Richard

Well, even so that just means that the only ride unique to Australia is Tower of Terror. Dreamworld has apparently had nothing but unique rides yet there's no way they can get something "wacky" like a Standup or Flyer. Go figure.

I'd guess it's cabable of something around a foot of sway either way, and even that might be a huge overestimate. It's about half the height of Centrepoint and has a relatively negligible weight on it at the top which really makes all the difference.

It's something that will eventually happen. A lot of it's been set up, but I've got to get around to making it all work properly and fine-tune it all.

I think that proves everything.

No need to jump on people. A few more trip reports doesn't go astray at all. It's good to know now that nothing seems to have changed since the beginning and they are actually getting some decent attendance. I'll be down that way in early July. Hopefully by then at least they've got everything in proper order. From how you guys are describing it, it certainly doesn't sound like the place is at all living up to its potential one bit which is a real shame.

For sure! See http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/contribute.php. Anything anyone has is greatly appreciated. If it's good quality (or historical), and it's not the same as other shots we've already got, it'll be published.

It's certainly not impossible, but it's pratically impossible if it's an afterthough and isn't given a proper budget. Dreamworld have never been big spenders when it comes to theming. That's fine, but please don't try to theme a ride if you're not going to do it properly. I can tell you that Disney or Universal rides don't cost what they do because of the actual ride components - that's normally only a quarter or less of the total cost - most goes to theming.

Galleries that are currently up can and will be continuously added to and modified as new photographs come in. Everything that's up is fully functioning and not "imcomplete", but none of the galleries will really ever be complete.

I know Dreamworld's website say that they have 11 lands, but about half of them are nothing more than a building or two. I would say personally that they have around six true lands in total. Furthermore, you do realise that Thunderbolt's removal freed up a lot of land. They would be able to add an extra 20%+ to the park with that plot. Explain to me how Dreamworld has always had original rides? I can not name a single ride that's not been done elsewhere. Of what they've got, only Wipeout and Tower of Terror are truly unique to Australia. And what's so wacky about a standup or flying coaster?

If you've tried to use the User Control Panel any time since we changed to Roller-Coaster.com.au, you'll have found yourself not getting in because of authorisation issues. It is now resolved - you can all change your profile or do what you need to. Sorry for the problems. It was to do with a funny redirect that was somewhere in the server's settings.

Wind's still a major factor, though it rarely gets up to the speeds it needs. If they weren't there, wind would be a huge factor. If those cables weren't held down, it would make no difference even if there was full load on them - they'd still be flopping around up there with the slightest breeze. They're found probably every 75-100ft or so up the tower, so they're not exactly close together. And you're pretty much spot-on with how they work. The reason they're not needed on a ride like Space Proble would be they would be ineffective on such a small ride.

Well, as I said, it was a cheap and quick video I made. I took the segment of video I needed, opened it, stuck on the title and end, stuck the song in and rendered it. I wasn't exactly aiming for an Oscar with it.

It's perfectly possible to build a ride and just make it look nice. I'd especially have to disagree with attempting a storyline, it's just hard to pull off. Just put some nice plants around the ride, don't skimp on the turf - we don't want to see dirt or roads under the ride, and especially don't build these hideous white sheds we're seeing dominate our parks in recent years. I say build a nicely spread out area with all the appropriate things - not just rides. Some flat rides, some shops, some amenities, some trees, some benches and throw in some coasters towards the back and spread them out over towards the back of the park where they're not wasting the highly useable land of Thunderbolt. The thing is, from what I can gather, their master plan for the area does include much more than just thrill rides. Just expect it to be a fairly nice area a decade from now, with much more than thrill rides.

A bit above the middle of the photo is two thin tubular steel devices. They look like a television antenna or something similar to that. That's the device and it's hard to explain how they close off or see it from the picture, but let's just say that they move to close around the cable when the catch car is below it and open as it comes near. I've attached another shot. The above one was with it opened. This one is closed - you can see the two cables running through it.

Some people really need to get out there and see some quality movies. Not the filth that Hollywood produces. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000095/ I've personally never ridden any of those odd rides down at Surfers. For one thing, they're way too expensive for any local to be at all interested in (I'm calling myself a Gold Coast local now... what is the world coming too ), and then I'm not totally confident that they are the best designed, maintained or operated rides out there. Check out a cheap and quick video I put together some time last year for Vomatron. http://www.totalthrills.com/videos/vomatron.mov Ironically enough, anyone familiar with Woody Allen films will recognise the white text-on-black opening credits and the classic New Orleansy jazz soundtrack. The song I'd say is very similar to what Allen used in his 1973 film Sleeper, arguably his funniest and stupidest movie about an Orwellian totalitarian future. The soundtrack in that one was all written by Woody Allen himself though, whereas the piece I used was one by a Japanese artist called Toshiyuki Honda.

