Thanks for the video. As someone who's lived in Victoria their whole life, I've always been proud of having Luna Park Melbourne in my state. I really hope that it's preserved for many years to come.
As a teenager in the mid-late 80s i would hop on the number 96 to get to Luna Park and would ride the Big Dipper all day long (my one day record being over 20 rides). I remember back then Luna Park was almost always empty, it felt like it was dying. What impresses me is that the spider ride and enterprise were running even back then.
I lived 300mtrs away. Me & my mate would fit in 10 rides on the go karts (reach around for extra speed), 10 on the big dipper (the rear car would whip off the track on the first dip, the front car would go slow down the first but fly up it) & finish with 10 rides on the hurricane. We'd take turns sitting on the inside and smash each other in the turns. Best of times.
I used to do exactly the same thing! And they’d let you ride without getting off and I think my own record was about 20 too! Used to sit either in the front seat or at the very back, where it sometimes felt like the car lifted off the track. Just brilliant. We share that, you and me.
Great stuff! I really appreciate your extensive research and collection of rare footage. Your “Open air museum” quote is a perfect description of the current park. I recall in the ‘90’s, high winds caused the Scenic Railway to abruptly stop at high elevation and we were all directed to disembark, scramble along the side track and climb down a ladder. No safety issues there. Fun memories of a less complicated time. May Luna Park continue to create more.
At least Luna Park still survives. A smaller type version of this, the Li Chi Kok amusement park in Hong Kong (1951-1997) was once the largest amusement park in the Colony but has long since closed. Instead of the Tunnel of Love it had the caves of horror, but had dodgem cars, merry go rounds, etc. As an Aussie tourist I took my Chinese gf there, who was at first rather reluctant to go, but once there found it hilarious. Admittedly, we looked a bit out of place among all the kids, but almost everyone likes visiting an amusement park and remembering their childhood. So with that, I hope Melbourne’s Luna Park lives on well into the future.
@ I’m a real old guy now, but as for Luna Park (as opposed to Li Chi Kok Park) I think it was back in the 1960s and 1970s when I last ventured there. I fondly remember the Penny Arcade and the Giggle Palace best but the Big Dipper was good, too.
Lindsay Fox proposed expanding the park and adding the Palais Theatre and its car park into a bigger larger complex but St Kilda Council acted with hubris as usual. So he apparently just gave up…. The Park’s footprint is too small and needs expansion and the obvious choice is to merge the two into one and add more rides and retail outlets where the Palais is.
great video! i remember for my year 12 muck up day our (very public western suburbs) school hired out luna park for the day! was a really fun day and have lots of good memories from it
Absolutely incredible video about the historical famous Luna park St Kilda. It's really worth preserving heritage sites no matter how expensive they cost! 😃
T.H.Eslick.... love it how, if you squint, his name can be read as "THE Slick" Thanks for the video. Luna Park means a lot to me and it's awesome to see the history laid out like that.
this is a fantastically researched video, thank you for sharing maloney! luna park is one of my favourite places in the world so this was a very interesting watch and i enjoyed it immensely !!
I've been gping to Luna Park since I was a kid in the mid 2000s. It's always held such great memories of my and my family going. There really is no competition nearby and my friends and I still go on Valentines Day each year because it's easy to get to and they have a discounted offer.
I've been to Melbourne twice and still haven't managed to ride the Scenic Railway. The first time it was raining, so the coaster wasn't operating. The second time it was under maintenance. Boo. :( As for history of a park - I vote for Perth's Adventure World!
As you suggested that Gumbuya World should invest in building a wooden rollercoaster, the rumours have it that the original plans for the 1923 Big Dipper still exist today. I only heard this rumour in the Herald Sun when Lindsay Fox did buy Luna Park. Gumbuya World should replicate that Big Dipper in whatever name or theme that's going to work with the park. I also like to see that Boomerang rollercoaster to return to Australia at Gumbuya World as venomous snakes to be it's theme calling the attraction as "Snake Bite". That's my idea of bringing Gumbuya World back to it's glory that Queensland Dreamworld and Sunday Wonderland had back in the 90's.
The Demon simply made too much noise and wouldn’t have fit for a park this small. The idea was to put it in the Big Dipper’s footprint and ultimately they wanted a smaller coaster in the end. The Big Dipper should however come back as a single rail launched coaster like in Sydney. Plenty of room for a compact launched coaster, they should just get the same model with a unique track.
