Defunctland: The Demise of Australia's Biggest Theme Park, Wonderland Sydney

in the summer of 2004 a large shipment arrived at a zoo in South Dakota called reptile gardens the package was humongous even for the zoo that was used to receiving shipments of abnormally large animals reptile gardens was expecting the package but it was still shocking to see the contents in person the shipment was a 16 foot crocodile named maniac the 34 year old creature was born in captivity in Australia and got his name after killing other crocodiles in its habitat for the previous 14 years maniac had been on display at the Australia Wildlife Park where he witnessed the rise and fall of one of Australia's most popular theme parks [Music] in 1972 Kings Island opened in Mason Ohio the park was the first theme park to be built by the Taft Broadcasting Company and its new theme park division the King's entertainment company or Keck o Taft broadcasting would implement the theming and detail scene in the theme parks constructed by the Walt Disney Company utilizing the classic hanna-barbera cartoon characters that they had recently acquired Kings Island was a huge success and it would prompt halfed and cat code to build more parks the company built Kings Dominion in Doswell Virginia which opened in 1975 they acquired Carowinds in Charlotte North Carolina the same year Kiko would open Canada's Wonderland in Ontario Canada in 1981 in 1985 they would be hired to operate Great America in Santa Clara California tafs expansion and the theme parks had been a huge success and the company continued looking for areas to expand the prospects of international theme parks outside of North America became much more attractive on April 5th 1983 when the Walt Disney Company opened their first international park Tokyo Disneyland to rave reviews and financial success it might not be a coincidence that a mere four months later Taft Broadcasting announced that they were planning to build an international theme park of their own only their Park would not be in Asia Taft broadcasting was going down under [Music] in 1983 Sydney Australia was home to over 3 million people despite a wide array of entertainment options in a thriving art scene the city only had one notable amusement park named the harbour site amusement park the park had opened under the name Luna Park in 1935 where had operated for over 40 years after a tragic ride fire in 1979 the park was closed and mostly demolished with some of its attractions being sent to the small Magic Kingdom park just south of Sydney Luna parks ownership was changed in the park now missing most of its signature features and attractions reopened in 1982 as Harborside amusement park local developers took notice of the controversy and instability of the park and began to consider building an all new theme park for Sydney as luck would have it an American company with years of experience in the theme park industry was already looking to expand internationally tapped broadcasting's choice to expand its parks to Australia was far from random hanna-barbera had created a studio in Sydney in 1972 and taps would operate the Australian division of CIC video a VHS distributor due to this the children of Australia had a familiarity and appreciation for the hanna-barbera characters and after conducting a thorough market research examination on Sydney Taft was confident that a theme park would work well in the area the park costs an estimated 65 million dollars to build which was down from early projections of 75 million to have to wanted the park to be smaller than its American counterparts and they expected to rely on locals rather than tourists to populate the park some locals were concerned over Americanization of the area especially after hearing that the park was to be the biggest in the southern hemisphere the result however was hard to scoff at [Music] there's a world I'd like to live in a world I'd like to see where there's too much fun for everyone and still [Music] with his magic on every corner and a smile on every things if I could just step out of this perfect dream into this perfect walk wander [Applause] [Music] [Applause] was wrong the park named Australia's Wonderland officially opened on December 7th 1985 the parks management predicted 1.6 million guests would visit the park each year despite its limited operating schedule the park would be open only on weekends and during school and national holidays it would also be closed from mid-may to early August Australians winter months due to its location in the southern hemisphere when guests first walked through the gates of Australia's wonderland in 1985 they were greeted with three major lands within the park Medieval Fair hanna-barbera land and Gold Rush while these lands did contain classic amusement rides the park emphasized its live entertainment boasting 23 different stage shows and characters unique to each land that would interact with guests Medieval Fair was themed to the mythical Middle Ages the land gave guests themed attractions such as a bumper car ride named the jousting ring the