The best example of the problems faced by Luna Park was when they installed an Arrow looping coaster in the mid 90s in an attempt to add a more thrilling coaster to the park. Even though there had been a theme park and various roller coasters on the site for many decades by that point, local NIMBYs complained about the new coaster and (because councils in this country for some BS reason will act on even the tiniest complaint) Luna Park was eventually forced to get rid of it (it moved to Dreamworld and after some name changes is still there and still running today)
I don't think Australians are that fussed about theme parks either. Like it's a novelty to go once but not all the time. Operating costs are high because Australia is an expensive country and that is passed onto the customers
@MsJubjubbird as someone who grew up on the Gold Coast and was surrounded by all the theme parks mentioned at the beginning, I can say that me and my family used to go all the time (specifically to Dreamworld). I pretty much grew up there. The only reason we stopped going was the big accident that happened a few years back on their rapid ride that killed 4 riders. That tragic incident changed how we saw the park and we haven't gone back since. Pretty much what I'm saying is personally my family used to love going to the theme parks but they also used to be a lot cheaper than they currently are.
@DiamondDelorean yeah they are $100 a visit now. Too expensive. Then they try and fleece you for all you're worth once you're in. I thought SeaWorld was the most underwhelming $100 I had ever spent. I would do Wet n Wild once. But then parks are a thing we go to once or twice a year, if that. Not sustainable l, given their operating costs.
I can't speak for all of Australia but from what I've heard living in Brisbane is that we all generally love theme parks and want more. Perhaps it's that kind of thinking causing our lack of theme parks.
The weather. In the Northern Hemisphere, parks can get away with operating seasonally and by doing so, keep operating costs and maintenance costs under control. The expectation in Australia is that parks will open year round, reducing maintenance windows to a trickle and increasing staffing costs to a mountain. Its what killed Wonderland Sydney.
@@antontsau Florida has Disney World, not Disneyland. Also, just fyi, but central Florida can get far colder than Sydney ever does, despite it's lower latitude.
@@Sthuont I do not trace these names. Colder? Sydney can be -3C, snow in Blue Mountains happens almost every year. Florida can freeze but much more rare.
what killed Wonderland was Sunways business plan. which from the start was to run it into the ground until it was no longer profitable then sell off the real estate.
I live in Brisbane, so all the bigger theme parks are about 30 minutes away. Heck I went to fright night at movie world last night, I didn't realise that we were really lucky theme park wise until I was in my late teens.
You can thank Wollongong council for not having Disney here. When they closed most the smelters they wanted it down here as they can also park the cruise ship there, and our council denied it!
That's rubbish. A Disneyland park would not work in Wollongong (I'm a local too) or anywhere in Australia at this point in time. If you look at the stats, Disneyland Hong Kong has the lowest attendances of all the Disneyland parks. It gets around 6.4 million visits a year. So lets aim for that to make a Disneyland park viable. Plus, in creating Disneyland in Australia, you wouldn't want to reduce tourism (local or international guests) very much to existing locations, so to get people to an Aus Disneyland you would have to have people adding that to their holiday to Australia (or an added holiday/long weekend for us Aus people) Australia's population from 0-60 years old is around 20 million people. Say even 10% visit each year (and I think that's a big stretch), that's 2 million visitors. So we need another 4.4 million to draw even with Hong Kong. There are only about 5.6 million visitors we get each year that are hear for a holiday or visiting family and friends. I doubt around 80% of them would go to Aus Disneyland as an extra stop, so you would need to increase inbound tourists by say, double, so an extra 5.6 million visitors (40% going to Aus Disneyland, so 11.2 million visitors is probably still a bit low). So even on those figures, you have now doubled the tourist numbers into Australia each year. (and that's around 1.5 times the total number of inbound visitors (including business etc)). That's an awful lot of extra flight capacity for planes, Sydney airport etc to cope with, even if you give them say 5 years notice from announcement to Aus Disneyland opening. Then add to that all the other infrastructure needed to copy with that. Trains, highways etc to bring the tourists down from Sydney Airport. Now they are in Wollongong, where are they going to stay? Currently there are around 2000 rooms available in the Wollongong area (add a few more for north and south). If you put an average of 2.5 people in those rooms, then they can have 1.825 million visitors. At the average occupancy rate or 85% that leaves just 1.55 million beds available. So Disneyland might build a hotel, but will be expensive to stay there. So other accommodation will need to be built (some might stay in Sydney, but I think for most people, it's a bit too far. Disneyland days can be very long days (yes, I've been to the Anaheim California one twice now). So you would need another 5300 rooms built before it opens at least. So even the stories that pop up and an Aus Disneyland opening somewhere in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Gold Coast, all of the above still holds true. We would need a massive influx in international travellers, lots of extra roads/rail, lots of extra hotels built etc. I don't think we have the population, or the location near other countries with large populations to sustain it. Look at Tokyo Disneyland. Japan has a population of 124 million people, with South Korea just a short flight away from another 51 million people in South Korea. Hong Kong has a population of 7.4 million, but has around 45 million visitors a year, plus mainland China on it's doorstep. What's Australia got? New Zealand, 5.2 million people, plus maybe New Guinea. Indonesia has lots of people, but a flight to Hong Kong is about 2 hours less than a flight to Sydney, so if they were just going for Disneyland, then I doubt many would choose Aus.
@@pertang630 it was perfectly located, name one that could/can park its cruise liner there? 1 hour or so from syd and all the land they could need with nobody living nearby. And the new airport will make it just as easy to come to the gong. Wollongong is beautiful lived here my whole life, my family is from here for almost 100 years! not sure what's not nice about it? And a Climate that can be open all year around! Not to mention a Train line that goes right there also! One of the Best Uni's in the world too! Amazing beaches surf breaks, fishing, rainforests right under the GDR and the Largest Buddhist temple in SH also one of the largest Hindu temples! etc.(A mostly Catholic/Christian country that appeals to the largest tourist groups that come here, China India GB USA and NZ of course) Tell me again what's not to like? Not to mention the land was affordable! According to you Gold coast wouldn't exist! ITs one of the main reasons people go there fun park and beaches, why else would you go to SP?! Sydney has more visitors than SP! 5x more! and that's just for a bridge and Opera house mainly. Not to mention or forget the Massive amount of cruise liners, some of which already come to Port Kembla when the SYd docks are Full with Ships. Hotels No problems they are 1 hour from Sydney! As i said there are Highways all the way here and a train line that goes directly to Port Kembla its own line!(could literally make a Disney train) HK Disney has been there since i went as a kid, and its still there. Like most franchises not all make as much as the others and they are about the brand, Having None in Aus or the southern hemisphere is sill and would be a Draw card! Melb is to cold, and GC to many, we have jamberoo recreation park. I've been to most of them(Disney lands), so you think they are all the same? You scale it to the population(HK isn't as big as Anaheim for eg), 15mill tourist in syd a year is a easy chunk of money considering they are coming here to see things that do nothing and add no enjoyment or fun to a trip( especially if they have kids). You clearly have never travelled. You think people wont go on a train for 1 hour or so to a Disney fun park! ITs like 1 hour from SP/GC to the fun parks!(not sea world) But they will got to Katoomba to see the three sisters or a Zoo or look at a bridge(Bridge walk is boring AF)! or an opera house that you can do nothing in ! Yes Sydney / Wollongong should have built it there! Train ride down is great also, especially a s a tourist!! people come to see the cliff bridge even! RB did a video there, and its just a bridge! Also all those places would come here as its a real pain to travel to the other side of the world. we have people that would rather come here than go to Disney China! People come to pat a kangaroo let alone go to an Aussie Disney! Man according to you nothing would exist no Taronga Zoo or Aquarium etc as you think we couldn't pull the people.... Smh Go Syd and walk around and its full of Tourists with nothing to do, they just wandering about looking at DH etc maybe go up the tower! WooHOO! love that 15 mill tourists with nothing for kids and families to do different than things they can likely do in their own countries already come here. They aint coming for the shopping! Probably 1/2 the reason we don't get more, NSW needs more fun! And you cant afford to build north or west(hence why wonderland died land was worth more), south is the only option. You love maths, lets say 10 % of that come to DL adult average spend is like 300(with food) US family at least double(Likely way more!) so 1.5mil x $600 (minimum spending) = 900mil USD!!! assuming 10% of those tourists went to the park. i reckon they could make that work... That's not including Aussies or merchandise... There isn't enough Aboriginal caves etc to pull those numbers, they aint here for shopping, and we don't have castles or old towns. WE are a modern country and should have more fun parks.
It's just the numbers. The population of Australia is barely larger than Florida and Orlando International Airport alone moves 2x the Australian population. Texas is quite similar to Australia in that it support only 3 regional and somewhat seasonal parks.
@@al3xskng854 Just being realistic but it is purely the distance for a lot of people. If I Wanted to go to a Disney park for for example being in the UK I have at least 2 options with 1 of them 2-3 hours away and another about 9, and that is discounting the west coast and the Asian parks at around 12-13. For bigger thrill rides I have Energylandia, Phantasialand etc just a few hours a way too. So other than the weather in Australia, which comes in hot and hotter and also the other tourist traps there is little reason to travel combined over 24 hours for a theme park unless it can really offer something none of the others closer can.
Great video! I remember as a kid that going to the Gold Coast for the theme parks was the dream. I haven't gone back since I was young, so my memories of the parks are definitely rose-tinted haha.
Real estate is so utterly inflated it is just too expensive for a new theme park to break ground. The existing theme parks owned the land back before it became a problem.
As was said in the video - theme parks have a long and sad history in Australia, just to name a few, Old Sydney Town, African Lion Park and Bullen’s Animal Would are only a few around Sydney and there were many, many more and they all have the same problem. Theme park start off well in Australia with plenty of people visiting them then people stop coming and costs start to rise, then the owners are hit with upgrades that are imposed on them and with easy money in real estate, the parks close and sold. I don’t think it’s a simple as saying it’s just investment or location. I think the problem is also getting new people to a theme parks and this is not so easy in Australia.
There was some talk of putting a Disney park in Fisherman's Bend in Melbourne a couple years ago. It's a large post-industrial area in decline right up next to the CBD and even has port access for potential Cruise ships. Alternatively there's also Docklands, which Costco is giving up on, leaving a large plot of land vacant. Adding up the area of Costco, the ferris wheel no-one's ever been on and some adjacent vacant land you end up with ~55000 square meters which would be tight for a park but very well located. The government and council have also been desperate to invent a reason to go to Docklands for decades and would be cooperative.