I went on Demon when it was at Expo Park in Brisbane in '88. Gave me nausea for the rest of the day, and I tried to avoid boomerang coasters ever since. But the Scenic Railway I rode in '87 and it was fantastic. Never got to see the Big Dipper, sadly.
After having spent a good amount of time on the big dipper during school holidays in my youth, to this day, the scenic railway is just bone rattlingly boring.
WTF is that ride seen at 2:30? Looks like a combination between a powered coaster and a flat ride? I've seen a Bayern Kurve which is like a circular powered coaster, but never one mounted on a moving base.
That's a really interesting one! It was a prototype coaster built at Coney Island at the turn of the century called the Scenic Spiral Wheel. I'd love to make a video about it and some other quirky designs in the future, there's not a lot of resources on it but I'm sure there's some information out there somewhere. I'm guessing it was a maintenance headache.
When you look at how puffing billy managed to do the impossible and rebuild all the way to Gembrook there should be nothing to prevent the rebuilding of those historic attractions. Perhaps it needs the same model of volunteers to do the job. But in the wake of child molestation allegations even puffing billy has been seriously weakened and a year ago or so it was taken over by the same bureaucratic model that saw it closed 70 years earlier. So perhaps it is too late to go down that path. The world changes and often not for the better.
lived in melb all my life (i'm 36 now) & only ever been to luna park for the christian "Youth Alive" gigs in the early 2000's they held here. never been on a ride there ever !
my favourite thrill ride in melbourne is the parliament station escalators, can you do a video on them? 😂
Thanks for the video. As someone who's lived in Victoria their whole life, I've always been proud of having Luna Park Melbourne in my state. I really hope that it's preserved for many years to come.
As a teenager in the mid-late 80s i would hop on the number 96 to get to Luna Park and would ride the Big Dipper all day long (my one day record being over 20 rides). I remember back then Luna Park was almost always empty, it felt like it was dying. What impresses me is that the spider ride and enterprise were running even back then.
I didn’t get to ride the Big Dipper at all, and i wish that i could, just once.
@@salva_75 upside-down in the gravatron
I lived 300mtrs away. Me & my mate would fit in 10 rides on the go karts (reach around for extra speed), 10 on the big dipper (the rear car would whip off the track on the first dip, the front car would go slow down the first but fly up it) & finish with 10 rides on the hurricane. We'd take turns sitting on the inside and smash each other in the turns. Best of times.
I used to do exactly the same thing! And they’d let you ride without getting off and I think my own record was about 20 too!
Used to sit either in the front seat or at the very back, where it sometimes felt like the car lifted off the track.
Just brilliant. We share that, you and me.
Great stuff! I really appreciate your extensive research and collection of rare footage. Your “Open air museum” quote is a perfect description of the current park. I recall in the ‘90’s, high winds caused the Scenic Railway to abruptly stop at high elevation and we were all directed to disembark, scramble along the side track and climb down a ladder. No safety issues there. Fun memories of a less complicated time. May Luna Park continue to create more.
History on movie world, SeaWorld and wet n wild would be cool
On their way!
At least Luna Park still survives. A smaller type version of this, the Li Chi Kok amusement park in Hong Kong (1951-1997) was once the largest amusement park in the Colony but has long since closed. Instead of the Tunnel of Love it had the caves of horror, but had dodgem cars, merry go rounds, etc. As an Aussie tourist I took my Chinese gf there, who was at first rather reluctant to go, but once there found it hilarious. Admittedly, we looked a bit out of place among all the kids, but almost everyone likes visiting an amusement park and remembering their childhood.
So with that, I hope Melbourne’s Luna Park lives on well into the future.
@@csbenzo r U 23 or something
@ I’m a real old guy now, but as for Luna Park (as opposed to Li Chi Kok Park) I think it was back in the 1960s and 1970s when I last ventured there. I fondly remember the Penny Arcade and the Giggle Palace best but the Big Dipper was good, too.
Brings back memories in the 60s and 70s loved the giggle palace, Big Dipper and ghost train. I haven’t been for years but remember the fun times
Lindsay Fox proposed expanding the park and adding the Palais Theatre and its car park into a bigger larger complex but St Kilda Council acted with hubris as usual. So he apparently just gave up….
The Park’s footprint is too small and needs expansion and the obvious choice is to merge the two into one and add more rides and retail outlets where the Palais is.
