TUNNELLING INTO COAST HISTORY

A GROUP of guerrilla historians have taken over a Gold Coast icon in a bid to return it to its former glory.

For many the Ernest Junction Tunnel, located at Molendinar is a place frequented only by ghosts and thugs. In 2014 the tunnel was even the scene of two separate torture and assault cases.

However, thanks to a group of ‘rogue’ restorers led by Southport residents Judith and Ted DeBoer, the tunnel has been transformed into a place of beauty.

For more than a year the group of a dozen volunteers has worked tirelessly to turn the historical railway site on state property into a place for families to enjoy.

From establishing a picnic site, to laying turf and road profiling, the group has spent weekends tending to the space.

For Ms DeBoer, an active historian, the tunnel is a symbol of the Gold Coast’s past and the first piece of ingenuity used to open up the region.

“The South Coast Railway was an incredible innovation in 1889,” she said.

“Before it opened the Gold Coast was very isolated and everything was transported to Brisbane by sea. The railway changed everything and it ran from Brisbane to Southport from 1889 to 1964.

Ms DeBoer said when the group first came across the site it was overgrown.