Richard

Yeah, I heard of that place a few years ago somewhere down south (out Cooma/Jindabyne way I guess, because that's the only place I ever am down in that area). There are high hopes for their ski resort plans to go ahead (get the beginners away from the good resorts!!). From the photos on their website, it looks as though it is a damn fine ride, in a very nice area (Big Banana's was terrible - on a cleared grass hill). I'm down that way (optimistically) every year skiing, so I'll bung that on the list for next year. Cheers!

I was down for the Australian Open in Melbourne, so I figured I'd make the most of it. Taking the long, slow, windy coast road all the way to Melbourne sure ain't the quickest way, but I found it was the most fun on the way. Coffs Harbour on the first afternoon. Since I was there last, the place looks a heck of a lot tackier and two-bit. Tough since then, they've installed a Toboggan. Not the best I've ridden. It was much too short considering the height and land they had to work with. It doesn't pick up much speed, nor are there any great fast turns, or decent slops or dropping curves. The next day started in Sydney. The (saddening) Luna Park site needed a visit. The Wild Mouse has disappeared, but there are about three flat rides still there (Ferris Wheel, Enterprise among others). I also took a walk up to the top end of the park above the cliffs. I took some photos from the carpark of the building where Alibrandi's father lived in the great Aussie film from 2000. It is nothing less than an outrage that someone let developers put units so close to a place that was traditionally and historically noisy. Footers from Big Dipper are still very much in place. I also spun into Wonderland Sydney. They've put a new banner on the Bush Beast that announces their new Marvel deal. I didn't go in because I didn't have the time, nor had I organised anything. Instead, it was up the Highway to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. Katoomba is of course home to the great Scenic World, home of the Scenic Railway - worlds steepest railway at just over 52º. They've also got their 'Scenic Skyway' (notice a pattern with the names?), and most recently the Sceniscender which is Swiss engineering at its best - and for once that doesn't mean Intamin or B&M. Orphan Rocker is still sitting there, nice and quiet. When I was there six months ago, the place was just closing up, so I couldn't take any of the rides down to get a good view of the coaster. This time however, I got a much better idea of the ride's layout. From the bottom of the valley, it is amazing to see high up at the top of the cliffs, the track so close to the cliff edge. The next day, for a few hours was Merimbula's Magic Mountain. I was expecting just an ordinary park with a traveling Pinfari coaster as the centerpiece. I was quite wrong, to some extent. It is a pay-per-entry park, for about $28 all day I think. A bit steep, but it would be easy to spend a day there. To me, the highlight attraction was their toboggan. I didn't rate the Big Banana one too highly earlier on, but boy was this one great! It is about three times as long as the one at the Big Banana, and nearly double the length of the one at Thredbo. This one was great! It had a great mixture of curves all very well placed, and some very steep curving drops. The two last curves are just perfect. There is easily 120km/hr probably more, if you do the entire ride without the brake stick. It took me about five rides to finally get to know the course well enough to try it, and that is one of the most intense rides I've done. Unlike most models, this one has the lift at the end, not the beginning, so you're expected to slow to 'walking speed' before the curve into the lift. Needless to say, on my brakeless run, I was going at Maurice Green speed all the way in, pulling back on the stick like crazy. After a few days at the tennis, I headed out to Luna Park. The place was reasonable packed, probably not overly great numbers, but considering the size, it felt pretty crowded. This was my first time on the Scenic Railway (last time I was down that way the place was closed), so I had something to look forward to. Tell you what - for a ride that is only like 15m tall, and has drops that are about 12m, this thing is rough. I was sort of hoping for some big cushy seats like those on the Coney Island Cyclone. All I got was this hard, worn-down padded wooden seat. Towards the back, this ride was just painful. It can't be going more than 30km/hr, yet it felt worse than the Bush Beast, which is 3x the speed. The front is alright, though if you're not in the very front of either carriages, it'll take some time to get used to the lack of legroom, hold on for the first few rides, for that reason alone. Nothing else special at the park, except the chips, and the temporary freak show. The chips were the best I've had in an Aussie park, considering they don't have any special salt or seasoning made them particularly great. The freak show was cool. It was done by a group known as the Happy Sideshow. With the very cool Shep Huntly MC'ing the show, it wasn't so much grose, as it was cool. Admittedly, my favorite, which wasn't actually part of the freak show, but just a warm up, was 'Captain Frodo' and 'the Space Cowboy' doing very cool tricks with bowler hats. The trip ended with the flight back up the Brissie this morning. I don't have a digital camera at the moment, so I had to take the old SLR, which is in all respects a heaps better camera. I just have to get the (dozens) of films processed, and I'll have hopefully around 5 new galleries up soon (as well as Aussie World and Movie World which are coming).