The Victorian Government under Steve Bracks fucked that up permanently back in 2000/2001 by screwing up the Paramount Pictures deal. We could have had a Paramount Studios park with their film franchises providing the theming. It was ready to go build only for Bracks to screw it up. Best shot at a major theme park in Victoria is try and get Village Roadshow to build a park down here somewhere. Give the local operators a shot instead of dreaming of Disney or Universal. And don’t let the Labor party and Werribee residents ruin that for everyone again!
but it is seasonal and a shell of what it used to be. Plus it's not big in that you can't stay there. In fact, it would be hard to get to as a tourist unless you had a car, as you would need to get a train and a bus from the city
As kids in the 1970s we used to go to the Gold Coast every year, long before the advent of the theme parks. There was a sort of water-skiing park with choreography, but it was pretty dull. We were just content with the beaches. Incredible how much it's change in those 50 years.
I spent my 10th birthday on the Gold Coast in 1966 it wasnt really much of a city it was as the video suggested small towns strung along a stretch of idylic coastline the centre being Surfers Paradise. The attractions I remember in Surfers were the meter maids, slot car racing tracks, trampoline parks, the neon signs at night and going to hotels at lunchtime that had a swimming pool so the kids could swim while the parents enjoyed a cold beveridge. I recall a small amusement park with a chairlift on the road to Burleigh Heads, there was the Currumbin bird sanctuary, the Burleigh Heads nature walk, Sea World was in Coolangatta and it wasnt a theme park more a dolphin show, There was also Giltraps Auto Museum which was a must visit for kids. The mornings were spent lazing on beaches like Burleigh Heads where they had daily live entertainment in the rotunda followed by the obligatory counter lunch at a local pub and a visit to an attraction or the hinterland in the afternoon. We also took our kids up there most years when they were growing up so we also watched as the place developed. To tell you truth I preferred the Gold Coast how it was back then rather than what it has become but I guess thats progress and you could say the same thing about a lot of places in Australia. As retired grey nomads we spend around 6 months a year travelling this country with our caravan the South East of Queensland is an area that we tend to bypass due to the over crowding and the inflated cost of staying there.. If they want to build a big name theme park in order to attract more foreigners keep it in that area it cant get anymore in your face than what it is today.
@@Davo-i1s Gosh, that brings back a few more memories. I do recall now Giltraps Auto Museum. Not really my thing, but my Dad loved it. And the chairlift too. My brother and sister and I used to think it was so exciting, and so high! I remember driving past that spot about 15 years ago - the chairlift had long since gone and there didn't even seem to be any appreciable hill! But you're right: there was a lot of charm in the earlier simplicity of the Gold Coast. My fondest memories are of picnics at Burleigh on the banks of Tallebudgera Creek: walking through the bush, mucking about in the water and so on. The 'good old days' when the parents could sit and read and the kids could be allowed to wander off for hours, with nobody getting concerned.
@@robertthomson1587 When my old dad passed a few years ago he still had a photo from 1966 of him with my younger sister and myself on that chairlift my mum had taken it as we were comiing back down from the top. Great memories of those days but like all things they tend to fade over time then suddenly something will trigger a memory just like it did with you about Giltraps. Yeah I would have concerns leaving small kids to wander off for hours by themselves today especially where we used to wander when we were 10 years old like that Cavill Avenue and main beach area of Surfers...
Perth had some amazing theme parks back in the day but investors who owned the major parks in the gold cost bought them up to close them to force tourists to go to the gold coast instead of perth. They have sat on the land for over 30 years and havs only recenlty started developing
Melbourne also has Funfields out in Whittlesea, which is technically in the greater Melbourne area but on the outskirts, and while it is definitely a waterpark, it much smaller than those in the Goldcoast. But either way, it's still a theme park and it was bigger than gumbuya world for a while and is one of the bigger theme parks in Melbourne! Just thought I'd add that as someone who used to leave really close to it and loved spending summers there with mates when I was at school :)
I feel like most of these questions “why doesn’t Australia have X” can be summed up with how we are a massive country with a small population. The closest country we are similar to is Canada with a large area and smaller population but they have the US at the doorstep so even that’s wildly different. Geographically there is no country like Australia so it’s impossible to compare with others
G'day from NSW. We live in the outer Western Suburbs.🙂 A very interesting video, thanks for sharing.👍 We had Wonderland back in the day. But has sinced closed down. And thanks to this video, I now understand way. There's Luna Park in Sydney. An hour train ride in for us. But my all time favourite was Old Sydney Town. I was a 70's child. I loved Old Sydney Town.😊 But unfortunately it has sinced closed down. But, it wasn't a ride theme park though. It was a historical look into early Australian history. We're Aussie's of Irish ancestry.💚 Our ancestor's origin history to here was the Forced Transportations (bringing of the Convicts) and the later Forced Evictions of Ireland (coming of the free Irish settlers). Convicts were Irish, English, Scottish, children and adults 1788-1868. I felt my Irish ancestor's history was represented in Old Sydney Town. As a child, I enjoyed Old Sydney Town the best.💙
Don't forget lack of good public transport outside of metro areas. Melbourne and Sydney have a great train network with decent speed and a good spread of station, but once you exit the metro area things change. Theoretically you could place a park around 80-100 km from Melbourne's CBD where the land is cheap and get there by train in less than 30 minutes, but we currently don't have the infrastructure for that.
There’s no good public transport to the Gold Coast theme parks, or at least there wasn’t. They really hit critical mass though. And they just bus tourists in from both Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
This might sound like a pipe dream, but considering how successful Bluey has been and the popularity it has given Queensland as a tourist destination, I'm hoping this will encourage Disney to build a smaller scaled Disneyland somewhere in the state.
Hi from Sydney and thank-you for the video. Approaching 50 years of age, I remember Sydney's Wonderland. I have a faint sense of nostalgia for it. What I really miss though is the roller skating rink we had in a neighbouring suburb. Unlike a theme park.. let alone a major one.. roller skating was so much more community friendly. In fact the smallness is what gave them their charm. Had a "training rink" for little ones, air hockey, pool tables.. An announcer could announce "couples only" and play love songs, ladies only, men only... hot food, vending machines, drinks, slushies. It was just a great setup for socialising.
Thats like Las Vegas, the biggest casino state in the world. Why doesn't New York have that? The Gold Coast is the theme park city of Australia, it is what it is 🤷🏽♂️
I could see Universal opening a smaller regional "park experience" on the Gold Coast, like the Halloween Horror Nights space going in in Vegas. Disney will never take the leap though, Australian wages are too high and they wouldn't do it without building a full park. Even strong brands with lots of cash struggle at the best of times/locations. I visited Sega World during its brief heyday, we all know how that went.
Disney could make a small Disney park in Australia, but land location would need to be perfect and the only spot I think Disney would do is the land that Melbourne port sits on as it right next to Melbourne CBD and is over 800 acres of land and any ride they build would have to be the cheaper ones to build/operate
@@nexts9500dude, Paramount Pictures had such a horrific experience with the Victorian Labor Party being so pigheadedly moronic, that the dream of a Theme park in that exact location is permanently screwed as long as the idiotic party that fucked up the first time around is in power. No theme park operator reading about how Labor put both Paramount Pictures and Village Roadshow(Werribee Zoo should have just been sold to them!) through absolute hell, would ever want to build anything here whilst that exact same idiotic party has a stranglehold on the state.
13:33 This park was located on Springvale Road in Melbourne Australia in the suburb of Forest Hill where it was on the site of the current Forest Hill Police Station. The castle you can see in this shot remained after the park closed and was reopened as a garden centre business before closing around a year before the police station was opened in 2016. The garden centre most likely originally opened a few years after the park closed.
Previous theme parks have failed and there are other things to do that are free to enjoy with family or friends -Sydney is one of the few cities to have a number of national parks inside the metropolitan area all with free entry, beaches hiking nature and free barbecue's etc. And Sydney is too cold to have year round theme parks - plus there are the them parks in Queensland plenty there
“Too cold to have year round theme parks”. Absolute bullshit, you had a year round theme park that lasted for generations! Wonderland! The government screwed that up on you all by refusing to help when they were in trouble!
I'll probably get flamed big time, but I feel that Australia itself is a theme park. A natural theme park. Our low population, and vast geography, means there are plenty of natural areas to enjoy yourself, from family friendly short hikes, to more extreme levels of fun, such as canyoning, for example. Plus, unlike many built theme parks, incl those on the GC, they are not horribly tacky and overpriced.
Another part of the equation. Australians get 4 weeks holiday per year. plenty of time for us to get to other parts of the world, see the sights and come home. So even if it is only south Asia, Australians see other parts or the world. Americans only get a couple of weeks, not enough time to travel, and so their holidays are spent in their own country. I think if you look at the numbers, more Australians have a passport than the Americans do
55% of Australian have a passport and 40% of Americans have one. A large number of Australian who have travelled internationally and have a passport are immigrants who have moved here. Australians born in Australia, definitely are not internationally exposed as a whole and their outlook of the world is insular and limited to stereotypes. 14% of the Australian population live below the poverty line. Travelling internationally is something that’s far beyond what a huge proportion of the population could afford.
2 years ago I took the family to Movie World as part of our Holiday outing. We payed full price to enter the park only to find out the only popular rides that were working was the Flume Ride. The Joker, Batman, Scooby Doo and Superman were down that day. What a rip off. I''d rather save my money and take the family to Disneyland.
I’ve definitely taken for granted all the big theme parks being so close to Brisbane where I’ve lived my entire life because I saw the title of this video and thought “what do you mean we have plenty of big theme parks???” 😅
There is a photo of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings riding the rollercoaster at Luna Park in St Kilda in between sets. I wish I still had the laminated copy of it.
Was almost a zombie/Tiki themed theme park in Perth but due to objections to residents it did not get up. The people spent $1million on the bar fitout to the LUWOW in Fitzroy though.
I think you are shortselling the potential in the perth market. WA reached a population of 3 million last week and this is showing no sign of stopping. Most of this growth centred in Perth. Perth has around the same amount of tourists, some figures stating more than the gold coast. Perth had the land to spare and there is enough things to do to attract all sorts of people here but not enough that a large scale theme park wont be one of if not the most popular tourist destination in the city.
Yeah it's not easy for Australia. But there are other factors as well like considering that the majority of the major cities are on the coast. We don't have any major inland cities that could help with placing theme parks in-between them like the USA does. Which is why the Gold Coast is more successful, it is close to two major popular locations, Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. 2 hours drive at most can make it easy for tourist to get there as well and enjoy a popular distention when not at the parks. Also another factor is weather. The Gold Coast being mostly warm almost all year around makes it ideal for theme parks to still gain popularity.
What about a theme park in a shopping centre (mall), like Nickelodeon Universe in the Mall of America in Minnesota and in American Dream Mall in New Jersey? That has a MUCH smaller footprint in a multi-use development with shops, big chain stores, restaurants, community facilities, office space, cinemas, indoor sports facilities, accommodation and residential. I actually suggested that to the developers of the old Toombul Shopping Centre site in Brisbane.
Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne is the only one big enough to accommodate a theme park and the local residents had to be fun killers refusing to go full Mall Of America style for decades on end. At least they have a small Legoland Discovery Centre now, but it’s not enough!
If you want that attraction to be Annual Flood World - Toombul is at least very close to the international airport however only serviced by one terrible bus route from the DFO and not from airport directly. They'd have to do a huge amount of land management and flood mitigation and traffic engineering and the bus station there would also need a huge upgrade
@@sweetprimrose I live on the south side of Brisbane and have recently been working on the north side, sometimes getting a bus at Toombul where I've seen where used to be the shopping centre. Where did the water (apart from, obviously, the sky) that destroyed the place come from?
Sydneysider here. Best theme park in Australia: Jamberoo. Best location for a new one, west of Werribee with a direct rail. Disneyland Australia. Make it happen.
Great video! Though I somewhat disagree that Melbourne is underserved by theme parks. The city currently has 3 well attended theme parks (Luna Park, Gumbuya World and Funfields) as well as Legoland Discovery Center (which includes an interactive dark ride and a number of other attractions). Plus, just over an hour away is Adventure Park in Geelong. Funfields in particular is worth noting because the park has continued to expand and open new attractions every year (often with decent theming too) and I’ve heard various whispers and rumors that they’ll be getting a major coaster within the next couple of years. The rivalry between Funfields and Gumbuya World will be interesting to watch and I expect both parks will grow quite substantially and become major attractions over the next decade if this trend of constant investment continues.
Melbourne is completely underserved by theme parks, and it sucks cos I moved here from Europe after living in North America. None of the 3 parks are proper theme parks - Luna Park definitely isn’t, and the themes at Gumbaya are not what I’d call themes. These parks also mostly cater to families with young kids. Of all these parks, there’s only 1 semi-intense coaster (Project zero). The rest is for kids.
@@Dservoz I’d personally consider Gumbuya to be a proper theme park, it’s just that it’s relatively new and is still finding its identity and building itself up (same goes for Funfields too). The fact that they went to the effort of creating a full backstory, theming elements, custom audio and adding smoke and lighting effects around their new coasters indicate that the park is taking theming and immersion into consideration and shows promise for the future. Plus, Gumbuya has the Rebel, which is one of the most intense flat rides I’ve ever been on anywhere, so the park is clearly starting to cater to the thrill market and not just families and young kids. While it’s true that these parks are nothing like those in Europe and the US, they have lots of potential and I still appreciate them for what they are (they’re definitely better than having no theme parks in Melbourne at all). They’ll almost certainly become much bigger and better in the years to come.
I can see gumbaya world killing it if they got their advertising game on point after somehow building a few amazing indoor coasters. Then again, it’s pretty far out from Melbourne so that would be an insane risk that probably wouldn’t pay off at all…
The wooden rollercoaster shown in Part 2 at Sydney's Luna Park was initially constructed in the seaside suburb of Glenelg in Adelaide, South Australia. My late father told me it was related when he was a teenager and, just before WWII, was one of the key protest organisers. Unfortunately, their protests were unsuccessful.
I'm not sure where this would fit in the narrative of your video but I think it's worth mentioning, Sydney's royal Easter show is as close to being a "themed" theme park as possible with pretty decent success, I would say the success has largely been the result of the limited time of when it's on which is during Easter. There's definitely some temporary rides and activities for people but unfortunately it's not permanent, and I don't think it's well known enough for people around Australia to travel to it, but definitely locals love to go every year. I almost think if a permanent theme park was to be built anywhere in Sydney, it would be Olympic Park. There's plenty of land and it's already set up to be an entertainment space with Accor stadium, Qodos bank arena and a few hotels for people to stay there to go to music or sports events. It'll be cool if a theme park was built there for those travelling for those events. Otherwise there's actually not much to do in the area either than go to walk around a park or have a bite to eat.
I’m glad we don’t have lots of theme parks in Australia! Generally overpriced, tacky, inappropriate. Much better things to do with leisure time l reckon.
If either Disney or universal comes to Australia it'll more than likely takeover dreamworld in my opinion (probably as a rebranding) but then again warner bros is trying to expand movie world with an onsite hotel sorta like SeaWorld. Great video by the way.
I honestly think perth has such a large land mass open to build theme parks and expansions to adventure word that with the rising tourism perth is seeing and once the word is out that we have the best beaches in all of aus. Pretty easy to see potential to have another gold coast on the west coast. Once built up it would have a similar effect that gold coast has
Bob Jane owns so much land 30 minutes from Melbourne on the Calder Hwy. He wanted a Theme Park near Calder Raceway. Maybe you could look into why his Venture never took off, I heard council denied his plans.
Probably the biggest thing iv noticed in Queensland / Brisbane is the Not in my backyard syndrome being they wand and need it butt will not except it on fear it disrupt a person zen being noisy or creating more traffic or removing native habitats. In saying that there is still large areas within grater Brisbane such as Boondal environment centre that’s suggesting to get relocated to a city location or areas around Belmont as well as large queries in are that are at end of their life span that will be rejuvenated.
I think the town shows that bring the rides to the towns reduce the demand for fixed installations a lot. Then there is also the current WHS laws that make it prohibitively expensive to get started on anything not grandfathered in
Town shows (or State Fairs in the USA) are really valuable and important. These events are the only way anyone under 18 can experience a theme park feel and buzz going by themselves or with their friends rhwir own age. And I guess people under 18 get used to visiting State Fairs too. All the Gold Coast can do here is when they are 18 and older, they might want to visit the Gold Coadt for a holiday. But real observations show that a lot of 18-21 year olds still visit State Fairs. The answer could be making the Gold Coast theme parks exciting for 18-21 year olds and not just for 9-12 year olds. Imagine a Game of Thrones ride being on the Gold Coast!
I feel in Australia, we just have to be patience. Look at Jamberoo, it’s very slowly grown with the locals and the locals (as in all of Wollongong and south Sydney) treat it as a peak destination. Wollongong has continued to grow and is an growing appealing tourist spot (good views, good foods, good beaches). Jamberoos been around for a long time and I reckon it hasn’t even started to peak yet.
I’m surprised you haven’t mentioned the potential of Aussie world at the Sunshine Coast. It’s small at the moment but has some larger rides with room to explore. Its location would be good as it’s also along the highway like the Gold Coast attractions. I remember going on my first rollercoaster there; the Wild Mouse roller coaster, sadly no longer there.. I think Queensland also fills the need for ride entertainment with the regular fairs we have. They are primarily smaller rides and no roller coasters but it does fill that missing space for parks.
They have a small and spread out population and they are very isolated from the rest of the world. I think a more interesting question should be, why there aren’t more Disney or universal parks in Europe as the continent has 750 million people and a high standard of living.
That is an interesting question! I could maybe do a video on it in the future. My audience is largely Australian, as am I, so discussing the issues there are important to me, but I agree, Europe is a largely untapped market for those big amusement operators
@@MaloneysCoasters We’re only getting our second of the Big Operators in Europe with Universal Great Britain (better name than choice than Universal Bedford, unlikely to attract tourists).
I don’t think disney/universal see the need for more then 1 resort. Disney already have Disneyland Paris, which covers France, the uk, Spain, Germany and Italy. It’s not really worth it to build a park in Europe outside of those countries for a massive company like Disney. And same for universal with the (hopefully) upcoming uk park. Although the UK is obviously a bit further away so maybe a small park for one of the countries I mentioned earlier?
@ that doesn’t make a lot of sense. How does building a park in France cover Germany, Italy Spain and the UK? lol. Also the UK/London is literally only an hour away from France. Spain, UK, France and Italy are some of the most visited countries on the planet with over 700 million international tourist arrivals in 2023.
Back in the 1970’s, Australia had dedicated theme parks (ie LunaPark, etc), mom and pop smaller theme parks and the long established country and metropolitan shows (called State Fairs in the USA). But since then almost all of the mom and pop parks have closed down. And I am convinced that was left made secret and under the table agreements so that the dedicated theme parks and the metropolitan shows would never compete against each other. I live in Adelaide and our only theme park, the Royal Adelaide Show, gets about 2/3 of its paying people from local people under 18 who have not f yet finished high school. This is a market the Gold Coast can never go for due to child protection laws. If you live in Adelaide and want to go to a real theme path by yourself, you need to be 18 and older and finished high school or go as part of a family trip. Same goes for the Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart shows as well. Maybe exposing the theme park / metropolitan show sector to real competition laws for once might help here. Imagine any 16 and 17 year olds from anywhere in Australia being able to go to the Gold Coast theme parks by themselves with no parent’s permission needed would really shake up this sector.
And to add. The Royal Adelaide Show bans any promotion of the Gold Coast in any way. In 2001, an Adelaide radio station was booted from the show due to them promoting Queensland and the Gold Coast. So the idea of secret and under the table agreements do have some validity. I also think the venue for the show, the Wayville Showgrounds could make for a really good medium sized full time theme park some day.
In Melbourne, we keep seeing ‘theme parks’ being mentioned by the ‘Herald Sun’ and other media channels for Dingley and Langwarrin (or surrounds). They’ve been talking about some water park in Dingley for an age, not sure if it’s actually a thing or not. I have no idea how big a proper theme park needs to be but even if you tried Werribee or Geelong, the property would be too valuable to home developers rather than theme park developers. I don’t think they could justify it, especially with our shoddy public transport system. Ironically, a theme park COULD be good for people who have a 2-3 day stop over for a cruise, but - cruises are likely going to be less frequent to Melbourne given the ridiculous port docking charges at Port Melbourne. I do miss Wonderland in Sydney :(
I feel somewhere like dreamworld could potentially expand to be a disney/universal style themepark (obviously not to the same scale but similar in a way), and movie world has the POI's to do more area's (Like the new Wizard of OZ area) so we could see these two parks expand in the future potentially in my opinion
I want to design a rollercoaster at Movie world inspired by ACDC as runway locomotive exploding out of a Gatlin coaster. Looking similar to Incredible Hulk, Rock N Rollercoaster and Space mountain from Disneyland Paris. The track would be compact like the Similer at Alton Tower (UK) and feature the single greatest launching system of all time a synchronised induction track to Angus Young's lead to the top hits of the band. Each launch would produce smoke like a gun going off and the canon would have gears and pistons going crazy like you're inside a combustion energy which is about to explode.
