Culture
- Gold Coast Art Festival
Sport and recreation
A number of sporting teams represent the local area, including the Southport Leagues Club, Southport Gymnastic Club, Southport Tigers, Southport Soccer Club, Southport Surf Life Saving Club and the Southport Sharks.
Transport
Southport has numerous main roads that connect Southport with other suburbs. Gold Coast Highway travels the full length along the coast on the Gold Coast connecting Southport with all the coastal suburbs on the city. Smith Street Motorway is a motorway grade extension of smith street connecting the suburb to the Pacific Motorway that connects the city to Brisbane.
Southport is also well serviced by public transport. A light rail system called G:link opened in July 2014 and ran between Broadbeach to Gold Coast University Hospital. In December 2017 G:link was extended to Helensvale. There are seven light rail stations in the suburb, connecting Southport with the major hubs of Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach. There are two major bus stations – Southport and GCUH. The Southport bus station is located in the heart of the suburb on Scarborough Street which provides regular and high frequency services to mainly the northern suburbs. GCUH bus station is situated on the western part of Southport, servicing Gold Coast University Hospital and the northern part of the Griffith University, Gold Coast campus. All services are part of the Translink integrated fare system.
An extension to the light rail system was announced in October 2015. Its intention was to operate from the previous terminus at Gold Coast University Hospital to Helensvale railway station. The extension opened ahead of schedule on 17 December 2017, months before the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Helensvale is the suburb's nearest railway station, located from the Southport CBD. The railway line provides a connection to Brisbane city and Brisbane Airport. The Light Rail extension to Helensvale now operates integrally with the University Hospital to Broadbeach South line, with connections at Helensvale to Brisbane (Roma Street).
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File:Gold Coast Light Rail - Southport Station.jpg|Southport G:link Station located in the heart of the CBD
File:Southport Bus Station.jpg|The Southport bus station, located next to the Southport G:link station, together acting as the main transportation hub for the CBD
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Notable residents
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- David Dodd (born 1985), association footballer who played for Brisbane Roar
- Ben Edmondson (born 1978), cricketer
- Georgia Godwin (born 1997), artistic gymnast
- Grant Hackett (born 1980), swimmer
- Laurence Naismith (1908–1992), English-born actor, died in Southport 1992.
- Mitch Nichols (born 1989), association footballer for Perth Glory in the A-League
- Tommy Oar (born 1991), association footballer playing for FC Utrecht
- James O'Connor (born 1990), rugby union footballer, Wallabies
- Nick Riewoldt (born 1982), Australian rules footballer with St Kilda.
- Ruth Sanger (1918–2001), expert on blood groups, was born in Southport
- John Sattler (1942–2023), rugby league player
- Casey Stoner (born 1985), motorcycle racer, 2007 and 2011 MotoGP World Champion, was born in Southport
- Jai Taurima (born 1972), long jump athlete
- Jim Wilson (born 1967), journalist and radio host<!-- List is alphabetical by surname, then given name -->
See also
- List of Gold Coast suburbs