Dreamworld's Corroboree Stage 2

[Theme Park Girl]

Oh ok. I have friends that have done the Sunset tour on more than one occasion and they have said otherwise. Each to their own ?

[Slick]

5 hours ago, Theme Park Girl said:

Oh ok. I have friends that have done the Sunset tour on more than one occasion and they have said otherwise. Each to their own ?

Why not both?

In any case, I hope it gets the same love Tiger Island got. That'd make me really, really happy. Dreamworld's biggest advantage is being one-stop destination for out of towners, waterpark, rides, koalas, kangaroos, local culture, pretty tough to beat in terms of a one day destination.

[Jay Jay The Jet Plane]

not sure where to bring this up but seeing it's in the Correboree area.. I just heard a staff member saying to a guest that the days of Vintage Car are possibly over..

UPDATE: I have heard from another source that Dreamworld is planning to relocate the Vintage Cars very soon, the source stated that the Gold Rush area is where they are considering the relocation 

Edited February 12, 2017 by Theme Park Ninja

[Santa07]

Provided your source is accurate, I hope they actually do something with the vintage cars if they move it. Giving it a storyline or some proper theming would be great.

[rac2703]

I highly doubt they would invest a lot of money into relocating the cars. Unless they plan to just run the track through the rapids course. 

Edited February 12, 2017 by rac2703

[Reanimated35]

58 minutes ago, Theme Park Ninja said:

not sure where to bring this up but seeing it's in the Correboree area.. I just heard a staff member saying to a guest that the days of Vintage Car are possibly over..

UPDATE: I have heard from another source that Dreamworld is planning to relocate the Vintage Cars very soon, the source stated that the Gold Rush area is where they are considering the relocation 

Is your source just people's suggestions and ideas from Parkz threads? 

[Jay Jay The Jet Plane]

2 minutes ago, reanimated35 said:

Is your source just people's suggestions and ideas from Parkz threads? 

No I spoke to an actual staff member at the park.. *first piece of info I heard from a staff member telling another park guest* 

Edited February 12, 2017 by Theme Park Ninja

[Reanimated35]

Good choice in this weather. 

[New display name]

2 hours ago, Theme Park Ninja said:

not sure where to bring this up but seeing it's in the Correboree area.. I just heard a staff member saying to a guest that the days of Vintage Car are possibly over..

UPDATE: I have heard from another source that Dreamworld is planning to relocate the Vintage Cars very soon, the source stated that the Gold Rush area is where they are considering the relocation 

Dose anybody really think they will move the vintage cars to this prime land?

1. MW is going to unlock free advertising to the M1 this year.

2.Would there be enough cars left for it to become a major ride again?

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

the cost to move vintage cars isn't a lot really - you need a road, and you need a guide rail. Everything else - refueling and other logistics - is already on site and easily relocated if necessary.

Gold Rush's current isolation causes a bit of disharmony to the park flow. Once they've removed the necessary parts of TRRR, it wouldn't take much to pour a cement path (hell, they could possibly use the bitumen), and bolt on the existing guide rails. 

So it's an easy move - if it's necessary. 

And - nothing says it would be permanent - bringing a fairly safe, sedate attraction into a void in the park with minimal cost as a temporary measure until they are ready (and have the capital) to develop it further. Nothing says they have to demolish the current track either - so they could always move it back there later (although the current talk for that area may indicate differently).

So - its totally plausible. I'm not saying its likely, or not - but i can see a world where they do actually do that.

[Reanimated35]

Just now, AlexB said:

Everything else - refueling and other logistics - is already on site and easily relocated if necessary.

Curious, does anyone know if they removed the old underground(?) fuel tank from when it was under ToT originally? 

1 minute ago, AlexB said:

but i can see a world where they do actually do that

While it would make sense, how do you think the public annoyingly vocal soccer mums would react to the cars running through the same track that people died on? 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I wasn't suggesting have the cars follow TRRR channel. I was just saying that general area - apart from Buzz, the area isn't used for anything else now, so they could easily run a track \ path anywhere they like.

[Reanimated35]

Ah ok, sorry, misinterpreted this bit

17 minutes ago, AlexB said:

Once they've removed the necessary parts of TRRR, it wouldn't take much to pour a cement path

 

[Gary86]

There's a lot of land to add a few attractions. Vintage Cars can use some land from TRRR and the old chairlift station, driving through a Gold Rush town with the station being an old gas station.

[themagician]

That would actually be pretty cool and really bring life back to the vintage cars. Even if they did remove all of the chairlift station and created a tunnel underneath, or kept the river Rapids cave and used part of it for the mine ride, just had some lighting inside it 

[Wil_i_am_not]

Quick question, what was actually inside the cave in the river rapids? I remember vaguely a couple of animatronics. If the Vintage Cars are relocated, I'd love to see some additional theming. Nothing too major, maybe something rustic, like a rusted out Model T, small pond etc.