To tell you the truth, Australia and Australians love their water parks more than theme park. And that's because our geography makes it that its hot & dry most of the time. So, it makes sense to put them water parks here
I can see a large theme park opening in Brisbane. Got the tourism draws of both the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, Moreton Bay Islands such as Moreton and North Stradbroke, Fraser Island isn't ridiculously far. The South East Queensland area is the fastest growing region of Australia, growing so fast it's put QLD in a housing crisis. The 2032 olympics is coming which is going to draw tourists from every single country of the world (except North Korea) to Brisbane. I reckon if the Indooroopilly golf club was to close, that is your spot or the Hamilton Urban renewal.
I think at this point there is nowhere in Australia that you could open a new theme park (either smaller like Movie World/Dreamworld or larger like Disneyland or Universal Orlando or Six Flags Magic Mountain or Ceder Point). Even the Gold Coast wouldn't be viable to build a NEW theme park on. There isn't really any large enough parcels of suitable land left suitable to put one on (and what land there is has become just as expensive as Sydney or Melbourne). And any new player (even one as large as, say, Disney) would find it difficult to compete with the established parks.
Every major Theme/Amusement park in the world have a population base of 20 million within 4 hours drive. In this context no Australian City qualify. The 20 million base population accounts for break even operations and the tourist from 4 hours or more away is the icing on the cake.
Good video! Now that you point it out it makes me appreciate Brisbane a bit more, sure we are full of bogans and we arent cool like Melbourne or Sydney but at least we have cool storms and access to rollercoasters haha.
Outer Western Melbourne. Avalon area. Between Melbourne and Geelong. The airport there needs expanding. It already hosts the bi Anual Airshow. It looks to be a major groth corridor. Located between 2 big cities , it could be a great place for something big on a theme park level.
I live in like a syndey junior area that could probably sustain a gumbuya world clone, it already has an expansive waterpark that seems to be very profitable
I enjoyed Movie World much more than Disneyland. 90% of the time at Disney is spent in a queue. It takes about an hour in the queue just to get some lunch. You get to go on about 6-8 attractions in a 12 hour day.
There is Aussie world on the sunshine coast thats been there for sometime now I think another theme park could be put on the sunshine coast but you’d have to get it past the locals first
I beg to differ about Adelaide. Adelaide could offer something the east coast simply cannot, it is able to offer something people come to Australia for, that is easy access to the outlook people from overseas want to experience. You can travel 4hrs from Adelaide and be in the flinders ranges seeing the wild life, being in the red dirt, experiencing the vast open lands. I think Disney could setup something rather magical in SA offering experiences the others couldn’t and make Disney Down Under (they can pay me royalties for that!) more that just the theme park. I would picture it being built north of Adelaide and that would also open up the wine region of the Barossa and Clare Valley’s which they could easily have day tours to meaning they not only have the park generating income they can have income from tours. I am not saying the others couldn’t but SA is a forgotten place which can offer a lot, it is also very central so it can capture the east and west coast travellers, it isn’t much further for international travellers. But Adelaide is Adelaide and it will get overlooked/discounted as it isn’t Sydney or Melbourne.
What are we defining as major theme parks? Cause the gold coast has 6, then there's the 2 Luna parks in Melbourne and Sydney. Sure they're not Disneyland, but they're not tiny either. Certainly bigger than adventure world Perth and that's a decent size considering the population density
Australia`s Wonderland tried and went broke, Elcabalo blanko tried and went broke. The prices needed to charge due and poor transport options lead to a lack of customers reduced patronage even more. Maybe soon after our new Western Sydney Airport starts to function with increased improved transportation it may become viable to reconsider such venues once more.
Sydney isn't "arguably" Australia's most visited city. It IS. It's the most popular destination in the southern hemisphere. It's not something you need to ponder like it's a possibility. It's just a fact. It's like wondering if London is the most visited city in England. It's not debatable. It just is. The most ideal location for a new theme park in Sydney would be the area around the new Western Sydney Airport, which will see enormous urban development in the next 50 years around the veins of the massive transport project with its own financial district, and Australia's Silicon Valley is also being situated in Western Sydney. The new airport is also designed for the terminals to be expanded and will see another runway built in the near future. But just a theme park by itself would not work. It would need to be its own district. An entire campus of various parks, resorts, and attractions, like Disney World in Orlando with Disneyland, MGM, and EPCOT. Multiple parks catering to different services and themes that depend on each other to form a cohesive whole, like a rollercoaster park, a water park, a technology park, a film studio, a sports institute, a food culture pavilion, a giant greenhouse and so on. It would have to become synonymous with the district of Western Sydney Airport so it's a tourist location in itself and serves the greater community. Basically an iconic landmark of the area to cement its longevity. A destination to visit before your flight home, or before you journey into Sydney Harbour, CBD, the beaches etc.
I have no desire to spend thousands of dollars to go to a theme park, just to be surrounded by massive crowds and spending the vast majority of time in lines - waiting. And then have to do that 3 days in a row to even see most of it. Gold Coast is great. One day at each theme park and it’s a great family holiday with lots of variety.
im a New Zealander, so we only have one rollercoaster in the country and it's pretty bad. The idea of this video is kinda crazy to me as the Gold Coast is the absolute mecha of theme parks to us Kiwis. ive been to most theme parks in Australia and it has always puzzled me why there is no Movie World or dream world in melbs or sydney but then again I feel like the Gold Coast can relate to Florida in the sense that its a theme park destination for tourists foremost. the most recent park in Australia I went to was Adventure World in Perth and I loved abyss but that may be recency bias
I don't think it's all about the cost of land in the cities. Fox Studios in Sydney was perfectly situated for tourists, but barely lasted a couple of years due to the high ticket costs with hardly any thrill attractions. In the later part of the video Australia's small population, geography, etc are mentioned, plus it has a high wages system, which probably accounts for Aus park costs being way overpriced compared to elsewhere in the World.
Hell lot of science i find shocking with falcons flight not oz but ya know what i mean going to be interesting ;) hot weather and metal hmmmm Temperature and humidity have a HUGE effect on how a rollercoaster will run. The usuall affect of temperature is speed variation. Most coasters use a mid point brake run to adjust the speed to that of "NORMAL" operation. But if it is slower than normal, it stays slower. and the train will end up stuck in vally Yes, hot weather can damage roller coaster tracks: friction Friction from the roller coaster's movement turns gravitational and kinetic energy into heat, which doesn't help propel the coaster. Tire deterioration Hot weather can cause tires to deteriorate more quickly, which may require more pit stops
I do feel Sydney still has potential, with the newly intergated and increasing Metro system, and the new International airport at Bradfield in the west.
You couldn’t even keep Wonderland open…. Developers read about theme park history before making their decisions you know. Your city couldn’t even sustain Australia’s Wonderland and your government did nothing to save the park when it was in trouble. Theme park operators KNOW the incompetent NSW government will fuck that up again. Just like Labor fucked up Paramount Pictures and Village Roadshow’s proposed theme parks in Victoria. You’ll never get a proper theme park with the Labor Party in power. They’re dumb!
@@colliric Why is the NSW Government incompetent ? As per the Bradfield suggestion, it has possibilities as the planning of this area is extensive and will be self sufficient, therefore keep your rants in Victoria.
The best example of the problems faced by Luna Park was when they installed an Arrow looping coaster in the mid 90s in an attempt to add a more thrilling coaster to the park. Even though there had been a theme park and various roller coasters on the site for many decades by that point, local NIMBYs complained about the new coaster and (because councils in this country for some BS reason will act on even the tiniest complaint) Luna Park was eventually forced to get rid of it (it moved to Dreamworld and after some name changes is still there and still running today)
Your new Big Dipper is much better luckily. Took too long to get a new one though!
As a local NIMBY, fuck you!!!!! We hate fun!!!! 😈😈😈😈😈
I don't think Australians are that fussed about theme parks either. Like it's a novelty to go once but not all the time. Operating costs are high because Australia is an expensive country and that is passed onto the customers
@MsJubjubbird as someone who grew up on the Gold Coast and was surrounded by all the theme parks mentioned at the beginning, I can say that me and my family used to go all the time (specifically to Dreamworld). I pretty much grew up there. The only reason we stopped going was the big accident that happened a few years back on their rapid ride that killed 4 riders. That tragic incident changed how we saw the park and we haven't gone back since. Pretty much what I'm saying is personally my family used to love going to the theme parks but they also used to be a lot cheaper than they currently are.
@DiamondDelorean yeah they are $100 a visit now. Too expensive. Then they try and fleece you for all you're worth once you're in. I thought SeaWorld was the most underwhelming $100 I had ever spent. I would do Wet n Wild once. But then parks are a thing we go to once or twice a year, if that. Not sustainable l, given their operating costs.
As someone who lives in Adelaide, is an adrenaline junkie and a roller coaster enthusiast......Yes it matters and we are fussed about it!
I can't speak for all of Australia but from what I've heard living in Brisbane is that we all generally love theme parks and want more.
Perhaps it's that kind of thinking causing our lack of theme parks.
Operating costs in Australia are no higher than places like Germany, Denmark or France, yet these countries have awesome, massive theme parks.
The weather. In the Northern Hemisphere, parks can get away with operating seasonally and by doing so, keep operating costs and maintenance costs under control. The expectation in Australia is that parks will open year round, reducing maintenance windows to a trickle and increasing staffing costs to a mountain. Its what killed Wonderland Sydney.
oh yes, Florida with Disneyland is much more seasoned than Sydney, we know...
Umm population of what, 500 million within 2-3 hours of EuroDisney. Population in Australia within 2-3 hours. 27 million. Big difference.
@@antontsau Florida has Disney World, not Disneyland. Also, just fyi, but central Florida can get far colder than Sydney ever does, despite it's lower latitude.
@@Sthuont I do not trace these names.
Colder? Sydney can be -3C, snow in Blue Mountains happens almost every year. Florida can freeze but much more rare.
what killed Wonderland was Sunways business plan. which from the start was to run it into the ground until it was no longer profitable then sell off the real estate.
I live in Brisbane, so all the bigger theme parks are about 30 minutes away. Heck I went to fright night at movie world last night, I didn't realise that we were really lucky theme park wise until I was in my late teens.
You can thank Wollongong council for not having Disney here. When they closed most the smelters they wanted it down here as they can also park the cruise ship there, and our council denied it!
Phew!
