DaptoFunlandGuy

paul, i now have the wouldnt it be wonderful (1991 jive version). really bad quality, im gunna try and clean it up. let me know if u want it

ok we're looking over 500Mb at the current bitrates. i plan to downmix them to 128k over the weekend, and split the file into each individual song. i have adsl 512.

they ARE mp3 man! 256k quality MP3, total of 50 minutes worth. plus MPEG video - 1 min long

Success! I have all of the most recent tracks from the park music playlist, as well as the 1991 "theres a world I like to live in" television commercial with sound. trouble is, HUGE file sizes... you guys are gunna have to give me a while to get this uploaded. Richard, any chance of getting these up on the site, rather than post as attachment? i don't have any of my own webspace...

no no no there WAS a train out there. i never saw it but for proof, there are rails buried into the pathway that leads to aqua golf. it is quite obviously a miniature railway.

bus, i dont make a point of disagreeing with you. if i feel you are wrong i say so. if i feel you are right i say so. so what does that tell you? lol. bussy - back in its day, merry had a lot more characters. over time the fibreglass on some of them, (including huck) broke, or became irrepairable, so they took it off. If you dont believe me, there were three or four characters from merry sitting down outside the warehouse, to the right of the canteen, visible from post. one is jabberjaw, one is yogi, and one is huck. standard character position, squatting (kinda) with a step in between his legs, and a footrest below that. but Huck was part of the carousel... that, and im sure they either ran out of HB characters to them the rides with, or vice versa, they wanted to put huck on something and that was all they had...

paul i hate to break it to you, but bussy is right. it was magilla gorilla's flotilla. huck was the carousel. you have a photo of huck on TWO of the paddle boats. in fact, there were numerous paddle boats, and they all had various heads. wilma, fred, barney, betty, huck, yogi, snaggle, jabberjaw, george and judy jetson, there were HEAPS of them. they all fell under "magilla gorilla's flotilla"

rides at panthers? closest thing is a roller coaster simulator. used to be turboride, a simulator style thing, sitting in a twin chair watching a big screen with like 50 other people. it is now called the backdoor and is a comedy style club. cables is now closed, as is the go karts, and waterslides. so essentially, western sydney is getting screwed on amusements - wonderland, panthers, waterworks... everything is going down the tubes...

Gazza, the central column could rotate as well as tilt. one would be on the ground at a time, and as one went up, the arm would rotate as it tilted, bringing the next one down, while keeping the third one in the air still. ive just spent 3 hours trying to find a pic to no avail.

Found this one this morning on the web. Now whats wrong with Carr buying wonderland a year ago and doing the same thing? Source: News.com.au World's biggest park for Sydney By Simon Benson and wires December 4, 2004 A 35-year-old vision to create the world's largest urban park in the heart of suburban Sydney has today become a reality. The massive new urban parkland for western Sydney was about seizing the land for the people of the area forever, New South Wales Premier Bob Carr said today. At the site today, Mr Carr announced the creation of the park near Doonside - one of the biggest in the world, and 25 times the size of Centennial Park. He said $45 million would be spent over the next few years to open up space for the residents of western Sydney. "Today is about seizing the land of western Sydney for people forever, and saying it won't be touched by development," Mr Carr said. The announcement marks the culmination of an evolving plan, passed on from successive state governments since 1968, and will see the creation of an open space corridor running from Blacktown to Liverpool, slicing the city in half. Stretching 27km from north to south, it has an estimated land value of more than $2.5 billion and will serve as a "green haven" for the 1.8 million people who live west of Parramatta. State governments have been strategically buying up parcels of land in western Sydney based on a model created by the former State Planning Authority in 1968. The Carr Government has inherited much of the land which it will transform into recreation areas, conservation zones and parkland, beginning early in the new year. It is to become the green centerpiece of the Government's much-awaited Metropolitan Strategy, which will shape the future growth of Sydney for the next 30 years. As well as the park, a 55ha green residential suburb will be created adjacent, as well as a 58ha employment park employing 800 people. A trust has been established to manage the area, to be called the Western Sydney Parklands. Premier Bob Carr yesterday described the open space as the "lungs of western Sydney" and said it would be a unique urban area. "These parklands will become the lungs of western Sydney, offering families recreational and open space opportunities," he said. "Western Sydney currently has a population of 1.8 million people, growing to about 2.2 million by 2020. "It is one of the main engine rooms of the Australian economy. "It is sprinkled with job-creating industrial hubs and city centres. "Western Sydney families are working where they live and the Western Sydney Parklands will give a new place to have fun and enjoy themselves outdoors. "This will become an asset for our children and generations to come. It will enhance the quality of life for families in western Sydney. "It is about giving those families an even better quality of life." Old farming paddocks, bushland, existing recreation facilities and some Olympic sites have been incorporated into the parkland. It will include new sporting facilities, a 760ha biodiversity conservation corridor and natural bushland areas. Included in the park will be: A NEW $12 million, 128ha regional park at Doonside; MORE than 35km of walking and cycling trails; CONNECTIONS to M7 pathway; A $5 MILLION revegetation program and $1 million landscape gateway in Prospect; $20 MILLION for two sporting complexes and trail bike and BMX bike tracks; NEW picnic grounds and playgrounds; and OUTDOOR camping site for school and adventure programs. The land acquisition program has cost $140 million over 40 years. Over the past 10 years, more than 350,000 trees have been planted to restore some degraded paddock area to make them suitable for inclusion in the park. Incorporating reports from The Daily Telegraph and AAP