Here's what happened to the site: http://www.magicmountain.com.au It is pretty rare that I say this, but I think I'd rather be at the resort, over the Theme Park if it were at its former 'glory'.

Here's to hoping! Maybe the Marvel deal combined with past rumours that appear were very close to coming true, brings us something memorable from Wonderland. 2002 - Most Improved award goes by a long shot to Wonderland Sydney for their fantastic efforts at bringing back the faith to the Sydneyers. I can't think of a single other Australian park - or very many international for that matter, that would rise to such a challenge - and come off at the top as Wonderland has done so in the past two or three years.

Well - salt-water crocodiles (the ones that are of any interest - freshies are smaller, and I'm sure Steve Irwin would agree with me in that they don't put up much of a fight) are quite common in mangrove areas of North Queensland. Swimmers at beaches have been mauled by them etc. I'd think that such an exhibit would include mangroves, salt water - all within the spirit of the sea. Perhaps not the bush/outback environment you see in Crocodile Hunter episodes. 'Shark Bay' sounded like an interesting concept. Perhaps Mr Menzies couldn't get ahold of that White Shark that he was allegedly hoping for. If there's one thing I'd like to see happen at Sea World, and that's the boardwalk project they had on the boards years ago. Over on the west side of the park, behind the water park. It'd involve reclaiming some more land on that side, and building out over the water, but I'd probably say that Sea World could get the permission to do it without too much trouble. Though I doubt it'll ever happen.

Dreamworld or Macquarie Leisure will tell you that over the past four years or so, they've had a very clear-cut plan as to what they would add to the park in coming years. They have a few major demographics, where each investment to the park in these past few years was designed to further boost popularity in these areas. First up was the thrill seekers, with Giant Drop (I'm not totally sure if Tower of Terror was included in this, as I believe that it was before the demographics-strengthening plan was begun). Later was the redevelopment of the Wildlife park into Australian Wildlife Experience, which targets foreigners. Cyclone was never part of the plan - it is by all regards a bonus. Had it not gone up for sale (or for much more than $3m), there would simply not be anything in its place. Most recently was Nickelodeon Central, for children and families. With the strengthening of these areas complete. Dreamworld can take a bit of a break, and get back to what they're really famous for in recent years - the thrill rides.

Can Movie World go on simply changing shows to satisfy the ever-growing crowds in this small park? Early this year, in about March, the park was relatively empty - no queues for anything. Yet the Superstars: Live in Concert show still managed to attract a full house (the fact that it wasn't a full house by the end of the show doesn't matter). When the park opened, they had some fantastic shows: the Wild West Action Show, a wide variety of street shows (more than a single Batman and Street parade as it is at the moment), as well as entertainers walking around everywhere - it would take a long time to get from A to B simply because of the new stuff there is in the way of entertainment to see on the way. There was also the Albert Einstein house, which had much greater appeal than the Harry Potter walkthrough that is currently there (I remember queuing for an hour plus back in Summer 1992 for the Einstein house, these days I'm sure the queue never gets much over 20 minutes). New shows are inevitably going to be needed in the future, but it has come to a point where you can't sacrifice old attractions for new ones. At the moment, thanks to their idea to only focus on the newest films, they've got less shows than they had when the park opened - the generic Wild West Action Show was the best show the park has ever had. They canned it to given them an opportunity to attract people with the Mel Gibson/Jodie Foster Maverick film. Police Academy was never my favorite of the two, but it is now easily the best show in Australia, and I'm sure it holds up by world standards. A Matrix Special Effects Show, wouldn't to me contain many more effects that Scooby-Doo. Strobe Lights could be used to make 'bullet time' (as it was called in Max Payne) work, green lights, and perhaps fog would be used to give it that green colour seen in all the in-Matrix scenes. So long as it doesn't have a soundtrack, or miming like they seem to do these days to make up for a lack of other things such as good actors, real effects among others. But back to my original point (eventually!!). The park is just going to burst unless they expand, and make use of some of the high-capacity rides available today.