Don't really have much to say, but willsy, what kind of content do you think I'm serving here? If these forums were over-18, I'd make it worth it, but they're not. The deal is you've got to be 13. It's based on the USA COPPA Act, which is all child protection stuff. Truth be told, I'm not totally sure as to whether I'm obliged to obide by the laws because Roller-Coaster.com.au is hosted on USA soil, but the forum software deals with it anyway. Like 13 is exactly a wise and belevolent age anyway, it's a pretty waste-of-time piece of Legislation that Congress has pumped through anyway. If you're under 13 and lie on the signup form about your age, how could anyone possibly find out. All I care is that you're a mature and intelligent person. If you're not suitably so, then you'll be removed - regardless of your age. Which reminds me... the garden needs some weeding soon anyway. Back on topic please.

Good to see that project coming closer and closer to reality. It was a shame with the Docklands Paramount deal down there a few years ago. This isn't quite as nice, but it's certainly pretty promising. ABC's been getting a lot of criticism for this, but I say go for it. They have pretty bad funding and budget problems at the moment, this can only help alleviate their dependance on the Government.

Well, given the German ride is a clone of ours, let's say that one doesn't count . Still, that's two/three in the world. Pretty darn unique I'd say. Looking at those pics, ours is pretty much the same. replace the medieval style theming with Australian wilderness and that's our ride. Even down to the Tunes sitting in around a mock movie set and Porky and Tweetie fishing in a later scene.

Without going into too much detail about the couplers, here's a picture. It's not the greatest - you can't really get an idea of how they work, but you can understand the circumstances which could lead to the thing hitting. Those two tubey-things close around the cable when the catch car is down and open up as the car goes up to let it pass.

Construct some sentences and some basic thoughts and then come back and try posting a thread here.

Well, hang on. What are we talking about, the cable coupling incident or this cable snapping thing? The cable couplers are these steel cars built onto the tower which close around the cables when the catch car is low to stop the cables moving around. They open up one-by-one as the catch car goes up. What happened was one of them didn't flatten properly and on the way down the gondola hit it, causing a nice bang. I've personally never heard of a cable snapping on Giant Drop. Space Probe's does sound vaguely familiar though.

There was an incident on Giant Drop quite a few years ago. I can't remember it exactly, but I believe the cable couplers didn't set properly and the gondola struck one on the way down causing a bit of mess. This is why they have those cages over the top of the seats now (nothing quite like Dreamworld's knee-jerk reactions ).

I'm anything but a traveling ride expert, but isn't Cliffhanger the Ranger-type ride, only floorless? http://www.totalthrills.com/ekgallery.php?page=ekka40 Someone'll confirm or correct me on that one, I hope.

Some sort of routine failure left people standed halfway up for about 15 minutes. They took the ride down and subjected it to an inspection just to be safe, even though it was a fairly standard error that left the ride stopped. During the inspection they found something needed repairs on I believe the main drive and took the ride down immediately to perform these tasks. For about a quarter or more of 2002 the West side of Giant Drop didn't operate - this is why.

Tony Braxton-Smith didn't come from a theme park background. His previous jobs were actually in South America for foodservice companies, yet he really was one of the best things to ever happen to Dreamworld. I first spoke with Tony Braxton-Smith in around January of 2002, around 18 months after he started with Dreamworld. Just through what he said about what went wrong with Giant Drop (which prompted my initial call) and then in regards to what they were looking into doing with Thunderbolt at that time, I realised I was talking to someone who was more clued in on the industry than most seasoned theme park careerists out there are. Where are we going to get "theme park" experts from here anyway? Anyone good enough internationally is getting a lot more than they'd ever get here (Six Flags and Cedar Fair's CEOs are both on around US$5mil+ a year) and there aren't too many other parks in this country to start off with to trade management with. Gregg's past 15 years include managing Tourism Queensland and General Manager for Northern Territory Tourist Commission before that. Obviously no one can judge something that hasn't happened yet, but there's not too much not going in his favour in regards to experience and ability etc.