beverly hills cop 3 features a THREE ARMED version of the Zodiac. The double decker carousel was never at wonderland. i know of the park where most of BHC3 was filmed, but can't recall it. some parts of the movie (including alien attack) were filmed at universal studios hollywood as well.

ok ill try and answer everything. firstly, everyone is most welcome for the info. I honestly did it for myself rather than anyone else, but to share is a better thing. Joz, i certainly hope so too, it would be a shame if they closed down... Jobe, i have no idea about the identity of the persons who have purchased any of the rides. unlike wonderbus, i haven't done any in depth research to find out about it. tassie is no longer in the open, so either they have put it in a container, or it is already in shipping. snowy, beast and beastie, i cannot imagine anything but a bulldozer in their future, or perhaps a heritage listing on beast if some people get their way. as far as bounty, it is old but still works, so I imagine it going somewhere else. As far as probe, I'm not aware of any other intamin drop that has been relocated. i don't know if it would be financially viable to do so. all we can do is speculate. I was not permitted to take any photos while inside the park. i have a lot of historical photos, and stock photos from the period of 2000-2002, as I was a photographer for the park during that time. as far as scanning etc, i do not currently have a scanner that is out of a box, so it won't be happening anytime soon.

Who owned the park before Sunway City Berhad? There have been a few owners over the years. While i can't tell you specifically, the original backers for the project included the NSW State Government (tourism), Kings Entertainment company (prior to merger with paramount) and the commonwealth bank. Prime sponsors to the project also included smiths chips, coca cola and tooheys. What rides were initially in the park? The bushbeast and beastie, were they there from the beginning? its easier to tell you what WASNT there- zodiac, all of the beach, demon, probe, skyhawk, Sky Rider, fred flintstone's splashdown what was that you may not know about- Funnel Web Spider, Ned Kelly's Getaway, Bam Bam's Ball Bash, Judy's Jetliners, Scooby's Silly Stix, and the paddleboats (can't remember actual name), wizard's fury How long did the park take to construct, which themed areas were there first? most major construction works were completed within two years prior to the park opening, december 1, 1985. Originally, the park opened with three themed lands, International Village, Goldrush, and Hanna-Barbera Land. it was based on a model of Canada's Wonderland, although canada had a few more lands at that time. Why did they choose the current site (so far west)? Proximity to the M4? Cheap land? the M4 did not exist when the park opened, however the land was at the time government owned, and with the state government's support, it made the land purchase easier. it was very cheap, and was considered to be central to the forecasted urban sprawl predicted in the next 20 years (they were right). it was still considered minchinbury when it was opened, however it later reverted to eastern creek as the area developed (urban sprawl again). More importantly, i'm led to believe that a lot of the rides initially came from Paramount parks in the U.S. Is this true? Which parks and which rides were brought over? it is true that rides were brought over yes. whether they all specifically came from paramount parks is another matter as i stated before, Kings were involved in the construction prior to the merge with paramount. some of these rides were from a dutch park, and some are more than 30 years old today (Wizard's Fury is one i can state for a certainty - the house the train went through had a particularly dutch feel to it as well) And back in 1985, does anyone know how much admission to the park costed? (I'll adjust for inflation) i can tell you that in its early days, an adult ticket was around $20-25, and children were somewhere between $10-17. pensioners were same as children, and over 60 i think was free. don't quote me on this though as this is an old memory. id say it was ballpark at best. hope this helps ya micka. also i have a lot of old info about the park from my visit today, so let me know if you need any more info, or get me on MSN - you have my contact. Ciao!