That's rubbish. A Disneyland park would not work in Wollongong (I'm a local too) or anywhere in Australia at this point in time. If you look at the stats, Disneyland Hong Kong has the lowest attendances of all the Disneyland parks. It gets around 6.4 million visits a year. So lets aim for that to make a Disneyland park viable. Plus, in creating Disneyland in Australia, you wouldn't want to reduce tourism (local or international guests) very much to existing locations, so to get people to an Aus Disneyland you would have to have people adding that to their holiday to Australia (or an added holiday/long weekend for us Aus people)
Australia's population from 0-60 years old is around 20 million people. Say even 10% visit each year (and I think that's a big stretch), that's 2 million visitors. So we need another 4.4 million to draw even with Hong Kong. There are only about 5.6 million visitors we get each year that are hear for a holiday or visiting family and friends. I doubt around 80% of them would go to Aus Disneyland as an extra stop, so you would need to increase inbound tourists by say, double, so an extra 5.6 million visitors (40% going to Aus Disneyland, so 11.2 million visitors is probably still a bit low). So even on those figures, you have now doubled the tourist numbers into Australia each year. (and that's around 1.5 times the total number of inbound visitors (including business etc)). That's an awful lot of extra flight capacity for planes, Sydney airport etc to cope with, even if you give them say 5 years notice from announcement to Aus Disneyland opening. Then add to that all the other infrastructure needed to copy with that. Trains, highways etc to bring the tourists down from Sydney Airport. Now they are in Wollongong, where are they going to stay? Currently there are around 2000 rooms available in the Wollongong area (add a few more for north and south). If you put an average of 2.5 people in those rooms, then they can have 1.825 million visitors. At the average occupancy rate or 85% that leaves just 1.55 million beds available. So Disneyland might build a hotel, but will be expensive to stay there. So other accommodation will need to be built (some might stay in Sydney, but I think for most people, it's a bit too far. Disneyland days can be very long days (yes, I've been to the Anaheim California one twice now). So you would need another 5300 rooms built before it opens at least.
So even the stories that pop up and an Aus Disneyland opening somewhere in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Gold Coast, all of the above still holds true. We would need a massive influx in international travellers, lots of extra roads/rail, lots of extra hotels built etc. I don't think we have the population, or the location near other countries with large populations to sustain it. Look at Tokyo Disneyland. Japan has a population of 124 million people, with South Korea just a short flight away from another 51 million people in South Korea. Hong Kong has a population of 7.4 million, but has around 45 million visitors a year, plus mainland China on it's doorstep. What's Australia got? New Zealand, 5.2 million people, plus maybe New Guinea. Indonesia has lots of people, but a flight to Hong Kong is about 2 hours less than a flight to Sydney, so if they were just going for Disneyland, then I doubt many would choose Aus.
Thank you Wollongong City Council.
@@pertang630 it was perfectly located, name one that could/can park its cruise liner there? 1 hour or so from syd and all the land they could need with nobody living nearby. And the new airport will make it just as easy to come to the gong. Wollongong is beautiful lived here my whole life, my family is from here for almost 100 years! not sure what's not nice about it? And a Climate that can be open all year around! Not to mention a Train line that goes right there also! One of the Best Uni's in the world too! Amazing beaches surf breaks, fishing, rainforests right under the GDR and the Largest Buddhist temple in SH also one of the largest Hindu temples! etc.(A mostly Catholic/Christian country that appeals to the largest tourist groups that come here, China India GB USA and NZ of course) Tell me again what's not to like? Not to mention the land was affordable!
According to you Gold coast wouldn't exist! ITs one of the main reasons people go there fun park and beaches, why else would you go to SP?! Sydney has more visitors than SP! 5x more! and that's just for a bridge and Opera house mainly. Not to mention or forget the Massive amount of cruise liners, some of which already come to Port Kembla when the SYd docks are Full with Ships. Hotels No problems they are 1 hour from Sydney! As i said there are Highways all the way here and a train line that goes directly to Port Kembla its own line!(could literally make a Disney train)
HK Disney has been there since i went as a kid, and its still there. Like most franchises not all make as much as the others and they are about the brand, Having None in Aus or the southern hemisphere is sill and would be a Draw card! Melb is to cold, and GC to many, we have jamberoo recreation park. I've been to most of them(Disney lands), so you think they are all the same? You scale it to the population(HK isn't as big as Anaheim for eg), 15mill tourist in syd a year is a easy chunk of money considering they are coming here to see things that do nothing and add no enjoyment or fun to a trip( especially if they have kids). You clearly have never travelled. You think people wont go on a train for 1 hour or so to a Disney fun park! ITs like 1 hour from SP/GC to the fun parks!(not sea world) But they will got to Katoomba to see the three sisters or a Zoo or look at a bridge(Bridge walk is boring AF)! or an opera house that you can do nothing in ! Yes Sydney / Wollongong should have built it there! Train ride down is great also, especially a s a tourist!! people come to see the cliff bridge even! RB did a video there, and its just a bridge!
Also all those places would come here as its a real pain to travel to the other side of the world. we have people that would rather come here than go to Disney China! People come to pat a kangaroo let alone go to an Aussie Disney! Man according to you nothing would exist no Taronga Zoo or Aquarium etc as you think we couldn't pull the people.... Smh Go Syd and walk around and its full of Tourists with nothing to do, they just wandering about looking at DH etc maybe go up the tower! WooHOO! love that 15 mill tourists with nothing for kids and families to do different than things they can likely do in their own countries already come here. They aint coming for the shopping! Probably 1/2 the reason we don't get more, NSW needs more fun! And you cant afford to build north or west(hence why wonderland died land was worth more), south is the only option.
You love maths, lets say 10 % of that come to DL adult average spend is like 300(with food) US family at least double(Likely way more!) so 1.5mil x $600 (minimum spending) = 900mil USD!!! assuming 10% of those tourists went to the park. i reckon they could make that work... That's not including Aussies or merchandise... There isn't enough Aboriginal caves etc to pull those numbers, they aint here for shopping, and we don't have castles or old towns. WE are a modern country and should have more fun parks.
That would have crushed Jambaroo Action Park, i think that had something to do with the decision making.
It's just the numbers. The population of Australia is barely larger than Florida and Orlando International Airport alone moves 2x the Australian population.
Texas is quite similar to Australia in that it support only 3 regional and somewhat seasonal parks.
But wouldn’t a huge park generate tourism revenue?
@@al3xskng854 Just being realistic but it is purely the distance for a lot of people. If I Wanted to go to a Disney park for for example being in the UK I have at least 2 options with 1 of them 2-3 hours away and another about 9, and that is discounting the west coast and the Asian parks at around 12-13. For bigger thrill rides I have Energylandia, Phantasialand etc just a few hours a way too. So other than the weather in Australia, which comes in hot and hotter and also the other tourist traps there is little reason to travel combined over 24 hours for a theme park unless it can really offer something none of the others closer can.
@@funkydino Being realistic nobody is travelling just for a theme park, however it would generate more interest for tourists to see and experience.
@@al3xskng854 We have Gold Coast for this.
my entire life has been moved around because of how "tourism" wreaks local industry becasue the only tourists are from Mumbai and shanghai
Great video! I remember as a kid that going to the Gold Coast for the theme parks was the dream. I haven't gone back since I was young, so my memories of the parks are definitely rose-tinted haha.
Real estate is so utterly inflated it is just too expensive for a new theme park to break ground. The existing theme parks owned the land back before it became a problem.
As was said in the video - theme parks have a long and sad history in Australia, just to name a few, Old Sydney Town, African Lion Park and Bullen’s Animal Would are only a few around Sydney and there were many, many more and they all have the same problem.
Theme park start off well in Australia with plenty of people visiting them then people stop coming and costs start to rise, then the owners are hit with upgrades that are imposed on them and with easy money in real estate, the parks close and sold.
I don’t think it’s a simple as saying it’s just investment or location. I think the problem is also getting new people to a theme parks and this is not so easy in Australia.
There will be a massive new park like Disney but better in qld,and money isn't an issue.
@@anthonyj7989when people have more money they will travel if a new big park is like its own destination.
You didn’t mention Funfields north of Melbourne.
Also there is a theme park near Wollongong called Jambaroo Action Park, its about an hour drive outside of Sydney.
Jamberoo.
Dude jambaroo is lame.
@@Kustom2170 you can't compare Jamberoo to Disney World or six flags.
Best thing they have is some taboggins lol
@@SevenCostanza I wasn’t comparing?
@@SevenCostanza Have you been to Jamberoo lately?
There was some talk of putting a Disney park in Fisherman's Bend in Melbourne a couple years ago. It's a large post-industrial area in decline right up next to the CBD and even has port access for potential Cruise ships.
Alternatively there's also Docklands, which Costco is giving up on, leaving a large plot of land vacant. Adding up the area of Costco, the ferris wheel no-one's ever been on and some adjacent vacant land you end up with ~55000 square meters which would be tight for a park but very well located. The government and council have also been desperate to invent a reason to go to Docklands for decades and would be cooperative.
The Victorian Government under Steve Bracks fucked that up permanently back in 2000/2001 by screwing up the Paramount Pictures deal. We could have had a Paramount Studios park with their film franchises providing the theming. It was ready to go build only for Bracks to screw it up.
Best shot at a major theme park in Victoria is try and get Village Roadshow to build a park down here somewhere. Give the local operators a shot instead of dreaming of Disney or Universal. And don’t let the Labor party and Werribee residents ruin that for everyone again!
i went of the wheel, once.
Both Docklands and Fishermans Bend ( which has a lot of building) are on swamplands, which may be a financial disincentive.
I feel quite fortunate that here in Perth we have Adventure World. Its not too big, but it's enough for everyone to enjoy!
They made it just for fun
Adventure World is average at best. I'd rather take a hike in the hills or relax at the beach.
but it is seasonal and a shell of what it used to be. Plus it's not big in that you can't stay there. In fact, it would be hard to get to as a tourist unless you had a car, as you would need to get a train and a bus from the city
@@thevannmann not everything has to be an argument dawg
I'm sad that we only have adventure world in Perth. I just wanna go on more rides 😥
As kids in the 1970s we used to go to the Gold Coast every year, long before the advent of the theme parks. There was a sort of water-skiing park with choreography, but it was pretty dull. We were just content with the beaches. Incredible how much it's change in those 50 years.
I spent my 10th birthday on the Gold Coast in 1966 it wasnt really much of a city it was as the video suggested small towns strung along a stretch of idylic coastline the centre being Surfers Paradise. The attractions I remember in Surfers were the meter maids, slot car racing tracks, trampoline parks, the neon signs at night and going to hotels at lunchtime that had a swimming pool so the kids could swim while the parents enjoyed a cold beveridge. I recall a small amusement park with a chairlift on the road to Burleigh Heads, there was the Currumbin bird sanctuary, the Burleigh Heads nature walk, Sea World was in Coolangatta and it wasnt a theme park more a dolphin show, There was also Giltraps Auto Museum which was a must visit for kids. The mornings were spent lazing on beaches like Burleigh Heads where they had daily live entertainment in the rotunda followed by the obligatory counter lunch at a local pub and a visit to an attraction or the hinterland in the afternoon. We also took our kids up there most years when they were growing up so we also watched as the place developed. To tell you truth I preferred the Gold Coast how it was back then rather than what it has become but I guess thats progress and you could say the same thing about a lot of places in Australia. As retired grey nomads we spend around 6 months a year travelling this country with our caravan the South East of Queensland is an area that we tend to bypass due to the over crowding and the inflated cost of staying there.. If they want to build a big name theme park in order to attract more foreigners keep it in that area it cant get anymore in your face than what it is today.
