Gold Coast City is the local government area spanning the Gold Coast, Queensland, and surrounding areas. Based on resident population, it is the second largest local government area in Australia and its council maintains a staff of over 2,500. It was established in 1948, but has existed in its present form since 1995.

By the late 1870s, the Government of Queensland had become preoccupied with the idea of getting local residents to pay through rates for local services, which had become a massive cost to the colony and were undermaintained in many areas. The McIlwraith government initiated the Divisional Boards Act 1879 which created a system of elected divisional boards covering most of Queensland. It was assented by the Governor on 2 October 1879, and on 11 November 1879, the Governor gazetted a list of 74 divisions which would come into existence. Four of these—Nerang, Coomera, Beenleigh and Waterford—were in the Gold Coast region. Southport was developed as both an administrative centre as well as a holiday destination with hotels and guesthouses to cater for visitors. Town dwellers had different needs to the rural landholders so Southport ratepayers lobbied the colonial government to create a separate Divisional Board so that rates monies raised by Southport landholders could be spent on town improvements. This resulted in the Southport Divisional Board on 14 July 1883.

A city council or town council is the legislative body that governs a city, town, municipality or local government area.

Because of the differences in legislation between the States, the exact definition of a City Council varies. However, it is generally only those local government areas which have been specifically granted city status (usually on a basis of population) that are entitled to refer to themselves as cities. The official title is "Corporation of the City of ------" or similar.

Some of the larger urban areas of Australia are governed mostly by a single entity (see Brisbane and other Queensland cities), while others maybe controlled by a multitude of much smaller city councils. Also some significant urban areas can be under the jurisdiction of otherwise rural local governments. Periodic re-alignments of boundaries attempt to rationalize these situations and adjust the deployment of assets and resources.

Local councils in New Zealand do vary in structure, but are overseen by the government department Local Government New Zealand. For many decades until the local government reforms of 1989, a borough with more than 20,000 people could be proclaimed a city. The boundaries of councils tended to follow the edge of the built-up area, so little distinction was made between the urban area and the local government area.

Gold Coast may refer to:

Coast City is a fictional city created by John Broome and Gil Kane that appears in stories published by DC Comics. It is depicted most often as the home of the Silver Age version of the superhero Green Lantern, Hal Jordan.

Coast City, which first appeared in Showcase #22 in September–October 1959, was a city located in California. This made it one of the few fictional cities in the DC Universe to have a specifically given location from the start.

Coast City was usually portrayed as an analogue of San Diego or Los Angeles or the Jersey Shore.Green Lantern: Rebirth identified it as being in Northern California, and recent issues of Green Lantern listed it as being twenty miles from Edwards Air Force Base.

In the 1990s, Coast City was destroyed, with nearly all of its residents - then numbered at seven million - killed by Mongul. Mongul's gigantic ship appeared over Coast City and released thousands of spherical bombs which detonated simultaneously. It was then revealed that Mongul was doing the bidding of former astronaut Hank Henshaw, better known as the Cyborg Superman. Mongul and Henshaw built Engine City in Coast City's ashes, as part of a plot to turn Earth into the new Warworld. This plan was stopped by Superman, Superboy, and Steel, with the help of Hal Jordan, who had just returned from space to find his home destroyed.

Gordon William George Watson (born 20 March 1971) is a retired English football player whose career was almost ended when he suffered a double fracture in the right leg in a tackle with Huddersfield Town defender Kevin Gray on 1 February 1997.

Throughout his career he was known as “Flash”, a nickname he first acquired at 4 years old, after the comic book hero, Flash Gordon.

Born in Sidcup, he was playing in local tyro football when he was spotted by scouts from his local team Charlton Athletic. He joined them as an associate school-boy in June 1985, signing as a trainee in July 1987 and as a professional in April 1989. He made his debut for Charlton against Derby County, who had Peter Shilton in goal. After a two years spell at the Addicks, in which he scored eight goals in 23 starts, the headstrong Watson made the brave move to uproot to South Yorkshire and join Sheffield Wednesday in February 1991 for a fee of £250,000.

Although he was never a regular fixture in the Sheffield Wednesday side (making a total of only 88 appearances in 4 years, of which 46 were as substitute) he enjoyed some good times as Wednesday were promoted to Division 1 (the top level) at the end of his first season and then achieved third place in 1991–92 and a place in the UEFA cup. In the UEFA Cup Watson appeared in 3 of the 4 games played by Wednesday, who reached the second round going out to Kaiserslautern.