From Brunswick Heads, the Pacific Highway heads around 30km inland to Murwillumbah and then a further 30km to the coast at TWEED HEADS . Although officially still part of New South Wales, Tweed Heads - the twin city of Coolangatta in Queensland - is for all practical purposes part of the Gold Coast . It certainly looks the part: high-rise buildings, concrete apartment blocks and shopping centres vie for space with grandiose club buildings and a roadscape of advertising billboards in gaudy colours. From the shore the jagged skyline of Surfers Paradise can be seen in the distance.

In its favour, it does have lots of places to stay (motels are cheaper here than further north), and even more opportunities to eat and drink - not to mention the opportunity to gamble , an activity that was once banned in Queensland. Clubs and casinos opened up just across the border to cash in: one of the biggest, brightest and longest-established of these is the Twin Towns RSL Club (tel 07/5536 2277) on Wharf Street, whose special offers on cheap food and drink can be a good deal, so long as you don't lose too much in the machines along the way.

One of the few other attractions is the Minjungbal Aboriginal Cultural Museum , on Kirkwood Road in South Tweed Heads (daily 10am-4pm; $6), where detailed exhibits and videos illustrate how Aboriginal people lived off this stretch of the coast; near the museum, a signposted boardwalk leads past an old bora ring - a sacred site used in initiation ceremonies. Ironically, the Captain Cook Memorial Lighthouse on Point Danger celebrates the very event that signalled the demise of Aboriginal culture in these parts: right at the state border, it was erected for the Cook bicentenary celebrations in 1970. Cook gave Point Danger its name after nearly running aground on it, and Mount Warning got its name at the same time - as a landmark to help sailors navigate around the point.