DaptoFunlandGuy

*changes "over 2 hours" to "a heck of a lot more time than it should have taken to either repair, or call emergency rescue"* Geez.... these maintenance and operations people get really defensive dont they? however long it took to fix skyrider... something more should have been done in that time. And how do you know it was EXACTLY 90 minutes? is there a stopwatch on a ride that starts automatically the instant it breaks down? i dont think so. so add on extra time for the operator to realise there is a problem, bell it to the other station, wait for the radio channel to be free, then call in to the control room,also bear in mind that once it starts up again, its a minute or two before the passengers make it back to the station, and many other little bits and pieces, your 90 minutes can balloon quite quickly... tell us.... how DO you know it was exactly 90 minutes?

how much did they pay?

I think you mean BINARY as opposed to DIGITAL. Remember that a lot of the flats originally installed at wonderland were USED rides when they were installed to begin with. Wizard's Fury itself was 30 years old when it was erected at Wonderland. So a 10 year halflife of a bearing or other consumable item would mean some of those rides chewed through more than a single bearing in their life at wonderland.

Rappa - don't forget the one about BooBoo's Balloon Race. it closed around June 2001, and cracks were discovered in the basket fibreglass, and it was deemed too expensive at the time to repair a ride that was going to be in an area that was soon to close. Later down the track (around march 2002) the parts were suddenly shipped offsite, and we all thought it was gone for good... until it arrived back a week later with a brand new paint job... ready to be put back together. it did a few months in HBL until HBL closed, and was then moved to skyhawk's old site. Zordy... as far as your little Rubber Band Analogy... we're not talking about a rubber band here... we're talking about very expensive components. generally, most of the mechanics inside these rides showed signs of wear and tear and abuse, before they became "unusable". if detected early enough, they were replaced before they failed. Finding cracks in major support structures cannot always be detected on daily inspections, and it takes a trip to the workshop for them to be able to pull the whole thing apart and find these problems. Yes Its interesting that these major flaws were found, and it was resolved not to be fixed at the time, and i think that can be put down to the whole "we're closing down soon" thing... but amazing how it was so inefficient to repair it for Wonderland, but some of those same rides then received new parts just in time to be shipped to a new location in another park...?

Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong More information? Well the theme is right, what was the name?

OK - More trivia - at the main entrance to the park, around the gardens heading down the hill towards the ticket booth... on the tarmac were randomly placed squares of black paint. the questions are - What was under the black paint When were they put there Why were they put there? Where in the park was the "reason" for what was under that black paint? AND SOME MORE... What kind of cars were used on Ampol's Great Race? What was Billabong Grove called when it first opened? How many "entertainment" stages were in Wonderland between 1985 and 1990, and what were they ALL called?

Sydney has many sites that could possibly be made into a theme park and resort area. The problems exist when it comes to Zoning, logistics and infrastructure, and the surrounding area. Now I am not sure if you are talking about Homebush, or Homebush Bay (olympic site). If it were in Homebush, bear in mind that the markets are there already, and it is predominantly industrial and low-income residential. Chucking a theme park in here would be a logistical nightmare, adding thousands more cars on the road to an area that chokes itself to death trying to sustain what it already has. Homebush Bay on the other hand would be fine, and this area has been discussed as a potential theme park in the past. Transport to this area would be fine, so long as every road around the olympic site was turned into a clearway, and Cityrail cut services around the network to sustain the extra trains to run to Homebush Bay... Basically your Easter Show, 365 days a year... Eastern Creek (wallgrove road) was well situated, as it was at the crossroad of two main arterials from and to sydney, however these arterials were not being as severely overtaxed as parramatta road is during peak hour. Other dangers of building over old miningquarry areas carry other dangers... for instance, building high speed, highly sensitive rollercoasters over an old quarry or mining area would be dangerous due to the soil shifting, which could potentially buckle and bend and cause muchos muchos accidente... Local residents will complain, no matter where it is built - the good old NIMBY policy - Not In My BackYard. Everyone wants tourism, recreation, extra income from local businesses, and to attract other likeminded businesses... so long as they are not inconvenienced in the slightest while its there... So in summation - yes, i think Sydney desperately requires a tourism attraction of this type... but where to put it, in a place other than eastern creek area? I HAVE NO IDEA.

Sounds like Wonderland Maintenance, and operations management found themselves a new job in melbourne! I remember being up in HBL one time when Skyrider jammed up. The ride was charlied for more than 2 hours, and emergency rescue were NOT called in.... This was the same incident in which Zoe was up at the HBL station speaking over the Loudspeaker system to reassure the guests, and then, forgetting to turn off the microphone, maintenance told her it was going to be a while, and with the microphone still in hand, screaming F*$&ing S*$% F*$&ING RIDE!!!

i just want to go back to another post in here, having re-read it, about taz being a transportable ride... I am not so sure this is true. Tranportable versions of this ride - eg: the "thunderbolt" or "arctic express" operated on the same principals, but the "ride arms" ran along a track, which gave the tilt. I think Dreamworld's "Angry Beaver's Spooty Spin" uses this type of "tilt" system. Taz, however, was a hydraulic tilt system. Also, checking out how big Taz's "operations shed" was, I dont know if THIS version was ever transportable. Remember, a lot of flat manufacturers made two versions of their popular rides... a park version, and a truck version... Most of WL's rides were already second hand, from numerous parks including dutch, canadian and american parks (Wizard's was a 30 year old dutch ride when it came to Sydney). Of all the rides in Wonderland, with the exception of the HBL rides, Taz would be the only one that would have even POSSIBLY been transportable... I dont think it was...

this is just a guess bussy, im not too sure, but i think it may have been about the bush beast being the largest wooden coaster in the southern hemisphere. i think it contained the opening date, and also the name of some bigwig politician who officially opened the ride? but thats just a guess...

