Australia's top surfers have won the battle to save the best wave in the world, but the war to save the Gold Coast's surfing future is just beginning.

Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson are celebrating the Queensland government's decision to can a cruise ship terminal and resort near the world-famous famous Kirra Beach.

But they've vowed it's just the first step to protect the natural assets that pump $3.2 billion into the Gold Coast economy alone each year.

The surf champions have now turned their sights on stopping another cruise ship terminal from being built on the Broadwater, saying it will affect the famous TOS South Stradbroke break.

They have also put themselves up as ambassadors - alongside surf legend Kelly Slater - for a world surfing reserve to be declared from South Stradbroke Island to Snapper Rocks on the NSW border.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott lent his support to the declaration of a world surf reserve at Manly in Sydney in 2012.

Now the pressure is on him to back a much larger reserve off the southeast Queensland coast, and consider more similar reserves elsewhere around Australia.

Fanning and Parkinson both rate Kirra as the best ride in the world.

They say the threat to its future has revealed how vulnerable Australian beaches are to development threats, and new laws are needed to safeguard them and the billions they generate for the economy.

"We want the premier to guarantee there'll never be a cruise ship terminal on the Gold Coast full stop," Parkinson told reporters after the Kirra project was canned on Thursday.

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Fanning, Parkinson in war to save beaches