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SafeWork SA have had bans overturned in the past. I'm starting to think not only do they have to be independent but they have to be different types of locking mechanism.

From what I have heard it's because the KMG rides do not have a seatbelt / secondary locking mechanism. Which the ride actually does as each of the 2 hydraulic systems for the harnesses are 100% independent of each other. SA is the only state where this rule applies. It's a real shame as SA misses out on some great rides that are 100% safe.

I agree you can't replace the in-person handlers - especially when they get mauled by a wild animal. I think the handler interactions, and especially the presentations, with leaps off high structures, climbing a pole, launching into water, drinking from a milk carton - all were spectacular to watch. And while the guff in the script talks about mimicking natural behaviours, in the wild, their natural behaviours would see those handlers killed. I am disappointed that they have ended the handler interactions, but in our risk elimination focussed world, there really isn't another option.

The island was more than the show. The handlers on the island all day, interacting with the tigers and guest, can never be replaced by looking at tigers through a window.

I agree @DaptoFunlandGuy, DW is starting to get some good foot traffic through the park now, it would be a shame if DW were purposefully closing an experience.

I don't know if every sign has been replaced yet because the image I posted was from the school across the road who were invited for the opening. When DW first opened, every ride had a sponsorship.

I mean series one housemates could see and hear the tower of terror. I get that it's not ideal but deliberately shutting down a very visible coaster for the sake of filming the show is very poor form. The ride is old however - it's entirely plausible that they've got a major maintenance issue to deal with and all that is just a coincidence... at least I hope so. They've been making a lot of good decisions recently so I'd hate for them to be taking such a backwards step.

Gold Coaster was supposed to reopen next week, so either something has gone majorly wrong or the rumours that Big Brother will be on the expansion area behind WWW are true. BB is returning in November and will air for 4-6 weeks, having a loud coaster operating next to the show wouldn’t be ideal, so it’s reopening aligns with that. They have also fenced off the entire back corner of the park after Tailspin, which is allowing them to do some work inside the Entertainment Centre.

I assume NatGeo is in sponsorship for the exhibits. its a good partnership and makes sense. Might even contribute a little more to the park's bottom line and opex. TBH i'm surprised more attractions don't carry sponsorship - many overseas parks do. "Presented by Pepsi" and so on.

Pretty sure that is all it is for now. There hasn’t been significant downtime of any of the enclosures etc to enable any large scale changes, nor is it really needed.

What is that even supposed to mean? The enclosures have become much better for the tigers, and visually pleasing for guests in the static way they’ll be seen 95% of the time. They just don’t do the same interactive shows there, which was always going to happen.

Let’s hope they finally fixed the waterfall above the crocs and in the cassowary enclosure to coincide with this launch… although I’m not expecting it. I also saw pictures of new glass/perspex viewing windows being installed between the cassowary and Roos enclosure, are these works complete and do we know what animal this was for? Very keen to see if this is just a reopening of the theatre, and a few signs rebranded or if a little more effort has been put in…

I know you’re just estimating, but it cost a lot more than that!

Technically they got the storm expansion too

@TBoy i was just posting for shits and giggles.

The difference though is, despite the sheep shearing being cheaper than the others, it likely isn't popular enough to justify the costs unlike the others. Let's say the tiger maintenance costs $750,000 a year and gets 500,000 visitors, that is $1.50 per visitor. But if the sheep shearing show costs $250,000 to run and only gets 100,000 visitors, then that is $2.50 per visitor. The tigers are therefore more value for money than the sheep shearing show, despite costing more.

@Ashley Jeffery I asked park management about the shows removal and whether it would ever return and it won’t. It was very very expensive to run because of the care and requirements for the sheep. And when the park is trying to reduce overheads (while not compromising the guest experience), we won’t be something like that return.

Bring back the sheep shearing show.

It seems like something that will be constantly playing throughout the whole day and you can walk in and out as you please?

Our Country in Sydney. (it's been around Australia) The Grand Opening of Wild.

Wet n WILD has been open for years @Baconjack

Kinda weird that Sea World’s wild expansion ended up at a different park 10 years after it was meant to open!

The problem is finding something developed with cues for the effects. If the animation is not developed with these in place, you have to sit there for hours/days/weeks, time stamping a text file and developing and testing a cue sheet to program the PLC that runs everything with new sequences to sync with the video. It's not an easy swap out process to build a new show from scratch.