spinning sea demon and the looping starship bounties revenge guess experiencing the latter would often forget to empty their pockets before riding resulting in hundreds of dollars worth of coins falling to the lake below and in one bizarre situation a cigarette lighter falling onto the QS roof and exploding fortunately no one was injured hanna-barbera land featured beloved characters from the cartoon studio as well as rides and attractions based upon the respective shows he's included Judy's jetliners Huckleberry Hound merry-go-round old Mick Scrappy's golf farm Fred Flintstone splashdown and the celebrity night gala show featuring some of the more popular characters this land also had a children's wooden roller coaster the beastie which was half the size and height of Wonderland's premier attraction the bush beast located in the gold rush section of the park this section included attractions such as funnel-web the Skyhawk ned kelly's getaway and the river raft ride snowy river rampage the bush beast was the main draw of the area and it was themed as the sister 2 kings islands popular wooden coaster the Beast the bush beast reached speeds of up to 56 miles per hour and heights of 90 feet and it was the tallest wooden roller coaster in the southern hemisphere at the time of its opening Wonderland opening season was a huge success in expansions of the park were quickly greenlit to ensure public interest remained in the attraction in 1988 Wonderland received the beach a waterpark that operated seasonally and adjacent to Wonderland guess could visit without purchasing another admission ticket in 1989 the doublelift ferris wheel the zodiac was relocated to Wonderland from Kings Island 1990 saw the opening of yet another park adjacent to Wonderland the Australia wildlife park the park was home to over 600 animals including dingoes kangaroos koalas Gowanus penguins and crocodiles such as the homicidal maniac the park heavily leaned into Australian culture most likely for the international tourists offering activities such as boomerang throwing whip cracking and serving Billy T and damper for all the guests wanting to experience the outback without leaving the city this was the perfect destination in the early 90s Australia's Wonderland and its parks blossomed with even more shows and attractions being added the blinky bill show based off of the famous Australian cartoon was a hit with kids and the rock and roll wrestling show featured legendary wrestlers and gave families the opportunity to win a lunch with a wrestler of their choice rides like the demon of a coma boomerang coaster and the space probe a drop tower were also added to the parks and a new themed area named Transylvania was created Wonderland was so popular among locals that weddings were even held in the park in less than a decade wonderland had proven its naysayers wrong those who visited Wonderland had an overwhelmingly positive experiences likewise the park knew what guests wanted and actively sought to provide fun high-quality entertainment for the whole family when Keiko entertainment was bought by Paramount in 1992 wonderland was the only park out of the original sixth half parks to remain under local management avoiding the air of painful intellectual property tie-ins that other parks such as Kings Island would experience the fun seemed like it would never end but in 1997 as maniac watched family after family passes caged each enjoying their vacation in Wonderland he nor they realized that the parks days were already numbered in 1997 the Malaysian based Sun weight group acquired Australia's Wonderland sunway group already owned theme parks around Malaysia and it seemed as though it was poised to take Wonderland to the next level despite its popularity among locals the parks ownership was having trouble breaking even with all the expansions and operating costs as the park now operated year-round instead of its initial seasonal schedule after the change of management it was speculated that even more expansion was on the horizon for Wonderland that perhaps sunway group would bring more rides attractions and possibly a full resort the sunway group added the skywriter attraction in 1997 changed the parks name to wonderland sid need to coordinate with the Olympics coming to the city in 2000 and brought properties from Marvel Comics and Cartoon Network to the park in 2002 which also brought a revamp to welcome sign featuring spider-man and the Hulk popular Marvel characters now roam the parks offering meet and greets and autographs and a Powerpuff Girls live stage show was added however it soon became apparent that sunway group had no interest in expanding the theme park further in fact the company even began inexplicably shutting down whole sections of the park using odd excuses such as efficiency studies finding that the park was too big selector eyes were closed or removed altogether the kid favorite coaster at the beastie sat dormant to the dismay of the visiting children compared to the rapid expansion the park saw under Keiko this was a massive blow to the locals and fans park