I didn't see you (or anyone I knew that didn't work there), though I did keep an eye open. The coaster was quite good, though I'd have to admit that it isn't nearly as intense as Road Runner, because as I said, it's running rather slow.

Admittedly, I was somewhat sceptical about how this would turn out. The only new ride was Runaway Reptar Roller Coaster, the rest being old (some really old) rides simply rethemed. I was confident though, that the landscaping and gardens, as always at Dreamworld, would be superb. I'll start with the obvious - Reptar. The coaster looks great, it has fantastic gardens around it, that once they grow up will look great as a rainforested area. The somewhat famous Reptar statue was there, as at Paramount King's Island. It was built standing on a shed, and as an interesting touch, it was modeled to look as though the weight of the dinosaur was breaking the walls. The queue winds through the garden area, beside Tower of Terror's track, and all around you, there are giant mouldings of Reptar's footprints. The station has a nice open feeling, with quite a modern look. Once you're under the cover, there's a TV playing some Rugrats episodes. All I can say is at least they're not repeating the same episode over and over. Twenty at a time are let through the gate to line up at the airgates. Once the train is back and everyone has left, the gates open and everyone hops on. The seats aren't terribly comfortable - they are solid fiberglass - though more comfortable than the regular sitdown Rollerskater. The course is identical to the sitdown Rollerskater. The train handles much better though, thanks to spring-loaded guide wheels. It does feel much slower, and less forceful as the regular version. I'm hoping this is due to the ride being new, and it just has to wear in. As for the rest of Nick Central. It is on the whole very well done, considering much of it is old rides. The area is very open - something that Australian parks lack. On crowded days, it'll be able to soak up several thousand people without looking terribly bloated. The theming and landscaping of the entire area is great. It has set a new level that not only Dreamworld, but all other Australian parks should try to reach. A much more in-depth review will be up at ThrillNetwork soon, which will have plenty of photographs. To finish up, here's a nice picture of the ride on opening day, December 26.

In response to your topic title: They came from the non-stop Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster, Harry Potter Movie Magic Experience and general Warner Bros. Movie World TV ads that they're playing on 7, 9 and 10. 5600 sounds absolutely crazy, as you said. Movie World seems to have some invisible limit, the park copes fine, though once this limit is reached, the park just immediately seems to clog up everywhere (and especially don't be seen anywhere near Police Academy Stunt Show at the conclusion of any of the shows). On a similar note, I'd expect Dreamworld to be experiencing the same attendance spikes with the introduction of Nick Central. There's not a channel on Foxtel that isn't playing the ad with the kid in the orange shirt. This is going to put holiday crowds to a whole new level.

I thought it was an interesting fact, seeing as we've talked about American parks. Six Flags Worlds of Adventure, just down the road from Cedar Point, has 10 coasters, of them they have 1 B&M (Floorless), 1 Intamin (Impulse), 1 CCI, 1 Vekoma Flyer -- all these rides are ones with a theoretical capacity of greater than 1000pph. The interesting part, is this park barely breaks 1 million guests per year, and most Australian parks beat it out for attendance. I understand that this park is seasonal, and ours are year-round, but they have a summer holiday there that is about double the length of ours, which is when attendance is most.

Joz, I'm sure will be in later to give you the rundown on the park attendance figures, which he knows much better than I do, but an average summer day at a Gold Coast park is over 10,000. 23,000 is the Australian record, set by Wonderland in the early 90's. A floorless coaster, with a mid-course block brake capable of running three trains with minimal fuss, could do probably 1500pph. B&M seems to be largely building two train rides, with no mid-course. This makes the ride more flowing, and the new Superman at Warner Bros. Movie World Madrid has shown that they don't necessarily have to be small ones. A two train like this, which is what I'm expecting most of the future Floorless coasters to be like, would realistically have a capacity of maybe 1200-1400pph. Scooby-Doo at Movie World consisently has 45min+ queues, and it is running steadily at 1000pph. I've found most Australian parks are overwhelmed with crowds, and almost any high capacity coaster would still have hefty queues at the peak of the season. And also, let's not forget the tendancy for parks here to use one-train operation wherever possible. It is fair to say that B&M are unknow by Australia, but in all honesty, most people agree that with computer technology, the differences in manufacturers' end products is getting less and less. Vekoma and Arrow have both proven that they can match B&M with smoothness, and Intamin always have.