@@Davo-i1s Gosh, that brings back a few more memories. I do recall now Giltraps Auto Museum. Not really my thing, but my Dad loved it. And the chairlift too. My brother and sister and I used to think it was so exciting, and so high! I remember driving past that spot about 15 years ago - the chairlift had long since gone and there didn't even seem to be any appreciable hill! But you're right: there was a lot of charm in the earlier simplicity of the Gold Coast. My fondest memories are of picnics at Burleigh on the banks of Tallebudgera Creek: walking through the bush, mucking about in the water and so on. The 'good old days' when the parents could sit and read and the kids could be allowed to wander off for hours, with nobody getting concerned.
@@robertthomson1587 When my old dad passed a few years ago he still had a photo from 1966 of him with my younger sister and myself on that chairlift my mum had taken it as we were comiing back down from the top. Great memories of those days but like all things they tend to fade over time then suddenly something will trigger a memory just like it did with you about Giltraps. Yeah I would have concerns leaving small kids to wander off for hours by themselves today especially where we used to wander when we were 10 years old like that Cavill Avenue and main beach area of Surfers...
Perth had some amazing theme parks back in the day but investors who owned the major parks in the gold cost bought them up to close them to force tourists to go to the gold coast instead of perth. They have sat on the land for over 30 years and havs only recenlty started developing
Melbourne also has Funfields out in Whittlesea, which is technically in the greater Melbourne area but on the outskirts, and while it is definitely a waterpark, it much smaller than those in the Goldcoast. But either way, it's still a theme park and it was bigger than gumbuya world for a while and is one of the bigger theme parks in Melbourne! Just thought I'd add that as someone who used to leave really close to it and loved spending summers there with mates when I was at school :)
I feel like most of these questions “why doesn’t Australia have X” can be summed up with how we are a massive country with a small population. The closest country we are similar to is Canada with a large area and smaller population but they have the US at the doorstep so even that’s wildly different. Geographically there is no country like Australia so it’s impossible to compare with others
Growing up in Brisbane was cool cause we would go to the theme parks for nearly every birthday and we had a yearly Christmas party at wet ‘n’ wild.
G'day from NSW. We live in the outer Western Suburbs.🙂 A very interesting video, thanks for sharing.👍 We had Wonderland back in the day. But has sinced closed down. And thanks to this video, I now understand way. There's Luna Park in Sydney. An hour train ride in for us. But my all time favourite was Old Sydney Town. I was a 70's child. I loved Old Sydney Town.😊 But unfortunately it has sinced closed down. But, it wasn't a ride theme park though. It was a historical look into early Australian history. We're Aussie's of Irish ancestry.💚 Our ancestor's origin history to here was the Forced Transportations (bringing of the Convicts) and the later Forced Evictions of Ireland (coming of the free Irish settlers). Convicts were Irish, English, Scottish, children and adults 1788-1868. I felt my Irish ancestor's history was represented in Old Sydney Town. As a child, I enjoyed Old Sydney Town the best.💙
Jamberoo action park just south of Wollongong. Probably half its visitors are from Sydney!
It's cold for a water park.
There is a theme park in Sydney, It was a Wet'n'wild but it's now called Raging Waters.
Yea was sole because it's failing
@@SevenCostanzaCOVID 🤦🏽♂️
@@Kustom2170 yea oops they forgot to mention ☝🏽
@@SevenCostanza you must live under a rock
This was mentioned, Jambaroo near Wollongong was missed.
Don't forget lack of good public transport outside of metro areas. Melbourne and Sydney have a great train network with decent speed and a good spread of station, but once you exit the metro area things change. Theoretically you could place a park around 80-100 km from Melbourne's CBD where the land is cheap and get there by train in less than 30 minutes, but we currently don't have the infrastructure for that.
There’s no good public transport to the Gold Coast theme parks, or at least there wasn’t. They really hit critical mass though. And they just bus tourists in from both Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
@@peter65zzfdfhThe trains run to Coomera fairly often, but you're right the buses are still required.
@@Ggdivhjkjl Its about a 25 min walk to Dreamworld from Coomera Station but would not recommend the walk on a hot day
Forgot to mention Sega World Sydney, that was right the middle of old Darling Harbour entertainment precinct at Tumbalong Park.
Also in Melbourne we have the (pretty small) funfeilds water park out in whittlesea which as well as waterslides has some pretty cool rides
I wish Adelaide had a theme park. Even a small one like Gumbuya world would be so good.
I still remember in my youth when we had Magic Mountain before the Beach House. It was awesome!
Adelaide still had the Royal Adelaide Show.
@ Not the same. Has to be a permanent all-year theme park.
Magic Mountain rocked back in the day.
This might sound like a pipe dream, but considering how successful Bluey has been and the popularity it has given Queensland as a tourist destination, I'm hoping this will encourage Disney to build a smaller scaled Disneyland somewhere in the state.
Hi from Sydney and thank-you for the video. Approaching 50 years of age, I remember Sydney's Wonderland. I have a faint sense of nostalgia for it. What I really miss though is the roller skating rink we had in a neighbouring suburb. Unlike a theme park.. let alone a major one.. roller skating was so much more community friendly. In fact the smallness is what gave them their charm. Had a "training rink" for little ones, air hockey, pool tables.. An announcer could announce "couples only" and play love songs, ladies only, men only... hot food, vending machines, drinks, slushies. It was just a great setup for socialising.
Thats like Las Vegas, the biggest casino state in the world. Why doesn't New York have that? The Gold Coast is the theme park city of Australia, it is what it is 🤷🏽♂️
I could see Universal opening a smaller regional "park experience" on the Gold Coast, like the Halloween Horror Nights space going in in Vegas. Disney will never take the leap though, Australian wages are too high and they wouldn't do it without building a full park. Even strong brands with lots of cash struggle at the best of times/locations. I visited Sega World during its brief heyday, we all know how that went.
Disney could make a small Disney park in Australia, but land location would need to be perfect and the only spot I think Disney would do is the land that Melbourne port sits on as it right next to Melbourne CBD and is over 800 acres of land and any ride they build would have to be the cheaper ones to build/operate
@@nexts9500dude, Paramount Pictures had such a horrific experience with the Victorian Labor Party being so pigheadedly moronic, that the dream of a Theme park in that exact location is permanently screwed as long as the idiotic party that fucked up the first time around is in power. No theme park operator reading about how Labor put both Paramount Pictures and Village Roadshow(Werribee Zoo should have just been sold to them!) through absolute hell, would ever want to build anything here whilst that exact same idiotic party has a stranglehold on the state.
Like they wouldn't be able to get away with underpaying cast members here??
13:33
This park was located on Springvale Road in Melbourne Australia in the suburb of Forest Hill where it was on the site of the current Forest Hill Police Station. The castle you can see in this shot remained after the park closed and was reopened as a garden centre business before closing around a year before the police station was opened in 2016. The garden centre most likely originally opened a few years after the park closed.
@@Techno-Universal And it inspired the DGen to do "Piss weak World"....
Fascinating stuff. Well put together mini documentary. I’d be a bit concerned if the growth of Sydney went out to the east 😂
Maybe the fact that Dreamworld had its own final destination mini series
What happened to Wonderland is so sad 😔
The reason is that all large theme parks fail in NSW, and wouldn't put it anywhere near Sydney.
Quite frankly, we lack the population density that makes theme parks profitable.
Previous theme parks have failed and there are other things to do that are free to enjoy with family or friends -Sydney is one of the few cities to have a number of national parks inside the metropolitan area all with free entry, beaches hiking nature and free barbecue's etc. And Sydney is too cold to have year round theme parks - plus there are the them parks in Queensland plenty there
“Too cold to have year round theme parks”. Absolute bullshit, you had a year round theme park that lasted for generations! Wonderland!
The government screwed that up on you all by refusing to help when they were in trouble!
Who remembers Fantasy Glades?
I'll probably get flamed big time, but I feel that Australia itself is a theme park. A natural theme park. Our low population, and vast geography, means there are plenty of natural areas to enjoy yourself, from family friendly short hikes, to more extreme levels of fun, such as canyoning, for example. Plus, unlike many built theme parks, incl those on the GC, they are not horribly tacky and overpriced.
I think you make fair points there. 🙂
Least Australia have other things to counter things, but good for Gold Coast to exist as well for your theme park fix…
1 abandoned because no one goes there anymore and 2 lots of people die because of the rides unstable to ride on
Doesn't Sydney have a Wet & Wild out west, or did it close down too?
Another part of the equation. Australians get 4 weeks holiday per year. plenty of time for us to get to other parts of the world, see the sights and come home. So even if it is only south Asia, Australians see other parts or the world.
Americans only get a couple of weeks, not enough time to travel, and so their holidays are spent in their own country.
I think if you look at the numbers, more Australians have a passport than the Americans do
@@peterbumper2769 Yep - only about 10% of Americans have passports
@@Reluctant_J Did not think it was that low
Yes the US is a very insular country.
55% of Australian have a passport and 40% of Americans have one. A large number of Australian who have travelled internationally and have a passport are immigrants who have moved here. Australians born in Australia, definitely are not internationally exposed as a whole and their outlook of the world is insular and limited to stereotypes. 14% of the Australian population live below the poverty line. Travelling internationally is something that’s far beyond what a huge proportion of the population could afford.
@@Reluctant_J40% of Americans have passports.
2 years ago I took the family to Movie World as part of our Holiday outing. We payed full price to enter the park only to find out the only popular rides that were working was the Flume Ride. The Joker, Batman, Scooby Doo and Superman were down that day. What a rip off. I''d rather save my money and take the family to Disneyland.
I’ve definitely taken for granted all the big theme parks being so close to Brisbane where I’ve lived my entire life because I saw the title of this video and thought “what do you mean we have plenty of big theme parks???” 😅
Suddenly feeling very grateful to live so close to the theme parks on the gold coast
There is a photo of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings riding the rollercoaster at Luna Park in St Kilda in between sets. I wish I still had the laminated copy of it.
Was almost a zombie/Tiki themed theme park in Perth but due to objections to residents it did not get up. The people spent $1million on the bar fitout to the LUWOW in Fitzroy though.
I think you are shortselling the potential in the perth market.
WA reached a population of 3 million last week and this is showing no sign of stopping. Most of this growth centred in Perth. Perth has around the same amount of tourists, some figures stating more than the gold coast. Perth had the land to spare and there is enough things to do to attract all sorts of people here but not enough that a large scale theme park wont be one of if not the most popular tourist destination in the city.
