion and a MY26 Land Rover Defender, with the complete first-prize package valued at $10,218,381.

Tickets start from $5.

7:16pm: So… where are we eating?

Staying home isn't exactly a hardship when your kitchen looks like this one.

But Currumbin gives you plenty of excuses to leave it.

For Italian by the coast, there's Tommy's Italian on Pacific Parade.

For something different, Bridges Belgian Dining has developed a loyal local following near Currumbin Creek.

There are relaxed options around the creek and beach, and of course you can always head back to Vikings when only dinner beside the ocean will do.

The beauty is that Currumbin doesn't require you to choose between “quiet coastal suburb” and “somewhere with places worth eating”.

You get both.

And if you want the bigger Gold Coast restaurant scene, Burleigh Heads is further up the coast.

And when people fly up to visit?

This is another part of Currumbin that doesn't get enough attention.

Gold Coast Airport is remarkably close.

Currumbin Beach is only around 5km from Gold Coast Airport, and the Wildlife Sanctuary is 4.5km north of it; even the direct public bus journey between the airport and the Currumbin Beach area is around ten minutes.

So those house guests staying in your private guest house?

They can fly in from Sydney or Melbourne without you spending half your day doing an airport run.

Although turning up at the airport in your new Defender does improve the job somewhat.

Sunday morning? There's more.

Take the kids or grandchildren to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.

Walk the beach again because apparently this is who you are now.

Hire a paddleboard.

Head back into Currumbin Valley.

Do precisely nothing beside the pool.

Or make the extremely ambitious journey down to the kitchen for another coffee.

And that's probably the real appeal of living here.

Currumbin doesn't feel like the Gold Coast trying particularly hard to impress you.

It has the surf and beach. It has seriously good food and coffee. It has the creek. It has bushland pushing almost to the coast. It has the hinterland behind it and an international airport just down the road.

Yet somehow it can still feel like its own little corner of Queensland.

So, could you actually live in Currumbin?

Very easily.

Currumbin sits on the southern Gold Coast between ocean, creek and hinterland, with beaches, surfing, cafes, restaurants, wildlife attractions and Currumbin Valley all close by. Gold Coast Airport is also only a few kilometres south of the beach precinct.

Which is why Dream Home Art Union Draw 434 is interesting for more than its very large number.

Yes, $10.2 million gets your attention.

Yes, $400,000 in gold gets your attention.

And yes, putting a new Land Rover Defender in the garage certainly doesn't hurt.

But after spending a little time looking around Currumbin, something else starts to happen.

You stop thinking:

“Imagine winning that house.”

And start thinking:

“What would I do first if I actually lived there?”

For us?

Coffee on the deck.

Beach walk.

Then we'd figure out the rest.

Dream Home Art Union Draw 434 — Quick Facts

One $5 ticket. One rather interesting “what if?”

You can look at the floorplans.

You can take the virtual tour.

You can inspect every beautiful photograph.

But perhaps the most fun part of Dream Home Art Union Draw 434 is picturing what happens after the front door becomes yours.

• Morning walks on Currumbin Beach.
• Coffee around the corner.
• Lunch overlooking the Pacific.
• Afternoons in the pool.
• Dinner down the road.
• Weekends disappearing into Currumbin Valley.
• And sunset back at home on the headland.

For $5, it's a pretty good reason to start imagining.

See Dream Home Art Union Draw 434

VIEW THE $10.2M CURRUMBIN PRIZE HOME & GET TICKETS

Draw details and values are based on information published by Dream Home Art Union for Draw 434. Terms, conditions and eligibility apply. Check the official draw information before entering.