Let's just hope that they keep the rights to this one a bit longer than they did with Wild Wild West - that licensing lasted only four years. Rumour number one. I don't like the sound of a new stunt show. I'm terribly sorry, but Warner-Village have proven over the past few years, in particular most recently at Warner Bros. Movie World, that their internal staff aren't the most capable people when it comes to developing shows. Sea World's Ski Challenge isn't the greatest ski show to hit Sea World, the Bat Spectacle needs a bit of work. The Star Parade seems to be okay, certainly relative to some of the other stuff going on at the parks. When the Police Academy show was first produced, the park didn't have the internal staff to develop such a show, so they went to industry professionals. Vic Wilson coordinated the Police Academy Stunt Show (contrary to what Movie World says, there is no record of him having any involvement with the production of Scooby Doo). I'm afraid that Movie World won't take the same approach again. Internal staff would coreograph the show, with the safety and effects done by other companies. What we'll be left with is a dry, mimed show with a pathetic beat sound track, similar to what Action Man is at Wonderland Sydney. They work for the younger audiences, but don't have the 'zest' that a real show like the Police Academy Stunt Show had. John Menzies won't settle for a plain B&M coaster. He'll want something that brings the film to life. This means a bloated effects budget, directly hampering the amount that can be spent on the core ride. Sure, a ride like Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster may leave damn fine first impressions, but there comes a point, after a few rides, where it gets to be somewhat hollow. For Movie World to get anything of the magnitude we're thinking here, we'll be looking at a ride that is $16m + theming/enhancements. A $20m+ investment like this would be the largest capital expenditure put toward a single attraction in the history of Australian theme parks. Don't get me wrong, I've already got the colour scheme and the orientation of the lift hill all worked out in my head. Just that such an investment would be a huge one.

You'll have to have your photos online somewhere (ie you'll have to have uploaded them to some webspace somewhere) in order to link them into your post. I want to get a system to upload pictures into these forums, to make things much much easier. (But I'm me, so don't hold your breath ) With regards to your comment that a staff member said that they may use the Little Wonders Land space for buildings. This sounds about right. Wonderland Sydney had plans for the 'Wonderland Business Park', which is expected to be built within the next few years. It is to provide businesses or people seeking facilities for conferences, or perhaps conventions, with a unique place to do this. When I first heard about this, I figured it may go at the Hanna-Barbera Land end of the park (before Little Wonders Land, and before it closed). I find it great to hear that Wonderland was packed with people (though not for you, as you said - and I know exactly what you mean with that). Wonderland Sydney have been working tirelessly for the past year or so rethinking everything they do, to bring back the faith of Sydneyers which was lost in the 90's.

As luck would have it, today's visit resulted in no photos -- the camera decided that the batteries were dead when I got there, and I didn't really feel like paying $10 for four new AA batteries. I'll describe it as best I can for you then... The old Avalanche mountain has been painted in a lovely bright shade of purple. The front side of Tower of Terror's building is now Aqua, where I believe they will paint a mural. Most of the rides are in place, with finishing touches being put everywhere. The CatDog food place has been finished on the outside and looks just as it does on the map I posted earlier. Bumper Bowl has reopened for some reason, I'm guessing they'll close it to retheme it. It is fantastic seeing everything coming together so quickly. They were working today, Sunday, so they must be in some hurry to get everything together before they open. Sorry for no pictures - hopefully next time. 8)

Unfortunate news regarding Whirlpool: Due to reasons unknown, Whirlpool has been postponed until '2003'. However, the 'Whirlpool Springs' hot tubs will be opening December 26 to provide therapeutic relaxation for guests, complete with masseurs to really get you in the spirit (guessing 'pay-per-ride', so to speak). It is supposed to be like natural thermal springs; I've been in my fair share (nothing like a night spent at Moree on the way home from the NSW ski fields) of thermal springs, and personally, chlorinated water will never come close to the real thing (hot enough to make your head spin, all sorts of minerals, and the scent of sulphur). Interesting... to say the least. I'm guessing (and hoping) that they'll have the heating turned off for the summer months. Pity they've had to put off the Whirlpool, guessing technical problems are behind it. Straight out, that's what you get when you try and put together an attraction in such a short amount of time (I first knew about it early November, construction, I'm lead to believe only recently began). PS: Sorry I couldn't use words like 'invigorating' or 'self-indulgent bliss' in the description but I'd rather say something original.