[themagician]

There was some lightning, and then the two guys the rides based around excepting jail and stealing from the mine 

[Gary86]

Here is a POV I filmed in 2015 showing the theming.

Edited February 13, 2017 by Gary86

[joz]

RE: Re-use the Rapids Ride Cave for a relocated Vintage Cars

 

No.  Just no.  That is a horrible idea.  Re using any infrastructure from the Rapids ride is in poor taste, and would serve as a constant reminder about what happened.  Also people are suggesting keeping the Gold Rush theme and moving the Vintage cars to the area; the last Goldrush was over way before Model T Fords came along.  

 

The only advantage of a rethemed area with Vintage cars is that it would be very cheap; it's just the cost of demolishing what's already there (which they have indicated they're planning to anyway) and pouring a new roadway.  The cheapness is literally the only thing the idea has going for it.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

^my point exactly.

[Jamberoo Fan]

22 hours ago, joz said:

 Also people are suggesting keeping the Gold Rush theme and moving the Vintage cars to the area; the last Goldrush was over way before Model T Fords came along.  

...except that the area is no longer themed to the Australian gold rush period (1850's). Since 2011, 'Gold Rush' is just the name of the town. The town is now a timber town currently in the post-1887 period 'many years' after 1887. No specific year. Vintage Model T Ford cars are classified as being produced between 1919 & 1930.

If anything, DW need to update the area's name at the minimum to remove the Australian gold rush/1850's time period association. Given there is no specific end date for the currently themed time period, Vintage Cars would be fine. New technology has arrived in the town - that is all.

Edited February 15, 2017 by Jamberoo Fan
Corrected year from 1877 to 1887.

[joz]

That to me leaves a themed area that's still a bit of a mess.  I'd be much more inclined to start again with the only thing in the area being Buzzsaw, and even that can be painted and rethemed.

[Jamberoo Fan]

It's not about Stage 2 but it is very relevant to Dreamworld Corroboree. This article is about DW's Head Of Life Sciences & Dreamworld Corroboree, Al Mucci.

The article is shortened to feature only the parts that talk about the period of time since he was 1st employed by DW (so 2005 to the present).

If you're interested in reading the full article, just click the link below.

From The Courier-Mail:

Quote

The man helping Dreamworld heal

Al Mucci, general manager life sciences and Dreamworld Corroberee. Picture: David Kelly

MUCCI joined Dreamworld in 2005 as general manager of life sciences. Things went swimmingly for the first couple of years – “the crowds just kept coming” – and then the GFC hit.

“The (tourism) market shrank, the redundancies started and there was enormous pressure to reduce the ­animal collection to cut costs. I had to fight to keep it intact. We got rid of the farmyard, that was a no-brainer. But why would you get rid of koalas?”

Ultimately, Mucci’s passion and persuasion prevailed and Dreamworld’s animal attractions were not only kept, but expanded.

Today, he’s in charge of about 500 animals and 50 staff. He rates among his biggest achievements setting up the Dreamworld Wildlife Foundation in 2012 to fight tiger poaching in Russia and Indonesia and support national wildlife conservation projects such as the Save the Bilby Fund and the Australian Koala Foundation.

“You’ve got to give back to where it matters and that’s in the wild,” Mucci says.

“All our exhibits are intrinsically linked to the wild. We’re in the bush on the front line with anti-poaching teams in Russia and Indon­esia, or we’re in the bush here on the Gold Coast, protecting the bits that are left.”

Then there’s Dreamworld’s captive breeding program, designed to preserve threatened and endangered species such as tigers, koalas, bilbies and Lumholtz’s tree kangaroos.

Al Mucci with one of the 14 tigers that are part of Dreamworld’s captive breeding program. Picture: David Kelly

Like a proud dad, Mucci tells how dozens of baby animals – including 14 tigers, 16 wombats, 56 bilbies, eight Tasmanian devils, 60 crocodiles, three black cockatoos and more than 130 koalas (some using groundbreaking artificial insem­ination technology) – have been born at Dreamworld on his watch.

Al Mucci with a Dreamworld tiger. Picture: David Kelly

Late last year, the Palaszczuk Government chose Dreamworld for Queensland’s first koala captive breeding program. The $1.8 million project, a collaboration with the University of Queensland and Queensland University of Technology, will involve koalas bred at the theme park being released into the wild to boost healthy koala stocks.

Late last year, the Palaszczuk Government chose Dreamworld for Queensland’s first koala captive breeding program.