So we arrived at the park at about 9.30. met up with my contact, and came into the administration building. all of the office cubicles etc have been ripped out and relocated to the training room, and the office floor is covered with an assortment of junk from the park. old floodlights, cash registers, stuffed toys, framed pictures and other paraphernalia. We took a tour upstairs to the executive offices, where there is more framed pictures etc etc. lots of old black and white photos of the park, and canada's wonderland (the park Sydney was based on). lots of other posters from years gone by litter the floor all over the place. (for those interested, they have a slice of timber log, with the original Australia's Wonderland logo burned into it... its nice but i wasn't prepared to buy it.) Then we took a tour out into the park. A lot of backstage fencing has been removed on the way up to the park entrance at the front gates. As we walk into international village (or botany bay) all of the chairs and tables have been removed outside bounty burgers, and the roof has been removed off the bounty's revenge side of the food outlet. The fountain is drained, the paving has lots of weeds growing through it, and a lot of the pavers have been removed, with removal still underway in transylvania, with pallet upon pallet of pavers stacked up ready to be removed. Bounty's revenge still stands, and we walked up to the lake. now fully drained (maybe a small pool in the bottom from rain) but the lake for those interested is about 6 metres deep in the middle, and it drops sharply at the sides. Lakeside has been completely demolished, all chairs and tables gone, and the piers over the water are gone. all of the signage has fallen apart and is sitting on the bottom of the lake in pieces. As we walk up along "IV" toward dodgems, the carousel space is now just a plain concrete slab. all of the skill games have been stripped bare. Entering Transylvania, it is strange not to have the "creature" growling from its tunnel. more weeds, and the grass in the gardens has overgrown. it is from here we got our first close up view of Demon, undergoing demolition. the "demon" gates are closed, with all sorts of safety and contruction signs posted on it. two cranes are around the ride, and the entire boomerang is now removed. both lift hills remain standing, the 3rd loop, and the drop from the boomerang is still up there, so the drop looks like an evil hook just sticking up in the middle of the sky. We could not go inside of probe, but the only thing that has changed there is the pre-show tv's have been removed. Heading up towards HBL, the pathway is covered in dirt and muck from all the trucks going up and down. Zodiac, contrary to popular belief, is holding up well. it is still completely intact, however is completely level due to the equalisation of the hydraulic fluids. all gondola's are still complete. Galaxy Theatre - Tony Laffan's old home, is in a shambles. the marquee has fallen down everywhere, the roof has collapsed. we took a tour of the stage areas, including the secret trap doors, the tiger-run, dressing rooms etc. The rest of HBL have fallen apart. the only rides still within HBL was Beastie and Skyrider. all of the shops, outlets, etc we pathetic. grass, dirt and garbage were everywhere. the magic tree theatre still stands, although looks slightly worse for the wear. Dragon's flight having been removed prior to the park closure, nothing has changed here. still a big empty concrete slab. "planes" as most people know them, have been removed from transylvania, and captain cavemans clippers (galleon's graveyard) was in the process of being torn down during our visit. Action Arena has no seats, walls, fences or anything else, however the oriignal building housing the dressing rooms etc are still there. Although we had some photos posted recently on the state of the park, "Balloons" has disappeared. Endeavour is dismantled, but still remains on its original site in pieces. tassie devil's site is still as was at closure. the bakery is all boarded up with pretty much anything they could find, including old signage etc. the skill games in goldrush are torn down, some without even a roof. the blacksmith's shed still stands, and