GoGoBoy

The following is a Wonderland related extract from one of Suncity's (Sunway's) latest news clippings. Feel free to discuss. The full article can be found on their website at www.sunway.com.my 'Having disposed of 60ha of its Wonderland Sydney theme park in New South Wales, Australia, for A$52.5mil in February, it still has another 120ha of prime land available there. SunCity has a 60% stake in the property. “Depending on the value, we can either dispose of the remaining parcel to realise our Australian investment or go into a joint venture with the right partner to undertake development of the land,” he added. Wang said the group could look forward to reaping good return on investment (ROI) from its investment Down Under as the strong Australian dollar would translate into good foreign exchange gains. The group's Australia-based indirect unit, International Theme Park Pty Ltd, has announced that it would be closing the Wonderland Sydney theme park by the middle of this year at the latest. The decision to close the park was taken due to persistent losses incurred and difficult market conditions. It is also part of the group’s overall rationalisation exercise to exit from non-performing businesses. Analysts said SunCity's decision to cease operation of the theme park would save RM20mil a year for the company from losses and interest savings. The remaining land in Sydney was estimated to be worth A$40mil, they added.'

Richard I have a feeling you are being cautious about what you say regarding the new attraction. Is that why you haven't really answered my questions? Do you have a few secret details and ride specifics up your sleeve or are you just not wanting to speculate too much?

Thanks for the great and frequent updates Richard. Just a couple of questions for you - Do you know what the big hole in the centre is going to be for? Do you think the new attraction will be considered part of Ocean Parade or Main Street? The area which has been cleared is quite a substantial size. On another note, I have noticed (from all recent pics) that Dreamworld is looking really good overall. Lots of extra theming and plenty of bright, fresh paint

Yeah I'm not planning on visiting the park anytime soon... just wondering out of interest whether or not all of the effects in the final splashdown room have been repaired/fixed. It's one of my pet peeves when theme parks don't upkeep rides to their original standard including ALL effects

No one has answered my question yet so thought I would add another post to bring this topic forward. Surely one of you has been to Movie World recently and knows the state of this ride? What about you guys that work for Warner Village?

Haha... it would have to be creamier - 3 syllables. How about Challenger

I agree it does seem strange to put the big wheel in Melbourne. Same with the $700m waterpark they have planned for Melb. Bring it all to Sydney I say!

The idea of Steve Irwin setting up a theme park that is Australia's equivalent of Disneyland is quite a concern. I imagine we'd end up with another Leyland Brothers-style failed park on our hands

It's just a shame that this all worked out so well for Sunway and that the land became so valuable. If that stupid orbital wasn't being built out there Sunway may have had a much harder time. I hope a lesson everyone learns from this is that our theme parks need to be protected. If a similar situation occurs at one of our Gold Coast parks there needs to be a much bigger uproar. I just hope a similar situation never arises. We already know that the land surrounding Dreamworld has become very valuable for reasons other than leisure. I just hope the fact that the Gold Coast is considered Australia's 'theme park capital' is enough to protect the parks

So what's the status of this ride now? Have the effects in the final splashdown room been fixed? Does the barrel still expand? Does smoke and wind still push you out of the top? I hope so as those were some of the best bits. Truly an amazing ride but it needs all elements working for it to be the same. Are there any obvious signs of fire or smoke damage?

Shifty I can't believe you are saying Wonderland was the 2nd best park with the best theming. No way. It was all done very basically. If we're going to talk about theming, Movie World would have to have the best by far... the park has spent bucket loads of cash on theming alone. Also Dreamworld's theming is definitely better than Wonderlands... especially when you take Ocean Parade and Nick Central into consideration. By the way, there are way too many of these 'best ride, best park, what do you prefer' posts open at the moment. Please give it a rest for a while Scott!

What if one was to move to somewhere around Surfers Paradise and work at MW/WNW/DW? If you have your own transport would it really be too far to drive out there every day?

Funny you should mention that Daniel as I've just been messaging joz about it... trying to get some tips from the man on the coast. Anyone wanna share a GC apartment with me? I know Stephen Galbraith brought Michael Croaker with him from Sea World. Michael was one of the show presenters at Sea World and became the entertainment manager at Wonderland. I think he actually wrote the Quest for the Golden Seal show before he left. That's a perfect example of someone starting at the bottom and working their way up just through experience

How much of the old rapids slide did they use in the conversion of Terror Canyon 2? Judging by the maps it looks like they used exactly the same slide but just put a roof over it to convert it into a tunnel. Does TC2 have all the pyrotechnic effects that TC1 has? Does TC1 even still have these effects? I hope it does but you know what tends to happens when rides become a few years old... stuff breaks and it often doesn't get fixed unfortunately. That's one thing I'd like to see more of at WnW - enclosed tube slides. I think they should build a massive tower with a whole selection of them snaking around. Really long ones that give a great rider experience

Haven't been to Wet 'n' Wild for ages. I used to love Terror Canyon though and the slide next to it which used to be a rapids water slide (which I thought was quite a unique idea but it got converted into Terror Canyon 2). Incidentally, what is TC2 actually like? Joz, you mentioned that there are all kinds of crazy things in there. Like what? I also liked what WNW did with the old speed slide converting it into the speed coaster. Thought that was a very nice modern touch... not that I have been on it yet. There was a while there when WNW was making some really great improvements and additions. I just hope they get back on track soon and we can put this whole Whirpool disaster behind us

Daniel, do you know what Stephen Galbraith started off as? I know he was the CEO of Sea World for a large amount of time. The theme park industry is definitely one of those industries where you can gain most of your knowledge through work experience as it is such a specific field. I know of a lot of managers at different parks who have not studied at university but have been able to work their way up to top level ranks. If you have a passion for it and have years of specialty experience, you will become desirable... especially in a small place like Oz

It is a crappy, old, standard, portable, simulator ride. It was there during the school holidays anyway so it is not exactly new. It is a really poor attraction. They are obviously a bit desperate at the moment if they are advertising it as a feature. If you look on the main home page you can see they are a bit short of events in the "what's on" section so it is probably a space filler really. Not impressed. It wouild be very encouraging if they featured a new ride which actually was new and somewhat decent but not a bad simulator that looks like it's from the 80's. The place where they've put it would be perfect for a drop tower actually... even a portable one like the Mega Drop. Come on Luna Park!