But most Perth folk won't drive more than 20 minutes to visit anywhere so where would you put it?
@Ggdivhjkjl where did you get that from. People drive from Bunbury to optus stadium for footy
Yeah it's not easy for Australia. But there are other factors as well like considering that the majority of the major cities are on the coast. We don't have any major inland cities that could help with placing theme parks in-between them like the USA does.
Which is why the Gold Coast is more successful, it is close to two major popular locations, Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. 2 hours drive at most can make it easy for tourist to get there as well and enjoy a popular distention when not at the parks.
Also another factor is weather. The Gold Coast being mostly warm almost all year around makes it ideal for theme parks to still gain popularity.
What about a theme park in a shopping centre (mall), like Nickelodeon Universe in the Mall of America in Minnesota and in American Dream Mall in New Jersey?
That has a MUCH smaller footprint in a multi-use development with shops, big chain stores, restaurants, community facilities, office space, cinemas, indoor sports facilities, accommodation and residential.
I actually suggested that to the developers of the old Toombul Shopping Centre site in Brisbane.
Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne is the only one big enough to accommodate a theme park and the local residents had to be fun killers refusing to go full Mall Of America style for decades on end. At least they have a small Legoland Discovery Centre now, but it’s not enough!
Topps in the Myer centre Brisbane was a thing in the 90's. There's videos here on TH-cam
@@voltare2amstereo I was just thinking of that. I went to it once or twice, and it seemed more of a novelty than anything else.
If you want that attraction to be Annual Flood World - Toombul is at least very close to the international airport however only serviced by one terrible bus route from the DFO and not from airport directly. They'd have to do a huge amount of land management and flood mitigation and traffic engineering and the bus station there would also need a huge upgrade
@@sweetprimrose I live on the south side of Brisbane and have recently been working on the north side, sometimes getting a bus at Toombul where I've seen where used to be the shopping centre. Where did the water (apart from, obviously, the sky) that destroyed the place come from?
Sydneysider here.
Best theme park in Australia: Jamberoo.
Best location for a new one, west of Werribee with a direct rail. Disneyland Australia. Make it happen.
Jamberoo is awesome!
Hi from Perth - what about Adventure world??? No mention of it at all.
Great video! Though I somewhat disagree that Melbourne is underserved by theme parks. The city currently has 3 well attended theme parks (Luna Park, Gumbuya World and Funfields) as well as Legoland Discovery Center (which includes an interactive dark ride and a number of other attractions). Plus, just over an hour away is Adventure Park in Geelong. Funfields in particular is worth noting because the park has continued to expand and open new attractions every year (often with decent theming too) and I’ve heard various whispers and rumors that they’ll be getting a major coaster within the next couple of years. The rivalry between Funfields and Gumbuya World will be interesting to watch and I expect both parks will grow quite substantially and become major attractions over the next decade if this trend of constant investment continues.
Melbourne is completely underserved by theme parks, and it sucks cos I moved here from Europe after living in North America. None of the 3 parks are proper theme parks - Luna Park definitely isn’t, and the themes at Gumbaya are not what I’d call themes. These parks also mostly cater to families with young kids. Of all these parks, there’s only 1 semi-intense coaster (Project zero). The rest is for kids.
@@Dservoz I’d personally consider Gumbuya to be a proper theme park, it’s just that it’s relatively new and is still finding its identity and building itself up (same goes for Funfields too). The fact that they went to the effort of creating a full backstory, theming elements, custom audio and adding smoke and lighting effects around their new coasters indicate that the park is taking theming and immersion into consideration and shows promise for the future. Plus, Gumbuya has the Rebel, which is one of the most intense flat rides I’ve ever been on anywhere, so the park is clearly starting to cater to the thrill market and not just families and young kids. While it’s true that these parks are nothing like those in Europe and the US, they have lots of potential and I still appreciate them for what they are (they’re definitely better than having no theme parks in Melbourne at all). They’ll almost certainly become much bigger and better in the years to come.
They're all pathetic bro
I can see gumbaya world killing it if they got their advertising game on point after somehow building a few amazing indoor coasters. Then again, it’s pretty far out from Melbourne so that would be an insane risk that probably wouldn’t pay off at all…
The wooden rollercoaster shown in Part 2 at Sydney's Luna Park was initially constructed in the seaside suburb of Glenelg in Adelaide, South Australia. My late father told me it was related when he was a teenager and, just before WWII, was one of the key protest organisers. Unfortunately, their protests were unsuccessful.
I'm not sure where this would fit in the narrative of your video but I think it's worth mentioning, Sydney's royal Easter show is as close to being a "themed" theme park as possible with pretty decent success, I would say the success has largely been the result of the limited time of when it's on which is during Easter.
There's definitely some temporary rides and activities for people but unfortunately it's not permanent, and I don't think it's well known enough for people around Australia to travel to it, but definitely locals love to go every year. I almost think if a permanent theme park was to be built anywhere in Sydney, it would be Olympic Park. There's plenty of land and it's already set up to be an entertainment space with Accor stadium, Qodos bank arena and a few hotels for people to stay there to go to music or sports events. It'll be cool if a theme park was built there for those travelling for those events. Otherwise there's actually not much to do in the area either than go to walk around a park or have a bite to eat.
Western Sydney Airport could probably support a theme part, will be a major tourism in-point anyway, even though its outside the city
I’m glad we don’t have lots of theme parks in Australia! Generally overpriced, tacky, inappropriate. Much better things to do with leisure time l reckon.
You don't have to go you know.
You're one of those people that doesn't want anyone else to have something cuz you don't like it
Very true, but still don’t like them, just my POV.
Why there fun lol
@@kerronwalker1589Probably for the reasons she listed 🙄
If either Disney or universal comes to Australia it'll more than likely takeover dreamworld in my opinion (probably as a rebranding) but then again warner bros is trying to expand movie world with an onsite hotel sorta like SeaWorld. Great video by the way.
I live in Coomera and Developers have ruined a golden opportunity to allow for a city walk like precinct and new entry to the park.
No way Disney does that
Great video..the compensation for lack of big Aussie theme parks is the fact that you live in Australia!
I honestly think perth has such a large land mass open to build theme parks and expansions to adventure word that with the rising tourism perth is seeing and once the word is out that we have the best beaches in all of aus. Pretty easy to see potential to have another gold coast on the west coast. Once built up it would have a similar effect that gold coast has
Bob Jane owns so much land 30 minutes from Melbourne on the Calder Hwy. He wanted a Theme Park near Calder Raceway.
Maybe you could look into why his Venture never took off, I heard council denied his plans.
Long story short: Australia more has giant playgrounds rather than theme parks
Probably the biggest thing iv noticed in Queensland / Brisbane is the Not in my backyard syndrome being they wand and need it butt will not except it on fear it disrupt a person zen being noisy or creating more traffic or removing native habitats. In saying that there is still large areas within grater Brisbane such as Boondal environment centre that’s suggesting to get relocated to a city location or areas around Belmont as well as large queries in are that are at end of their life span that will be rejuvenated.
I think the town shows that bring the rides to the towns reduce the demand for fixed installations a lot. Then there is also the current WHS laws that make it prohibitively expensive to get started on anything not grandfathered in
Town shows (or State Fairs in the USA) are really valuable and important. These events are the only way anyone under 18 can experience a theme park feel and buzz going by themselves or with their friends rhwir own age. And I guess people under 18 get used to visiting State Fairs too. All the Gold Coast can do here is when they are 18 and older, they might want to visit the Gold Coadt for a holiday. But real observations show that a lot of 18-21 year olds still visit State Fairs. The answer could be making the Gold Coast theme parks exciting for 18-21 year olds and not just for 9-12 year olds. Imagine a Game of Thrones ride being on the Gold Coast!
Apparently they’re planning a Disneyland to be built in Melbourne! They were looking at land in Werribee, south Yarra, Cranbourne & Frankston
I feel in Australia, we just have to be patience. Look at Jamberoo, it’s very slowly grown with the locals and the locals (as in all of Wollongong and south Sydney) treat it as a peak destination. Wollongong has continued to grow and is an growing appealing tourist spot (good views, good foods, good beaches). Jamberoos been around for a long time and I reckon it hasn’t even started to peak yet.
I’m surprised you haven’t mentioned the potential of Aussie world at the Sunshine Coast. It’s small at the moment but has some larger rides with room to explore. Its location would be good as it’s also along the highway like the Gold Coast attractions. I remember going on my first rollercoaster there; the Wild Mouse roller coaster, sadly no longer there..
I think Queensland also fills the need for ride entertainment with the regular fairs we have. They are primarily smaller rides and no roller coasters but it does fill that missing space for parks.
Adelaidians hearing "Sydney ONLY has (x)", "Melbourne ONLY has (x)" and "Queensland ONLY has (x), (y) and (z)"
🤡
There's a waterslide at Glenelg isn't there?
They have a small and spread out population and they are very isolated from the rest of the world. I think a more interesting question should be, why there aren’t more Disney or universal parks in Europe as the continent has 750 million people and a high standard of living.
That is an interesting question! I could maybe do a video on it in the future.
My audience is largely Australian, as am I, so discussing the issues there are important to me, but I agree, Europe is a largely untapped market for those big amusement operators
@ ahhh right!
@@MaloneysCoasters We’re only getting our second of the Big Operators in Europe with Universal Great Britain (better name than choice than Universal Bedford, unlikely to attract tourists).
I don’t think disney/universal see the need for more then 1 resort. Disney already have Disneyland Paris, which covers France, the uk, Spain, Germany and Italy. It’s not really worth it to build a park in Europe outside of those countries for a massive company like Disney. And same for universal with the (hopefully) upcoming uk park. Although the UK is obviously a bit further away so maybe a small park for one of the countries I mentioned earlier?
@ that doesn’t make a lot of sense. How does building a park in France cover Germany, Italy Spain and the UK? lol. Also the UK/London is literally only an hour away from France. Spain, UK, France and Italy are some of the most visited countries on the planet with over 700 million international tourist arrivals in 2023.
Back in the 1970’s, Australia had dedicated theme parks (ie LunaPark, etc), mom and pop smaller theme parks and the long established country and metropolitan shows (called State Fairs in the USA). But since then almost all of the mom and pop parks have closed down. And I am convinced that was left made secret and under the table agreements so that the dedicated theme parks and the metropolitan shows would never compete against each other. I live in Adelaide and our only theme park, the Royal Adelaide Show, gets about 2/3 of its paying people from local people under 18 who have not f yet finished high school. This is a market the Gold Coast can never go for due to child protection laws. If you live in Adelaide and want to go to a real theme path by yourself, you need to be 18 and older and finished high school or go as part of a family trip. Same goes for the Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart shows as well. Maybe exposing the theme park / metropolitan show sector to real competition laws for once might help here. Imagine any 16 and 17 year olds from anywhere in Australia being able to go to the Gold Coast theme parks by themselves with no parent’s permission needed would really shake up this sector.