still has a few items here and there. old time photos has its velveteen drapes, a piano, some coathangers, and thats about it. the arcade is a shell, the remote controlled boats have been drained, although most of the facades are still there, but all the controller units etc are gone. the heli-tours building, which used to be a retail gift shop, and before that who knows is levelled. nothing but a concrete slab. the eating areas in goldrush have been levelled, no chairs, tables, or roofs. Ampol's Antique Autos still stands as is, with cars still on the tracks, however the entire ride has been purchased. Skyrider still stands in goldrush as well. all of the games down the bottom of goldrush are standing, but nothing is there, and the arcade building has been levelled. Snowy River Rampage could still be operated in its current condition. everything is in readiness, and it appears the pumps and all the rest of its associated equipment are intact. the control panel has gotten a little filthy, but looks ok. the holding lake for snowy has NOT been drained. Bush Beast also still stands, but as with a previous post somewhere, the trains have been moved out to the back of the property. The Beach walkway, from bush beast to the pool area used to have pine poles lining it as a fence. these have been cut off at ground level to allow vehicles easier maneuvering in and out. the beach pools are stagnant, with all sorts of things in the pool themselves. there are no shade sails or anything still up, and all of the palm trees etc have been removed. Maintenance around the back of the beach is littered with parts of rides, although Tassie Devil has been removed from the maintenance area. There is a mould for the plates of the space probe shell, and some carousel items that were HB themed such as jabberjaw, yogi, scooby etc. the only thing in the whole park that looked like it was in decent condition was the garbage disposal unit out the back of maintenance, which was a brand new cleanaway compactor. On our return to admin, I took a trip down memory lane by walking down through into wardrobe and the lockers. i came across bits and pieces of operaitonal paperwork littered across the floor. So all in all, i cannot describe how I felt going through the park one last time. I was happy that i got to see it again before it was levelled, but sad to see what it had become. out of my visit, i picked up - assorted park brochures, maps, blank tickets, french fry boxes and fast food paper bags, hat pins, badges, keyrings, magnets, drink bottles, posters from 2004, and posters from 1985, 1986, 1987, and 1990, and also one circa 1994. thimbles, photo frames, as well as the "demon ride photo" frames, hats, flags, pennants, a few stock photos from 1986 or thereabouts, and overhead black and white photo from 85 of HBL in its original state, stickers, bottle openers, as well as the old style 1 litre glass Coke bottles used on one of the skill games - these are collectors items! as well as all sorts of little bits and pieces. i picked up a couple of promotional videos the park used to have, from way back in its original days to current, the park music cd, and a lot of memories. I will always remember Wonderland Sydney..... ....but i would prefer to remember it as Australia's Wonderland, build by Kings Entertainment company in conjunction with Paramount, based on canada's wonderland, and funded partly by the New South Wales government. Whilst I am appreciative of the opportunity to tour the park prior to its closure, I am still dismayed at the decision Sunway made to close the park. I do sincerely hope that in the near future, someone else will come along and build a world class theme park here in sydney, and have the backing and the determination to keep it running for many years to come, while still holding firm to the traditional values like those so instilled by the original management of Australia's Wonderland, rather than a money hoarding corporation that only cares about its bottom line. Theres a world i'd like to live in, A World I'd like to see, Where theres too much fun, for everyone, and thats where I Wanna be. Wouldn't It Be Wonderful, If the World Was Wonderland? Rest In Peace - 1985 - 2004 19 years of memories 19 years of fun