That is very good news. I'll be sure to contact the park soon to see what is going to become of that. Marvel is one of the big players in the whole character industry, they'll want something more than a few costumed guys wandering around the park - with a bit of luck, some nice big rides that are worthy of the Marvel Comics name.

The $7m figure was indeed correct, hope they don't go over budget like they did with Cyclone (by $500,000 - a lot when the whole project was only meant to cost $5m). Haven't been there in a number of weeks, but I'm guessing we're getting very close to completion. I'll try really hard to squeeze a visit in this week.

Site progress has been a bit slow recently, but I'm slowly compiling all the pictures and stuff. The galleries are totally done, but the hard part is the reviews and guides etc - it is much more slow going than the galleries. Sea World, Movie World and Dreamworld galleries are completed, a total of over 100 images I believe. All the Dreamworld stuff, reviews and guides etc is nearly complete, and because of Dreamworld's magnitude, it is the naturally the (Queensland) park with with the most information. Over the summer, I'll be spending plenty of time on the North Coast (sun and surf), and there will for sure be a few afternoons spend down at Aussie World, so those of you that haven't been there can see this great family park. While I slated an October opening earlier, I'll push that to a definite December opening - feel free to whack (pronounced h-wack) me over the head with some sort of sports related item should it not be up in time. Got a nice hotel booked in Melbourne, and I'll be flying down there for the Australian Open in late January (more correctly, Luna Park, with some tennis spectating thrown in on the side). I'm hoping for nice weather and a more importantly, decent photos. 'Til Next Time!

Actually, in retrospect, I'd say that my initial estimate of $15m was way off. Even if Reptar were half of that, then I doubt the rest would cost more than a few million all up. All the rides are old ones bar Reptar, and the three other attractions can't cost too much - a playground, a fountain and a small stage set into the ground. I'll probably go with that $7m figure, between $7m and $10m at the end of it all.

There's a large cleared area out the front of the Studios - from the top of Lethal Weapon's lift, it is behind the Sound Stage that looks to be for Peter Pan judging by the outdoor set they've built. I'm guessing it is where this Outback Adventure will go, it seems they've got surveying pegs and that sort of stuff there now. No idea where the animal exibit will go. I would hope they make it part of Movie World.

I haven't found out the figure that Dreamworld is spending in total on Nick Central. My guess, would be somewhere around $15m. Reptar would have probably cost around half of that. The seperation of Nick Central and Ocean Parade will consist of the small hill that always acted as a way of seperating Village Oval/Kennyland from Ocean Parade, that is covered in some nice vegetation. There's also the waterfall at the plaza end of here. It'll be much more open than most of Dreamworlds existing land - parks here don't seem to have the open areas that American parks do, the only one that comes close is Wonderland Sydney, which is becauseof its planned design and American feel. This'll be a big step forward for Dreamworld in particular, and should be good for thinning out crowds. Don't think there'll be an update this week, but I'll be out there plenty before it opens.

With Reptar's trackwork finished, they've been concentrating on other areas of the site. Electrical work has been done on Reptar - the lift motors are all plugged up now. They've finished the concreting for the Slime Bowl, and put a steel roof on it. Thornberry's playground is also up now.

The Gold Coast four (Movie World, Dreamworld, Wet'n'Wild, Sea World) are getting a combined total of over 4 million people per year. That certainly isn't a figure to be laughed at, especially in a country that has about 15 times less people than America. An idea just popped into my head. Stage one, a restaurant which is the initial link between the two parks - it isn't much, but what comes next is an interesting concept. Stage two consists of a hotel. Guests staying at this hotel will get unlimited access to the two parks during their stay, linked by some form of transportation (thinking a nice triple station chairlift, built by the swiss company Doppelmayr). One stop at Movie World, another at Wet'n'Wild, and a middle one at this hotel. Stage three, as the parks expand, behind the studios to meet up near this hotel, the combining of the two parks to create one park that blows all other Australian parks out of the water. I'd look at that as rather long-term, probably 10-15 years. Then again, this is all hypothetical.

This is the 2004 financial year - not calendar year they're speaking of. Nick Central is the 2003 addition, just as Cyclone was 2002.