And to add. The Royal Adelaide Show bans any promotion of the Gold Coast in any way. In 2001, an Adelaide radio station was booted from the show due to them promoting Queensland and the Gold Coast. So the idea of secret and under the table agreements do have some validity. I also think the venue for the show, the Wayville Showgrounds could make for a really good medium sized full time theme park some day.
In Melbourne, we keep seeing ‘theme parks’ being mentioned by the ‘Herald Sun’ and other media channels for Dingley and Langwarrin (or surrounds).
They’ve been talking about some water park in Dingley for an age, not sure if it’s actually a thing or not.
I have no idea how big a proper theme park needs to be but even if you tried Werribee or Geelong, the property would be too valuable to home developers rather than theme park developers. I don’t think they could justify it, especially with our shoddy public transport system.
Ironically, a theme park COULD be good for people who have a 2-3 day stop over for a cruise, but - cruises are likely going to be less frequent to Melbourne given the ridiculous port docking charges at Port Melbourne.
I do miss Wonderland in Sydney :(
I feel somewhere like dreamworld could potentially expand to be a disney/universal style themepark (obviously not to the same scale but similar in a way), and movie world has the POI's to do more area's (Like the new Wizard of OZ area) so we could see these two parks expand in the future potentially in my opinion
I want to design a rollercoaster at Movie world inspired by ACDC as runway locomotive exploding out of a Gatlin coaster. Looking similar to Incredible Hulk, Rock N Rollercoaster and Space mountain from Disneyland Paris. The track would be compact like the Similer at Alton Tower (UK) and feature the single greatest launching system of all time a synchronised induction track to Angus Young's lead to the top hits of the band. Each launch would produce smoke like a gun going off and the canon would have gears and pistons going crazy like you're inside a combustion energy which is about to explode.
To tell you the truth, Australia and Australians love their water parks more than theme park. And that's because our geography makes it that its hot & dry most of the time. So, it makes sense to put them water parks here
I can see a large theme park opening in Brisbane. Got the tourism draws of both the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, Moreton Bay Islands such as Moreton and North Stradbroke, Fraser Island isn't ridiculously far. The South East Queensland area is the fastest growing region of Australia, growing so fast it's put QLD in a housing crisis. The 2032 olympics is coming which is going to draw tourists from every single country of the world (except North Korea) to Brisbane. I reckon if the Indooroopilly golf club was to close, that is your spot or the Hamilton Urban renewal.
People also flock from NSW/VIC/TAS/SA in the winter months to QLD, where winter basically doesn't exist.
I think at this point there is nowhere in Australia that you could open a new theme park (either smaller like Movie World/Dreamworld or larger like Disneyland or Universal Orlando or Six Flags Magic Mountain or Ceder Point). Even the Gold Coast wouldn't be viable to build a NEW theme park on. There isn't really any large enough parcels of suitable land left suitable to put one on (and what land there is has become just as expensive as Sydney or Melbourne). And any new player (even one as large as, say, Disney) would find it difficult to compete with the established parks.
Dreamworld is actually on the Sunshine Coast, North of Brisbane (about an 1.5 hrs drive).
@@eyiapandora3933 Troll. Dreamworld is in Coomera.
No, it's south of Brisbane
4:12 i have been to this exact hotel twice, amazing place tbh.
Every major Theme/Amusement park in the world have a population base of 20 million within 4 hours drive. In this context no Australian City qualify.
The 20 million base population accounts for break even operations and the tourist from 4 hours or more away is the icing on the cake.
Good video! Now that you point it out it makes me appreciate Brisbane a bit more, sure we are full of bogans and we arent cool like Melbourne or Sydney but at least we have cool storms and access to rollercoasters haha.
Melbourne - Luna Park and Gumbuya World. We got theme parks. Those are just 2 examples
@thereiglol luna park is more a carnival vibe but i gotta check out gumbuya world next time i visit melb
@@thereiglol Melbourne has Funfields and Adventure Park too!
@@goldcoastparkaudio8034 exactly
If Sydney and Melbourne were actually cool we wouldn’t have the mass migration from those cities up to Queensland. Buggers need to go home.
Outer Western Melbourne. Avalon area. Between Melbourne and Geelong. The airport there needs expanding. It already hosts the bi Anual Airshow. It looks to be a major groth corridor.
Located between 2 big cities , it could be a great place for something big on a theme park level.
I live in like a syndey junior area that could probably sustain a gumbuya world clone, it already has an expansive waterpark that seems to be very profitable
It's not complicated...population is the answer.
It's the economy Australia can't afford and the land is too high for theme parks. They prefer to build shopping centres, suburbs and towers.
In Sydney, I reckon they should build a Mega-park at Point Piper.
Isn't that mostly residential? If it wasn't, I would think that was a good idea
I enjoyed Movie World much more than Disneyland. 90% of the time at Disney is spent in a queue. It takes about an hour in the queue just to get some lunch. You get to go on about 6-8 attractions in a 12 hour day.
There is Aussie world on the sunshine coast thats been there for sometime now I think another theme park could be put on the sunshine coast but you’d have to get it past the locals first
I beg to differ about Adelaide. Adelaide could offer something the east coast simply cannot, it is able to offer something people come to Australia for, that is easy access to the outlook people from overseas want to experience. You can travel 4hrs from Adelaide and be in the flinders ranges seeing the wild life, being in the red dirt, experiencing the vast open lands. I think Disney could setup something rather magical in SA offering experiences the others couldn’t and make Disney Down Under (they can pay me royalties for that!) more that just the theme park. I would picture it being built north of Adelaide and that would also open up the wine region of the Barossa and Clare Valley’s which they could easily have day tours to meaning they not only have the park generating income they can have income from tours. I am not saying the others couldn’t but SA is a forgotten place which can offer a lot, it is also very central so it can capture the east and west coast travellers, it isn’t much further for international travellers. But Adelaide is Adelaide and it will get overlooked/discounted as it isn’t Sydney or Melbourne.
While not large, there are 2nother theme parks in Vic, and a fairly large one just outside of Perth in WA.
What are we defining as major theme parks? Cause the gold coast has 6, then there's the 2 Luna parks in Melbourne and Sydney. Sure they're not Disneyland, but they're not tiny either. Certainly bigger than adventure world Perth and that's a decent size considering the population density
Luna park is not bigger then adventure world in Perth. That's more on par with gumbaya world lol.
Australia`s Wonderland tried and went broke, Elcabalo blanko tried and went broke. The prices needed to charge due and poor transport options lead to a lack of customers reduced patronage even more. Maybe soon after our new Western Sydney Airport starts to function with increased improved transportation it may become viable to reconsider such venues once more.
Sydney isn't "arguably" Australia's most visited city. It IS. It's the most popular destination in the southern hemisphere. It's not something you need to ponder like it's a possibility. It's just a fact. It's like wondering if London is the most visited city in England. It's not debatable. It just is.
The most ideal location for a new theme park in Sydney would be the area around the new Western Sydney Airport, which will see enormous urban development in the next 50 years around the veins of the massive transport project with its own financial district, and Australia's Silicon Valley is also being situated in Western Sydney. The new airport is also designed for the terminals to be expanded and will see another runway built in the near future. But just a theme park by itself would not work. It would need to be its own district. An entire campus of various parks, resorts, and attractions, like Disney World in Orlando with Disneyland, MGM, and EPCOT. Multiple parks catering to different services and themes that depend on each other to form a cohesive whole, like a rollercoaster park, a water park, a technology park, a film studio, a sports institute, a food culture pavilion, a giant greenhouse and so on. It would have to become synonymous with the district of Western Sydney Airport so it's a tourist location in itself and serves the greater community. Basically an iconic landmark of the area to cement its longevity. A destination to visit before your flight home, or before you journey into Sydney Harbour, CBD, the beaches etc.
I have no desire to spend thousands of dollars to go to a theme park, just to be surrounded by massive crowds and spending the vast majority of time in lines - waiting. And then have to do that 3 days in a row to even see most of it. Gold Coast is great. One day at each theme park and it’s a great family holiday with lots of variety.
im a New Zealander, so we only have one rollercoaster in the country and it's pretty bad. The idea of this video is kinda crazy to me as the Gold Coast is the absolute mecha of theme parks to us Kiwis. ive been to most theme parks in Australia and it has always puzzled me why there is no Movie World or dream world in melbs or sydney but then again I feel like the Gold Coast can relate to Florida in the sense that its a theme park destination for tourists foremost. the most recent park in Australia I went to was Adventure World in Perth and I loved abyss but that may be recency bias
A brilliant and well put together video.
australia is a nation as well as a continent!
I don't think it's all about the cost of land in the cities. Fox Studios in Sydney was perfectly situated for tourists, but barely lasted a couple of years due to the high ticket costs with hardly any thrill attractions. In the later part of the video Australia's small population, geography, etc are mentioned, plus it has a high wages system, which probably accounts for Aus park costs being way overpriced compared to elsewhere in the World.
The new Western Sydney airport may help attract a big theme park in the future
I’ve seen TH-cam videos of abandoned theme parks in Russia, US and Europe. Why did they fail if the population is there? Every one has a story.
Hell lot of science i find shocking with falcons flight not oz but ya know what i mean going to be interesting ;) hot weather and metal hmmmm Temperature and humidity have a HUGE effect on how a rollercoaster will run. The usuall affect of temperature is speed variation. Most coasters use a mid point brake run to adjust the speed to that of "NORMAL" operation. But if it is slower than normal, it stays slower. and the train will end up stuck in vally
Yes, hot weather can damage roller coaster tracks:
friction
Friction from the roller coaster's movement turns gravitational and kinetic energy into heat, which doesn't help propel the coaster.
Tire deterioration
Hot weather can cause tires to deteriorate more quickly, which may require more pit stops
I do feel Sydney still has potential, with the newly intergated and increasing Metro system, and the new International airport at Bradfield in the west.
You couldn’t even keep Wonderland open…. Developers read about theme park history before making their decisions you know. Your city couldn’t even sustain Australia’s Wonderland and your government did nothing to save the park when it was in trouble.
Theme park operators KNOW the incompetent NSW government will fuck that up again. Just like Labor fucked up Paramount Pictures and Village Roadshow’s proposed theme parks in Victoria.
You’ll never get a proper theme park with the Labor Party in power. They’re dumb!
@@colliric Why is the NSW Government incompetent ?
As per the Bradfield suggestion, it has possibilities as the planning of this area is extensive and will be self sufficient, therefore keep your rants in Victoria.
Great video!