Wonderbuzz

No, we never did find the missing sign. I'm not there anymore so I can't say what's happening right now. The park area was fenced off and became a restricted area during my 2 weeks or so.

Gee, that's one way to add thrill to Bounty's! As for current management, well there isn't any now. There isn't anything or anyone to manage. The last few remaining staff finished up and cleared out just before Christmas. There is only the CEO and his assistant finishing up the paper trail and possible sale of Space Probe, Zodiac and I guess the Bush Beast and Beastie trains. Last I heard they were restricted to a small office in the admin building to work out of.

He's kiwi to be more precise. The live Spider-Man show was planned to be simlilar to the Actionman show, and the working title for it was "The Revenge of The Green Goblin"

Yeah, I guess that was the longer version. I think they used the shorter line whenever the logo was present.

They all came under the "You always remember" style, I only mentioned that one because it was part of the logo. "For a day you'll always remember" "For a year you'll always remember" (for Wonderpasses) "Improve your kids memories" "Give your kids the best memories"

I wondered that too when I saw the poster. Everything else I saw pointed to a December opening. I have a framed park map with a gold plaque that reads "Grand Opening Day 7th December 1985". One of the maintenace guys had an original ticket stub encased in perspex from the grand opening day, and I'm pretty sure it said 7th December, or Decemeber atleast. Also consider that those posters were made months before opening, so the schedule could've changed. It's possible because I also have an early brochure stating a 1986 opening.

Some of the catch lines used over years included: "The greatest fun you'll ever have" "Too much fun to have in one day" "You gotta do it" (said in a pirate voice) "Wouldn't it be wonderful if the world was Wonderland" "No wonder they call it Wonderland" "Get out of everyday" "You'll always remember"

Whilst some codes were for masking information, they were also there for clarification and abbreviation to minimise talk time. Radios aren't the clearest of quality, so using codes were better than trying to say a long sentence, especially in an emergency.

- Just on radio calls, I think the following was also used: 10.19, come to location 10.21, phone/call - I also believe that when a guest throws up/vomits it's referred to as a "protien spill" - In the early planning stages, the Space Probe was named "Alien Encounter", "Probe 7", then "Space Probe 7" upon opening. Then eventually just "Space Probe".

There were atleast two shipping containers used for the station, train and other bits. The larger sections of track were just tied to open flat rack on the back of a truck trailer, so it's very possible that what SeanM saw was The Demon. The size of the pieces were about the size of a quarter of the full loop. And as AlexB said, what other black roller coasters in Sydney are there to get shipped out. For that matter what else would even resemble a roller coaster track?

I think one of biggest façades at Wonderland was the Koala Valley rock waterfall. The one that ran along the timber walkway that starts from Koala Photo Spot. Alot of the rocks were either fibreglass or a hard sponge/foam (not sure of the proper name for it), including the large rocks with the Wildlife Park logo "chiseled" into them near the Woolshed. Also things like the tombstones around Transylvania were sponge/foam with a timber frame inside, although along the pathway up to Demon many of the tombstones were real concrete.

It was a real clock that kept real time. I'd imagine that it was in the form of an electric motor and a simple circuit as the time of the clock was also controlled via the computer. And if I recall correctly, it took about half a day to speed cycle through in order to turn the clock back one hour for daylight savings.

The bell that chimed in the clock at the rear of the plaza wasn't acutally a bell. It was the sounds of a bell from an audio CD being played through a loud speaker. All was controlled by a simple 386 computer (which was common for the time it was installed) running a custom program located in the audio studio/admin building. Who said old computers are useless? The park background music was also run on a PC (can't remember if it was a 386 or 486), with 6 x SCSI CD-ROM drives and a custom program to start playing upon boot up.

Finally!! If it makes any difference, none of the other aerial shots really showed the brakes sticking out either and all the shots from the opposite side were too far away to see, so it's most likely an angle thing. Afterall how many times did you see the Space Probe from up in the air on that side compared to from the ground?

Not once did I say that everybody else knows nothing. I'm not being aggressive and lashing out and saying "I'm right and you're wrong end of story!" I simply brought in evidence to support the claims that the photo in question was real, rather than straight out denying it, what was wrong with that? You said it's like a debate and you have to stick to your side, well that's what I did. Not only did I stick to my side, I backed it up. Yes, Wonderland has used edited/touched up photos, I know of some that you'll be hard pressed to spot. But the topic at hand isn't "could that photo be edited?", but rather "is that photo edited?". I'm sure you'd agree that there is a difference.