goers were forced to watch their cherished local park crumble bit by bit before their eyes in early 2004 after a slow painful descent into disrepair suddenly group announced that they would be closing Wonderland Sydney and on April 26 2004 wonderland Sydney closed its doors it's really upset the Hulk Captain America's staying brave bank top troopers but no one she is when the fun park dies it's Minnie Minnie day two early mornings late at night little friends great times for 18 years Wonderland Sydney has cheered up frightened and exhilarated patrons with it's just for fun theme today park security was doing its best to keep the fun going for staff arriving for their last day on the job a big thing gone out of their childhood sold for more than 52 million dollars the fun park will be replaced with a business park for one year the parks at abandoned rides were removed seemingly without agenda or haste as the months went on various attractions such as bounties revenge the great balloon race galleons graveyard little monsters fly-in school and the Broken Hill mill games arcade were all sold and moved off the property by June of 2004 the bush beast train cars would be sitting on top of the lift hill while other trains were removed from the ride during the same month the park was used by the soldiers of the Reserve Response Force as training grounds the worst part of the way in which the sunway group handled the parks closing was its treatment or lack thereof of the animals in Australia wildlife park while maniac and a few others were relocated many of the other animals were not due to this former park employees began breaking into wonderland sydney to rescue the animals that had been forgotten in 2005 the demolition was halted and prolonged over an improper license dispute the demolition company was in possession of there was an incident in 2005 where a man fell from the defunct space-probe ride and sustained back injuries although it was unclear why he was up there or what he was doing in August of 2005 the bush peace was finally ripped from the ground and demolished the Marvel superhero themed front gate was detached and sold for $1,000 to a junkyard in Londonderry where it still remains to this day even after the quick descent and abrupt closure the question on every local and every Wonderland fans Minds was why why did this beloved park in the height of its popularity closed its doors sunway group did give a reason multiple actually the company CEO listed the September 11th attacks the 2002 Bali bombings the collapse of HOH insurance the SARS virus the bird flu virus consistent losses during the Asian financial crisis the collapse of an said Australia Iraq war and the 2003 bush fires as the reasoning for the parks closure however it was obvious to everyone else that it was the son weight groups lack of updates and poor management that sealed Wonderland's fate they took a lucrative offer for the land beneath the park selling it for over 50 million dollars and price similar to what they bought it for and just like that Wonderland's fate was sealed since the parks closure and demolition there have been talks and proposals for reviving Wonderland florida-based David Backes who is the operations manager of Walt Disney World promised a new park in 2021 called world of wonder he has stated that he is currently devoted to developing Australia's largest theme park destination resort the spiritual successor of Wonderland Sydney for Western Sydney theme park development trust in addition to the theme parks the location will include a shopping center a Sports Arena and a convention center classics like the bush beast will inspire the revamped rides made possible by cutting-edge technology hopefully the new project will be able to come to fruition and maybe even capture some of the magic that Wonderland once did maniac the crocodile still entertained guests today at reptile gardens most of those that pass by his cage do not know the tragedy of Wonderland Sydney what the Beast observed in his time the park was a sight seen all too often a park filled with fun and joy a place where memories were made by millions in a cultural landmark that made an imprint at city all of that killed by financial issues and corporate logistics brought about by companies barely making an attempt to manage a work of art that they don't fully understand even the homicidal crocodile might take issue with the death of Australia's Wonderland you you

Channel: Defunctland

Views: 1,338,364

Keywords: defunctland, kevin perjurer, theme park, extinct, abandoned, defunct, history, disney, disneyland, disney world, previous, attractions, on ride, lights on, spiderman, hulk, marvel theme parks, marvel characters, kings island, wonderland sydney, australia's wonderland, history wonderland sydney, australian theme parks, spiderman theme parks, australia's wonderland history, theme park history, abandoned amusement parks, abandoned theme parks, old theme parks, australia roller coasters

Id: EZK7bZBtJ_Y

Length: 15min 31sec (931 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 16 2019