Village Roadshow expands into Sydney market

The Sydney area looks set to receive its first new theme park by way of a Wet'n'Wild water park due to open in 2013. It will be the first major park in Sydney since Wonderland Sydney's closure in 2004.

The park follows on from the Wet'n'Wild brand's expansion into the US market and the failed Wet'n'Wild Sunshine Coast plans. It is expected that Village Roadshow, owners of the Gold Coast's Sea World, Warner Bros. Movie World and Wet'n'Wild Water World will invest around $80 million in the park that they dub as world-class.

The last new water park in Australia, Ardent Leisure's WhiteWater World that opened adjacent to Dreamworld in 2006, was built at a cost of $56 million on land that was already owned by the theme park operator. That park features a modest arrangement of water attractions. Wet'n'Wild Sydney looks to include a range of modern attractions seen in many water parks including WhiteWater World and the Gold Coast's Wet'n'Wild.

Among the attractions are a wave pool dubbed Australia's largest, racing Master Blaster water coasters, AquaLoop slides, a Tornado, lazy river, octopus racer and plenty of more traditional body, tube and raft slides.

Village Roadshow Theme Parks have high hopes for the park; with CEO Tim Fisher boasting that the park will be one of the top ten water parks in the world. The park is aiming for 900,000 visitors per year initially, with roughly 20 per cent comprised of domestic and international tourists.

"Wet ‘n’ Wild Sydney is a sign of our confidence in Sydney and will be a significant boost for the NSW tourism industry," Mr Fisher said.

Village Roadshows have tried numerous times to expand in Australia outside of the Gold Coast. Most notably was the planned Wet'n'Wild park for the Sunshine Coast, and the highly publicised African Safari World near Melbourne. Neither of these parks proceeded beyond the planning stages.

The Sydney park will be seasonal, operating in the cooler Sydney environment, with a season expected to run from September through April.  This puts the park's expected attendance roughly on par with the Gold Coast's WhiteWater World, albeit with a season that is four months shorter.

The park will be found on a 25 hectare site in Prospect, Western Sydney.