I was at luna park the other night and remarked to myself of how much the wildmouse at luna differs to SDSC at WBMW. So i wanted to ask this question - what makes a coaster a "wild mouse"? can anyone offer a definition?

Thanks to a WONDERful person currently working at the park, I will be taking a guided tour of the park on Wednesday, December 1st, before the park admin personnel closes out in mid december. Unfortunately, no photography is permitted inside the park, so I cannot deliver any photos, however I will be posting after my visit (if possible), on how the park is preparing for the bulldozers. Theres a world i'd like to live in....

It worked for me Paul. I have to say, most of the footage I have seen before. to be critical, the effects were a little cheesy, and quality was pretty average... and it was the best god damn thing i've seen this week. almost brought tears to my eyes. I know its not coming back, i know it'll never be what it once was... but damn did i love that place. I idolised it since it opened when i was a little tacker, always wanted to, and did, work there. it doesnt matter if they build another park in sydney, nothing will replace wonderland. sure sunway screwed it over, but the original park could not be changed... it still remained the same to the day those gates shut. nothing can replace her.

I have to say this is good to get information about a bad experience at WBMW. As you guys already know on my previous gold coast visit, I was supremely impressed with the Warner Village theme parks, and severely disappointed with DW. Im sure Joz would have an opinion on this in regards to the morale of the staff. I know i do. I dont work for warner village, and never have, but i have visited the warner village parks countless times more than dreamworld, and have always found the staff impression to be the best I've seen anywhere. so very sad to see the staff dropped the ball on this particular occasion. And I'll concede that as I dont visit DW as often as I do WVTP, my experiences at DW can be simply one-offs as this experience at WBMW seems to be. but anyway....

Yet again it seems as though Wonderbus is incapable of comprehending the english language. Dog With a Bone Bus... Dog With a Bone. Theres a "yo Mama" comment i'd put in here if i was 7 years younger and had the intelligence of a lot of the other members (Including Wonderbus)... but as im not and i don't.... i will refrain. I do however have the psychic vision that I will see another comment from wonderbus here following mine... go on bus... you know you can't resist... HIT that reply button, before those nervous shakes and twitched overwhelm you!

the videos were actually streaming videos. they would not play unless they could contact the WLS website and download the video. they were great, but not agreat quality.

an interesting article. well written and compeltely unbiased. a good read from a good writer. well done Richard.

You're never wrong, are you Bus? Capitals are the only thing I don't use frequently on here. My punctuation has no errors. You, on the other hand, seem to have trouble comprehending the simplest of english phrases. For example - take a look at your last post - "Oh yeah make sure you replies are completely explicit otherwise I might not be able to understand what you mean. " Spot the problem... Stop being so damn pessimistic all the time. The ride is not going to reopen. This we know. We are talking theoretically about a target that should have been aimed for every day of operation. Ok, I haven't operated Space Probe. Whoopee. You have. Whoopee for you. Im going to end this thread as far as I am concerned right now, because if there's one thing i've learnt while being on these forums, is that no matter who is right and who is wrong, if Bus isn't right then no-one is.... well according to Bus anyway. Being that my proposal has never been tested, how can you say it won't work without trying it bus? No no, no need to answer, thats my point exactly. Arrogance and Ego is your problem Bus. Better step on it before it steps on you. "The Bus is now leaving for Primary School"