Here are more pics of the Space Probe from that same photo shoot. Scanned raw with no filters applied. The pattern on the dome can now clearly be seen. You'll probably notice on aerial_probe2.jpg that the green walkway where it joins to the queue line looks washed to white more than the others. I've noticed that the photos taken from the Zodiac side are like this, and as they moved towards the Demon it became more solid green as seen in aerial_probe1.jpg and aerial_probe3.jpg, it is consistant throughout the photoshoot and probably due to the angle and reflection of sunlight. So, you now have about 5 different photos to look at. For the skeptics, think about the following: - In the mid-90's do you really think Wonderland would've arranged so many fake/edit photos (remember there are more), considering the amount of detail we can see and the cost of having it done at that time? - Paul can't see any differences between the incorrect RGB and the correct RGB pictures, now that would throw off his judgement considerably. - I'll add that I'm scanning these pictures from an original 35mm positive (ie. full colour negative). And Paul, have a good read all the posts so far, all the evidence, and then you decide who's being "picky".

As I said look at the red gondolas on Zodiac or the red roof at Wizards Fury, or even the Ch7 logo. Can't you see the overall light blue tinge? If you can't see any differences between the two then I recommend that you not pursue a future career involving graphic design or photography. As for the brakes, I can only think of two things: 1. Due to the distance, light and angle they are difficult/impossible to see 2. Since we don't have a specific date, the brakes haven't been put on yet. But this is very unlikely because they would've been installed prior to the station building and queue lines (which is fully intact). For the gaps/cracks on the dome, pretty much what's been said already. It's clean. The top dome wasn't exactly given the once over every day, so over the years the gaps got dirty and became more visible.

Just to back you up Richard, I've got more than just those two pictures! Anyway, I've just dusted off my copy of the info CD that Paul_Hollibone sourced that image from, and it turns out that the both the high and low resolution files on there are CMYK. The file that Paul posted wasn't properly converted to RGB before saving resulting in incorrect colours. I can only assume that he was using a program that doesn't manage CMYK very well. Just look at the red gondolas on Zodiac, they appear more of a pale purple rather than red like it should. I've taken the liberty of converting and saving the image to RGB whilst retaining the correct colours (using Photoshop 6.0). See attatched. Compare it to Pauls for the colour comparison, then look at the Space Probe. In regards to my previous post/photos, I now admit they didn't quite show the amount of detail I'd hoped, but that was probably due to some of the filters I had enabled for my scanner (scratch removal, auto tone.....).

Okay Paul_Hollibone, you want this settled and concluded so here it goes.... The picture is real. If you take a look at the photo, it isn't really the best of quality is it? The colours are a bit dull and overall image is not real sharp which is why you can't see the "cracks" or smaller details (on the dome and the queue line roof) in that picture. I've attatched a better quality image of that exact same photo for those who think it's fake, and also another photo from a slighty different angle which I assume was taken during the same photo session. All the details you say that are missing are as clear as day, or atleast as clear a camera back in those days could capture from a helicopter. I also remember when that info CD was being made. As to why the photo provided on the CD was of rough/low quality is beyond me. Maybe it was a bad CMYK>RGB conversion? So looking at my picture, I'd say this matter is settled. The picture is real, but due to the low-quality of the original picture in question led some people to believe it was fake.

If you like that artwork on the Demon, then you may be interested in what I just added.

Just to give you an update, I've added a few framed posters here

This thread is not about trying to save Wonderland, or getting the Bush Beast up and running again, or keeping it where it is under heritage order. Let's say that all options have been exhausted, and it has to come down. Would a small piece of track (paper weight size or a wall ornament size) be of interest to any theme park fanatics? What about the all the timber? It's treated timber, so a big bonfire is out of the question. But it would make a great talking point to say that your pergola out the back was made from part of the biggest wooden roller coaster in Australia, don't you think?

Hmmm..... I don't recall a Brendan ever working in Audio and I've never worked in koala photo spot or retail (well...not physically if that makes sense?!), so no I'm not. I was more of an office worker who sat in front a computer alot.

Hi all, Just thought I'd let you that I've got some Wonderland items up on eBay here. I'll be adding more items in the near future so keep watch!

Not to mention that you'd probably have to wait 5-6years for them to wipe out WS and build the new factories/offices. As for job offerings from Luna Park, it's great that they are offering. But you still have to consider if the work is worth travelling to the city everyday for. And you also need to keep in mind that not all jobs that were lost were out in the actual park.