Who doesn’t love a koala? And it was a bit of koala ­diplomacy that Mucci used to help charm foreign leaders, including Obama and Putin, during the historic G20 ­summit in Brisbane. Though as Mucci tells it, the ­encounter with Dreamworld’s koalas didn’t quite leave then-prime minister Tony Abbott feeling all warm and cuddly.

“Obama asked me how climate change ­would ­affect the koala,” he recalls.

“Abbott tried to cut me off. Obama said, ‘excuse me, prime minister, can we let the gentleman finish’. I said, ‘I can only talk from the southeast Queensland perspective: a one-degree increase would mean the sea level would rise, and the last remaining habitat on the Coast will be underwater. So what do you think will happen to koalas who need trees? They’ll be gone’.”

Prime Minister Tony Abbott and US President Barack Obama cuddle koalas at the G20 summit in Brisbane.

To Abbott’s annoyance, the easygoing Mucci also struck up a conversation with Putin (who Abbott had famously vowed to “shirt-front” at G20 over the MH17 airline trag­edy).

“We were conversing in Slavic and Abbott didn’t like it. Putin saw my badge and went ‘ah, teegr, Siberia’. He knew about the tiger (conservation) project we support over there. Putin and (Leonardo) DiCaprio donated $1 million each to save the Siberian tigers. So the (Russian) President and I spent about 10 minutes talking about tigers. Then I put the koala on him.”

Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Russian President Vladimir Putin cuddle koalas at the G20 summit in Brisbane.

IN the shadows of Dreamworld’s big thrill rides, the Giant Drop and Tower of Terror, sits perhaps Mucci’s most significant legacy in his 12 years there.

Dreamworld’s ­Corroboree is the park’s wildlife exhibit, unique in its presentation of animals through Aboriginal Dreamtime stories.

Unlike in other zoos and wildlife parks, where animals are displayed according to their taxonomy (scientific class­ification and distribution), Dreamworld’s creatures are shown through the prism of indigenous culture and stories from across the continent.

Musing several years ago that he’d like to present the park’s animals in a different way, Mucci “started having cups of coffee with the indigenous community”.

“I started chatting with the local mob and slowly built a rapport with them and other communities in my animal expeditions across Australia,” he says.

“Then I thought, why aren’t we doing more stuff with them when it comes to tourism? Why does everyone, when they think of Aboriginal tourism, think of them painted up and dancing?

When I suggested turning the animal area into an Aborig­inal area, the (Dreamworld) board absolutely got behind it.”

Dreamworld Corroboree, representing 22 indigenous language groups from Tasmania to the Top End, opened in 2012.

“I went to Tassie to seek permission from the Moonbird people to share their story of how the Tasmanian tiger fought with the Tasmanian devil to create peace,” Mucci says.

“The mob in Broome gifted me their rainbow serpent story. I brought all these Aboriginal and Torres Strait elders together to determine how their stories and culture are ­portrayed respectfully in a tourism sense. We’re not a typical zoo any more – we’re an Aboriginal facility first, with live ­animals. No one in the world, to my knowledge, has done this.”

With 28 indigenous staff, Mucci enthuses that Dreamworld is the biggest private employer of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders on the Gold Coast. Mucci, who has also been appointed indigenous relationships manager for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, was instrumental in organising didgeridoo healing ceremonies for Dreamworld’s shattered staff in the wake of last October’s Thunder River Rapids ride tragedy, when four tourists were killed.

“Some of the first responders, in particular, were doing it very tough and we held some healing ceremonies with the didge blown onto their bodies just to keep them going strong before the park reopened (in early December). It was very tough on all the staff but we kept telling them that whatever they were going through, it was nothing like the families (of the victims).”

IT’S a sweltering summer’s day at Dreamworld and in the red dirt dingo enclosure, designed to mimic their natural habitat, it’s even hotter.

The dingoes (which, as ­orphaned pups, Mucci and his family hand-reared at home) are keeping their cool in the shade of the corrugated iron lean-to. But when a khaki-clad Mucci enters, they’re all over him like excited domestic dogs greeting their ­master, tails wagging and tongues licking.

Al Mucci chews the fat with three of his dingo mates in the red dirt enclosure at Dreamworld. Picture: David Kelly

Al Mucci, general manager life sciences and Dreamworld Corroberee. Picture: David Kelly

Mucci romps with them for a while, lapping up the love. As he leaves, he locks the gate behind him.

Edited February 22, 2017 by Jamberoo Fan

[Slick]

Thanks so much for the link. Having known Al personally for a while, I can safely say he's a bloody legend so great to see him get some recognition for his efforts. 

[WalleyWorld]

Thanks for the link @Jamberoo Fan, that was a fantastic read. It's great to hear about the very passionate people working in our parks. Al seems very proud about Dreamworld and it's wildlife offerings. Seems like a great guy! I would be very keen to do a behind the scenes tour of corroboree and tiger island with him.