Do you think that there was more than one type of operator for Space Probe? No. if you read my post YET AGAIN, i say - train cast up to "operator level". my use of the term "console operator" further down was simply to clarify, and designate the "operator level" as being a level at which the operator can operate the console. not everyone has operated probe, and this was for their benefit, not purely for an ex-console operator of said attraction. Ok let me shoot some cannon balls through your '64' magical number theory. The sign out the front never had the correct information on it, for one the speed of 120 km/h was off by about 30 km/h. There was a WorkCover certificate at the ride that stated the speed at 93 km/h, last time I checked WorkCover didn't get things like the speed of machinery wrong. Ok - take your balls back bus, i wasn't quoting the SPEED of the ride, only the time taken to reach the bottom top. the speed may be wrong, yes. as i recall probe was intended to be another 1/3 of its current height higher, but due to flight plans and such it could not be built as high as intamin intended. with less of the tower to travel, it would not accelerate to the speed quoted by intamin, however this lower tower height would counteract the "time taken" to reach the bottom top. so shove those cannon balls up your zodiac. Next and your biggest hole, is when you say that it wouldn't dispatch with the OTSR up, I can tell you with absolute certainty that this is not true as I witnessed Space Probe operating with the harnesses up on several occasions. You then say it wouldn't dispatch unbalanced, another un-truth. It wouldn't dispatch with too much weight on each cabin, the maximum was 350kg although the sign out the front said 400kg. You could dispatch it with 2 big guys on one side of a cabin no problem, yes the maintenance guys didn't like that but it was still possible. ok. in this instance, i was wrong. i admit it, but bear in mind this still does not affect the timing of the ride, it actually supports it further. i made this statement to allow for loading delays, but since it can dispatch unbalanced, this further reduces my assumption of load delays. The button next to each cabin was not a dispatch button but an 'enable' button, basically if you weren't going to use a cabin you didn't enable it. ok. so it seems if someone is writing for wonderbus, they need to be COMPLETELY EXPLICIT. my statement should have read (and does, but is a little obscure) loaders jerk four OTSR's, give the cabin 1 (or 2 or 3) all clear, and the CONSOLE OPERATOR hits despatch. You are kidding yourself if you think that there were only 2 or 3 complaints in a day, working in the department you did you should know better than that. im not discussing every single complaint, what i am saying is that if the operation went as I had stated, a lot of complaints would be eliminated simply by removing the cause of these complaints. a fast and efficient load team, with fast cycles and fast moving queue lines keeps guests happy, therefore reducing complaints. what i said was OUTSIDE THE SCOPE of complaints about delays etc, there would be few. most complaints would generally be directed to a super, or guest relations, as opposed to an operator. Last but not least you 768 calculation is flawed, why did you multiply the number of passengers by the number of seconds taken? It should be number of passengers multiplied by the number of cycles per hour. ok - here we go 12 passengers every 64 seconds. 60 minutes in an hour Cycles = 56.25 per hour Total Passengers per hour = 675 it is still over the 600 you were talking about, and still quite realistic given the statements posted previously. there are two requirements for this to work: 1) guests enough to keep queue line long enough to keep a steady flow into the pre show area. 2) operators with the attitude and dedication to aim for that capacity each and every hour. my math was a little out, the idea was still sound. Do you want to continue this argument? Because I am more than happy to as I know what I am talking about on this subject. But please feel free to keep trying. yes. please continue bus. the majority of the "holes" you shot in my post were simply due to the fact that I posted in language you didnt fully comprehend. The Bus is now leaving, permanently.

No Bus... read it again. i said they should train more people up to operator level, and they should also improve the treatment and morale of the staff to encourage them to stay - as in long enough for them to become a console operator. See - you're doing what i love to do, grab numbers to prove a point. Now heres a few bullet holes in your theory of 95 seconds. As quoted on the fact sheet sign out the front of probe, time taken for the gondola to reach the top was just over 20 seconds (photo anyone?) drop time was 4 seconds again according to the sign, but im not going to be pedantic over 1 second. so so far we have 24 seconds. now the catch wagon begins descent the moment the cabin touches bottom. its automatic. and with operators at peak efficiency, they can have the previous group cleared of the launch bay, and have the next group beginning to take their seats. so ill grant your 30 second catch wagon timing, as I have no other information to go on. so thats 54. now if there is one operator per gondola, the preshow cast have already prepared guests with loose belongings and all the rest, and another operator on the console ready to despatch as soon as all 3 operators have given "all clear". now probe will not dispatch if a OTSR isnt down, and neither will it dispatch if the gondola is unbalanced. so essentially all the operators have to do is give a jerk to four OTSR's to make sure they're locked and give a "cabin 1(or 2 or 3), clear" and hit Despatch. so on the outside, ill say that from doors to despatch its 40 seconds, now take off your 30 second catch wagon timing... thats another 10 seconds. so by my calculations, thats 64 seconds from despatch to despatch. if the operator by the waterfall does their job in measuring height limits, and the preshow operators do their jobs for loose belongings and all the rest, then i foresee only 2 or 3 complaints outside of that scope for the whole day which would at most add another 60 seconds to one despatch. so you loose 3 minutes in complaints etc in the day. 64 seconds x 12 Passengers = 768 per hour cast turnaround and breaks etc would be handed over only during despatch and unload, a total of 24 seconds or so, which is plenty of time to handover one position to another op. defense rests...

look at the time of our posts paul. now think about how long it would have taken me to do that. i started typing that before you or Joz replied.