I disagree. They are both icons in their own right. The Palace was good for concerts too.
great video! i remember for my year 12 muck up day our (very public western suburbs) school hired out luna park for the day! was a really fun day and have lots of good memories from it
Absolutely incredible video about the historical famous Luna park St Kilda. It's really worth preserving heritage sites no matter how expensive they cost! 😃
T.H.Eslick.... love it how, if you squint, his name can be read as "THE Slick"
Thanks for the video. Luna Park means a lot to me and it's awesome to see the history laid out like that.
Loved this
this is a fantastically researched video, thank you for sharing maloney! luna park is one of my favourite places in the world so this was a very interesting watch and i enjoyed it immensely !!
I've been gping to Luna Park since I was a kid in the mid 2000s. It's always held such great memories of my and my family going. There really is no competition nearby and my friends and I still go on Valentines Day each year because it's easy to get to and they have a discounted offer.
I've been to Melbourne twice and still haven't managed to ride the Scenic Railway. The first time it was raining, so the coaster wasn't operating. The second time it was under maintenance. Boo. :( As for history of a park - I vote for Perth's Adventure World!
Love these Aussie videos
As you suggested that Gumbuya World should invest in building a wooden rollercoaster, the rumours have it that the original plans for the 1923 Big Dipper still exist today. I only heard this rumour in the Herald Sun when Lindsay Fox did buy Luna Park.
Gumbuya World should replicate that Big Dipper in whatever name or theme that's going to work with the park.
I also like to see that Boomerang rollercoaster to return to Australia at Gumbuya World as venomous snakes to be it's theme calling the attraction as "Snake Bite".
That's my idea of bringing Gumbuya World back to it's glory that Queensland Dreamworld and Sunday Wonderland had back in the 90's.
The Demon simply made too much noise and wouldn’t have fit for a park this small. The idea was to put it in the Big Dipper’s footprint and ultimately they wanted a smaller coaster in the end.
The Big Dipper should however come back as a single rail launched coaster like in Sydney. Plenty of room for a compact launched coaster, they should just get the same model with a unique track.
I went on Demon when it was at Expo Park in Brisbane in '88. Gave me nausea for the rest of the day, and I tried to avoid boomerang coasters ever since. But the Scenic Railway I rode in '87 and it was fantastic. Never got to see the Big Dipper, sadly.
Love your video. Just subscribed
Great video! Well done.
Interesting. I've not taken my kids there but been to Gumbuya world twice with them.
Can't help but compare Linfox's ownership to his bid to buy Ansett. He's all hat and no cattle.
I think he would have demolished it along with the palace theatre and built apartments high as he could go.
It’s a postcard now and a good one at that… it’s out Cooney island, our Brighton foreshore… Lin Fox met his wife there and thank God for that…
After having spent a good amount of time on the big dipper during school holidays in my youth, to this day, the scenic railway is just bone rattlingly boring.
Weird seeing a place I have stumbled around drunk with friends being covered in people wearing Victorian garb.
I went to Luna Park in Melbourne the first time when I was five in 1978
that face gived me Nightmares 💀
The Phillips family are still in the carnival business in Australia very good people
WTF is that ride seen at 2:30? Looks like a combination between a powered coaster and a flat ride? I've seen a Bayern Kurve which is like a circular powered coaster, but never one mounted on a moving base.
That's a really interesting one! It was a prototype coaster built at Coney Island at the turn of the century called the Scenic Spiral Wheel. I'd love to make a video about it and some other quirky designs in the future, there's not a lot of resources on it but I'm sure there's some information out there somewhere.
I'm guessing it was a maintenance headache.
When you look at how puffing billy managed to do the impossible and rebuild all the way to Gembrook there should be nothing to prevent the rebuilding of those historic attractions. Perhaps it needs the same model of volunteers to do the job. But in the wake of child molestation allegations even puffing billy has been seriously weakened and a year ago or so it was taken over by the same bureaucratic model that saw it closed 70 years earlier. So perhaps it is too late to go down that path. The world changes and often not for the better.
cool
Melbourne s Luna Park is still going.
i still love how t h. eslick just headed out after creating australia's oldest park
Bro built a whole life on just making things/trying and failing to make things and then pissing off 🤣
Hi is luna park built on a old rubbish dump ?
lived in melb all my life (i'm 36 now) & only ever been to luna park for the christian "Youth Alive" gigs in the early 2000's they held here. never been on a ride there ever !
It looks terrible white. It's so sad.