Ok I am finding this hard to comprehend but I have just worked out how much money Sunway has made from the Wonderland site. It is quite disgusting really - *Sunway purchased the entire site for $50 million *Sunway sold 40ha for $26.5 million to Australand *Sunway then sold 58.87ha for $52.5 million to ING *Sunway is retaining an entire 120ha (to build their own business park) worth over $100 million That is a total value of $179 million! They have more than tripled their purchase price with all the profits leaving our country. Not good

I agree with you about the direct theme park site itself, it would seem that ING and Paclib will take ownership of this land without Sunway retaining an interest, even though it was originally reported that it would. Sunway will however be retaining the 120 hectare site directly adjoining the theme park (which as said before is basically the overflow car parks and land at the entry to Wonderland). To be honest, after everything they've done, I wish they'd just pack up and leave our country for good. The following is a recent extract taken from the Sunway website itself which relates to this parcel of land - 'On the other hand, Sunway City is parting ways with assets that are not contributing to its bottom line. Towards this end, the developer has signed a sale and purchase agreement to sell its theme park in Sydney for a total consideration of AU$52.5 million in February this year. With the sale, Sunway City will still own 120ha of prime land adjoining the 58.87ha theme park. It plans to build a business park on that piece of land.' I also found more detailed info regarding the status of the actual theme park site itself and the put and call option thingy - 'On 16 February 2004, the Group announced that it shall be closing its theme park operations at Wonderland Sydney, Australia by the middle of the year due to persistent losses incurred and difficult market conditions. The Group further announced the entering of a Put and Call Option Deed on 12 February 2004 with Paclib Industrial No. 5 Pty Limited for the disposal of the property known as Wonderland Sydney for a total consideration of A$52.5 million, excluding Goods and Services Tax. A security sum of A$10m had been received, which will be forfeited if neither the Put Option nor the Call Option is exercised.'

Just found a bit of info on the Blacktown Council website talking about the business parks. It shows Sunway's continued involvement with the site and the substantial sum of money they received for selling just a small portion of the site. Here is an extract - 'Listed property developer Australand Holdings has signed a joint-venture agreement to develop the business park. The agreement, with landowner Hartford Lane Pty - a subsidiary of the Malaysian-backed Sunway and tied to the giant Worldwide Holdings Berhad - also involves Australand paying $26.5 million to develop the 40hectare first stage of the project on its own. Another 120ha will be developed as part of the joint-venture agreement'. ...And this is only talking about the business park being built on Wonderland's car parks and excess land, not the actual direct theme park land itself

How about - Catapult? Your clues are hard obstructure but I reckon some of my guesses are pretty good... even if I do say so myself

I can guarantee that The Beach was opened in either the late 80's or very early 90's. The only proof I have is a brochure from the 1993/94 season of Wonderland which includes The Beach in it. Let me make it very clear that Sunway did not add a single new attraction in their entire ownership period, especially not an entire themed area like The Beach. I believe you're right about the 2nd hand Skyrider gondola being added by Sunway, although I wouldn't really call that an attraction. When you do take out The Beach references from your site, don't forget your pics page which also has a reference to Sunway being responsible for The Beach. We don't really want to give credit where credit is not due afterall. I am not sure now about the actual Wonderland site itself but Sunway is definitely retaining an interest in the business park being developed over Wonderland's overflow carparks and excess land. They sold part of the land directly to Australand (and received a massive windfall from it) but are jointly developing the remaining portions. When you take into account that Sunway bought the entire theme park and surrounding land for only $50 mill they haven't done too badly at all

Yeah you've truly done some great work there Zordmaker. There are 2 points from the document I'd like to debate though - 1. Sunway actually added NO new attractions from 1997-2004, besides stage shows. The Beach area was added way back around 1990 and Sunway only re-painted a couple of slides in 2003. I think that is one point you should definitely change. 2. Are you sure Sunway has not recouped their initial expenditure on Wonderland? You have to remember that Sunway sold off the surrounding land parcels separately and made plenty of money from them. We're talking millions upon millions. They then sold the actual Wonderland site for $52.5 mill. They bought the entire property in 1997 for only $50 million. Not to mention they are still retaining an interest in the business park into the future. Sounds like a profit to me although I am open to debate on this one

I agree with Richard on this 110%. What a waste of time. It would be nice if the reporters actually did a bit of research into the industry first and presented us with an accurate subjective report. I think they must just base the stories on the press releases they are given by the parks. Both those parks are continually trying to fool people into believing the rides are either 'all-time favourites' or 'the latest in technology' (cough)

It's Cen-tri-fuge. 3 syllables. If that's what they call it then it shouldn't be classified as part of Ocean Parade. Obstructure... any more clues? How close are we?