James Freeman Cavill (c.1862 –1952 in

Surfers Paradise, Queensland Surfers Paradise is a suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. In the , Surfers Paradise had a population of 23,689 people. Colloquially known as "Surfers", the suburb has many high-rise apartment buildings and a wide surf be ...

) a

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

hotelier, was one of the pioneers of the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

, Australia.

Early life

Information about his early life is sketchy as he told a number of conflicting stories, which cannot be validated from official records. He often claimed to be born in Carlton, Melbourne but also claimed to be born in Sydney as the son of Frederick Cavill (1839–1927), a champion swimmer, and Maria Rhodes a cousin of Cecil Rhodes.

Business life

From 1903 to 1913, Jim Cavill was a hairdresser with premises in Edward Street,

. Although an employer himself, he campaigned for hairdressers to have reduced working hours, similar to shop and factory workers. In 1917, Jim Cavill was the licensee of the Royal Exchange Hotel in

Toowong Toowong is a riverside suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Toowong had a population of 10,830 people. Geography Toowong is situated between Mount Coot-tha and the Brisbane River and is made up of rolling hills ...

, Brisbane. Many years after Johan Meyer's initial entrepreneurial endeavours failed, James Cavill purchased 25 acres (101,000 m²) of land in the Elston subdivision. He built a sixteen-room timber hotel, which he named the Surfers Paradise Hotel. With the construction of the new hotel, postal services were revived and refreshments and accommodation were provided for visitors to the area. James Cavill was heavily involved in the early promotion of Elston, and lobbied hard for the name, which was in common use, to be changed to Surfers Paradise (the same as his hotel). The area was officially renamed Surfers Paradise in October 1933. On the morning of 6 July 1936, the Surfers Paradise Hotel was destroyed by fire and a new palatial brick hotel, which officially opened on Friday 24 September 1937, was erected in its place. The Elston area was slow to take off, but when it finally did, it was labelled the ''Gold Coast'' in newspaper reports and in 1958 it became the official name for the town.

Cavill Avenue Cavill Avenue is a street and a pedestrian mall in Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. It is in the heart of the Surfers Paradise shopping and entertainment district. It was named in honour of the man credited as the founder of ...

, and its extension, the Cavill mall, in Surfers Paradise were named in honor of James 'Jim' Cavill; previously it had been named Meyer's Ferry Road or just Ferry Road. Jim Cavill died at the Surfers Paradise Hotel on 5 March 1952 and was buried in the Southport cemetery.

References

1860s births 1952 deaths History of Gold Coast, Queensland People from the Gold Coast, Queensland Surfers Paradise, Queensland Year of birth uncertain {{Australia-business-bio-stub