AHHHHHHH WE HAVE A WINNER.... lol. Thats cheating though wazza.... you would have spent countless bored hours at snowy.... so its natural you would know it - nothing else to look at when theres no queue!!! lol.

it doesnt necessarily mean that the park will be closed, or relocated.... if the new purchasers continue to operate it, it may even see something new and innovative, with the park being under new management.... only time will tell.

I can't see tiger sharks being put into the moat of tiger island. For one, without an underwater viewing area, its not really going to be that useful, to try and see them from above the water. I've also just done a search on OzCoaster, and can't seem to find anything about Tiger Sharks at Dreamworld.

lol... on the same topic - there was a plaque affixed to the "witches hat" roof on Snowy... what was THAT plaque commemorating?

Article in "The Daily Telegraph" Unfortunately i am not a subscriber of News.com.au, so i could not get the full details of the story, but I read it in the paper today, and can tell you that the owners - the same people who own Greater Union cinemas are selling it. They say the park is in great financial shape, however the parent company posted a multi-million dollar loss. Yet another attraction in Western Sydney goes under the hammer... Hopefully the new owners will keep it open, but should they decide not to, here is what i see happening.... 1) Steve Irwin purchases the animals and relocates them 2) Steve Irwin purchases the site, and begins the Australia Zoo - Sydney. (oh boy if the residents in doonside hated it now, wait till Stevie moves in) 3) the residents in the surrounding area decide to band together, purchase the property, sell off the animals, and finally get the land zoned residential and allow people to build on it, ending the decade long battle of featherdale versus the residents...

ditto.... so just fill us in.

ok let me clear up a few things... Club 33 Opened in 1955, along with the rest of the park. It was in the same area as Walt's Apartment, as a matter of fact, they are only a few metres apart. There was an elegant living room as part of Walt's apartment, which was later converted to be a function roomcocktail reception area for Club 33 after his death. There is a lamp burnt in the window of Walt's apartment, however it was only placed there after his death. Walt Disney WORLD does have an apartment constructed inside Cinderella's Castle. It was built after Walt's death, and was for the Disney Family, as well as special guests, park operations personnel etc. Walt may or may not be cryogenically frozen. Who knows? But he is NOT stored anywhere on disney property in this way. It was actually my belief that he was cremated and his ashes scatterd "somewhere" on one of the Disney Properties. As far as the India story goes, I rest my case on the hearsay abilities of media. I guarantee Yahoo picked up the story from Jim Hill, or another "news" site who were making an "opinion" into "news". Unfortunately, a lot of mainstream media have been caught out like this in the past, picking up a published "opinion", and treating it as fact. The original story sights "unnamed" insiders, or "confidential sources"... and then the mainstreamers take it as gospel because the original report listed it had a "source"... and it all snowballs from there.......... somebody start a new thread saying disney will build in Antarctica, offering the "Polar Adventure" to a lucky few... with a real matterhorn mountain, the new "ice age - the ride", big ICEThunder Mountain, Glacier Mountain, the Haunted Ice-Cavern.... report it in a way that sounds credible, sight plenty of sources... and watch the rumor grow....

Ok, well the only factual reporting in this story, comes from the Press Trust of India, which reported the same thing that JimHill reported... which is that Eisner and executives met with the Indian Government. Everything else is pretty much the same hearsay that JimHill reported last week....

convenient that any photos posted in the forums may be viewed by all users at no cost, and at the resolution the user posted it in, whereas on the construction update pages, Richard has control over the quality of the images available to non subscribers... Also with that many hits coming, if the pictures are only available in a subscriber only area, that means that all of these random web searchers are more likely to subscribe...

Teki, read the information more carefully. the full description talks about a "conveyor belt" style propulsion system. you start at the bottom, and the high speed conveyor takes you up the hills, to fall down the other side like a regular slide

dreamworld rulz, mate ive just logged on after being off for 24 hours and theres two separate threads with questions about travel to usa and SF parks.... perhaps you could ask richard to combine the two into one thread for you? keeps all the info in one place... you know?

I have done California in February, and it was alright. Yes... we bought a big warm jacket when we got over there, but our day at SFMM was quite warm to be honest... and wet rides were no problem. There was a couple days when it rained, mostly that happened when we were at Disneyland which was good cause everything we went on was indoors... its cold, but the days are warm enough that a light jumper would do the trick. At night, it did get cold, and some mornings we woke up to ice on the footpaths outside our room, but it melted quickly. We had a pool, spa and sauna at our hotel, all of which were heated, but the pool barely so, and it was still ok to swim in at 10 at night... so... i would say the winters in california are a bit milder than what we have here in sydney... so even moreso for victoria... hope that helps.

it is well remembered, and removed only because of the addition to cycle timing.... it took a couple seconds for these hatches to retract.... and that means more than an extra 100 people per hour... so it was ditched... although safety could have been a factor to it as well, can you imagine dropping only to have the hatches close before you reach the bottom???

a quick online google search will find you a program to convert wmv to avi, mov, or pretty much any other format. most programs are free... Wonderbuzz is quite busy, and i doubt will be able to fulfill this request, which is specifically why he asked not to receive requests on modifications, different resolutions, images etc.

In mascot and kurnell, the local council forbids renovation and construction - not a pool, a garage or an extension on the house for a new arrival... nothing. this is because of the flight path, and the local council not wanting people to increase the value of their homes, and therefore increase the population... i see no difference between this and north sydney... so why is north sydney council taking the resident's side... when it means a lot of jobs and tourism for them?