With no permanent racing facility available, the Queensland Motor Sporting Club and the Toowoomba Auto Club, with the support of the Southport Rotary Club, mapped out a temporary road course on sparsely settled coastal land approximately 2.5 kilometres south-west of Southport, in the Bundall area. The course measured 5.7 miles (9.17 km) and the race ran over 27 laps — a total distance of 153.9 miles. Queensland's first grand prix had been staged at Leyburn in September 1949, drawing 30,000 to 40,000 spectators; the Southport meeting attracted more than 60,000. The event was open to Racing and Stripped Sports Cars and drew 28 starters. Conditions on race day were demanding: after heavy rain in the preceding days, the race was run on one of the hottest days of the season, and drivers contended with dust as well as heat.
The field reflected Australian club racing's characteristic ingenuity. Among the more notable cars were Lex Davison's HWM Jaguar, a Formula 2 HWM chassis that Davison had fitted with a 3.4-litre Jaguar engine; Dick Cobden's Ferrari 125; Jack Brabham's Cooper T23 Bristol (entered as the "Redex Special"); and Stan Jones's Repco Research-built Maybach Special, which was considered a race favourite. Local specials included Snow Sefton's Strathpine Ford V8 Special, which had also contested the 1949 Leyburn AGP, and Ian Mountain's IKM Peugeot Special, which Mountain had built himself around a supercharged Peugeot 203 engine and a de Dion rear axle — Mountain had married just five days before the race and headed to Southport for what amounted to a honeymoon combined with the AGP. Arthur Griffiths campaigned the Wylie Javelin, a rear-engined supercharged Jowett-based special built by Arthur Wylie, which had previously raced at Albert Park and Gnoo Blas.
Pole position was allocated by the race organisers and awarded to Rex Taylor, who drove a Lago-Talbot. Stan Jones led early in the Maybach Special and appeared set for victory until lap 14, when welds on the chassis of the new car failed at high speed; Jones was fortunate to escape unhurt, but the car was written off. Dick Cobden, in the Ferrari 125, set the fastest lap of the race at 3 minutes 52 seconds — an average of 88.417 mph — before he too retired. Jack Brabham fell out on the second lap with a broken engine, and Rex Taylor was black-flagged after receiving outside assistance when he spun.
Arthur Griffiths in the Wylie Javelin ran strongly throughout, fighting a continuous duel with Doug Whiteford's Black Bess Ford V8 Special for much of the race and lying third when, within a lap of Whiteford's own retirement, the Javelin blew a head gasket. Ian Mountain's IKM Special retired after 11 laps when a radiator drain tap worked loose due to body vibration, allowing the coolant to escape — an occupational hazard of new cars on a rough circuit.
Lex Davison crossed the line first for an untroubled victory, completing the 27 laps at a winning average speed of 83.7 mph (134.7 km/h). Sydney's Curley Brydon finished second in his MG TC Special in Formula Libre trim, more than a lap behind, with Ken Richardson's Brisbane-built Ford Special third. It was Davison's first Australian Grand Prix win; he subsequently won again in 1957, 1958, and 1961, becoming the most successful driver in the history of the race. The Maybach Mk.II, wrecked in Jones's crash, was subsequently rebuilt by Charlie Dean's team as the Maybach Mk.III.
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