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This research shows how the transition to a post-industrial society has transformed the use of social space in what is perhaps the archetype of postmodern urbanism in the late 20th century – the tourist city. The impact of change on the socio-spatial structure of postmodern cities is measured, the spatial patterns are quantified and the continuing applicability of the classic models is determined. A generalised pattern of social structure in a tourist city is identified and a stage of development model of spatial patterns is proposed to promote understanding of socio-spatial structure in postmodern cities. In this analysis of social structure in the recently developed tourist city of Gold Coast, physical, economic, social and political forces were found to have created a distinctive environment, an environment that, in turn, influenced the type of social structure, the spatial patterns of social variation that emerged and how these changed over time. Principal components analysis and cluster analysis were used to identify the main dimensions of social structure and their spatial representation in this tourist city at 1991 and again in 1996. The emergence of socio-economic status and family status, albeit with a number of minor dimensions and new sub-dimensions, showed that social structure in this city was fundamentally similar to that identified earlier in modern cities. These main dimensions reflected family structure, occupational and income status, while minor dimensions were associated with ethnicity and mobility. However, some change in the dimensions was identified in this research. Socio-economic status changed most over the five-year period to reveal two new sub-dimensions of social differentiation related to employment status and employment disadvantage, while family status also split to reflect new social differences according to age. These new sub-dimensions emerged from the analysis due to their growing importance in the postmodern city. Over time, these sub-dimensions have begun to account for more of the social variation in the increasingly complex contemporary city. Together these dimensions reflect a complicated interwoven social structure in contrast to the simple patterns of social structure previously identified in modern cities. The newly identified sub-dimensions are however, able to be described in terms of the commonly recognised three main dimensions of social structure and relate to aspects of employment status, employment disadvantage and lifestyle. When comparing the spatial patterns of social structure in this city to the classic sector and zone models of the modern city, some substantial differences emerged. In modern cities, socio-economic status most commonly varied in a sectoral fashion while family status varied by zone. However, in this research, socio-economic status and family status were each found to vary in both a sectoral fashion and in a zonal pattern. In another difference to the spatial patterns of the modern city, these neat zonal patterns were further complicated by the influence of secondary nodes of activity. Three such nodes were identified. Thus, the multi-nucleated settlement pattern was seen to be exerting its own influence on socio-spatial structure resulting in a complex pattern of over-lapping zones from each node. Compared with other cities, several differences in the socio-spatial structure of Australian postmodern cities were uncovered. Ethnicity did not exert as large an influence on social structure as in American or English cities. The relatively small Australian public housing sector prevented the emergence of concentrations of this type of housing being found in this postmodern city. Similarly, edge cities and concentrations of the global elite were not identified in this setting yet are typically found in American urban areas. According to the stage of development model proposed in this research, there is a range of possibilities in the socio-spatial structure of a postmodern city. The common main dimensions of social structure are likely to be in evidence but will probably split into a number of sub-dimensions reflecting the growing complexity of social differentiation in the postmodern city, as well as each city’s particular stage of development. Other minor dimensions will reflect the characteristics of the specific city. The possibilities described in this model also extend to variations in the spatial patterns of a postmodern city. One scenario involves the expansion of an expanding urban region to gradually encompass a number of previously separated nodes. The spatial patterns uncovered in this research into a contemporary tourist city were found to revolve around a number of related, but previously separated, nodes rather than a single dominant centre. This research concluded that, in the contemporary tourist city investigated, there remained strong evidence of the social structure and spatial patterns of the modern city. However, the patterns identified appear to reflect a new level of complexity and required a combination of earlier models to effectively explain. In effect, the socio-spatial patterns are a hybrid of the old and the new. Thus, we can rightfully designate this city as postmodern.