Village Roadshow Theme Parks continue with expansion applications

A flurry of activity has seen the owners of Warner Bros. Movie World, Wet'n'Wild and Paradise Country give a taste of what might be to come, with development applications submitted for a new roller coaster, entertainment precinct and holiday accommodation at the Oxenford theme park site.

We reported earlier about a development application for a new roller coaster, which came off the back of Village Roadshow's co-chairman Robert Kirby hinting at a world-class attraction presumably heading to Movie World, the company's flagship park. As 2015 comes to a close and the 2018 Commonwealth Games inch nearer, more potential developments have been unearthed.

New Attraction & Lakeside Precinct

The first potential development came by way of the appplication to construct a new attraction and lakeside precinct district. The area between Movie World and Wet'n'Wild Water World is already home to a large lake/swamp area that played a bit part in the long-retired studio backlot tour at Movie World. Given this is one of the few undeveloped areas on the site and is also centrally located to Movie World, Wet'n'Wild and Australian Outback Spectacular it's a likely candidate for such expansion.

No further information is available about exactly where, how or when this new attraction will take shape, or how it relates to the earlier approved roller coaster. The current approval is for minor construction to take place, as Parkz forum member skeetafly pointed out. There is also approval for an entertainment precinct – again how this relates to other projects is not precisely known at this stage.

Paradise Country accommodation

Perhaps most surprising of the recent spate development applications is a full realised concept for accommodation to surround Paradise Country, the foreign-tourist oriented (and somewhat forgettable) attraction at the far corner of the Oxenford site that everyone forgets about. The plans include a mixture of campsites and cabins and units set amongst the existing bush. Currently the nearest budget accommodation is the Gold Coast Holiday Park, located across the highway, about 2km drive from Movie World.

By the nature of council development applications, the big unknown with all these early-stage plans is the timeline – or even if they proceed at all. Approved plans are also often shelved or delayed as a result of shifting coporate objectives, as was famously seen with WhiteWater World's phase two that never came to fruition.