The Gold Coast meter maids have embarked on a recruiting drive amid fears their days are numbered We want you! The Gold Coast's meter maids have gone on a recruiting drive to bolster flagging numbers. Pictured are Lizzy O'Keefe (left) and Emily Hodges. Gold Coast Meter Maid Julie Hopgood, 20, places a coin in a parking meter outside Bayards, a Queen Street store, Brisbane in 1965. Picture by Geoff McLachlan. The Courier-Mail Photo Archive Source: News Limited Tim The Yowie Man meter maid working at Surfers Paradise on Gold Coast (2000). HAVE the sands of time caught up with the Gold Coast's iconic meter maids? Battling an image problem, bureaucracy and a crippled economy, the golden girls of the Gold Coast have been forced to embark on an unprecedented recruiting drive to arrest dwindling numbers. In the glory years, former Gold Coast mayor Sir Bruce Small would travel the world flanked by an entourage of golden bikini-clad beauties. Now, just six girls remain to continue the famous legacy, which started in 1965. With most of the old-style parking meters gone the way of the dodo, there is a fear the meter maids could follow suit. However, Surfers Paradise Meter Maids general manager Michael Yarwood insists his girls "have never been more relevant" and merely need a few extra beauties to swell the ranks. "We're struggling because everyone in Surfers Paradise is struggling," he said. We've had horrendous weather, eroded beaches, the debacle that is the construction of the light rail network. We're probably the only ray of sunshine in what looks like a war zone. Critics of the meter maids have been growing in recent years, with some saying they no longer project the wholesome family image tourism officials are trying to project. Modern parking meters have also changed the maids' role, but Mr Yarwood said girls still poured about $800 in to parking meters in Surfers Paradise every week. "We buy top-up tickets for cars that are about to expire and we slip the tickets under their windscreen wipers along with a card saying they have just been saved by the meter maids," he said. Most of the meter maids' revenue comes from selling merchandise or charging for photographs with tourists. The girls themselves work on commission. The meter maids receive no funding from local council or tourism bodies, but Mike Winlaw from the Surfers Paradise Alliance said they were no different from many other businesses. "They are raising money for commercial enterprise," he said. We don't have the sort of funds to be able to support them in a major way.