Leaderboard

Full release text It should be noted that this is still a work in progress. More is to come out at Artisan's Park Key points: A station will be built, as well as rails for the trains to once again 'coast' on. It won't be full circuit, but the old girl will roll again (and technically that will make it a shuttle coaster so for all your credit whores out there... ) Artisan's plans to fully restore and refurbish each train carriage (without the assistance of Mack) The iconic front plates bearing the ride logo will be reproduced in loving detail and eventually fixed to the carriages Everyone who has contributed to obtaining, relocating and preserving these trains will be memorialised in a plaque in the future. Artisan's Park isn't a fly by night place. It's been featured on lifestyle TV shows such as Better Homes & Gardens, numerous magazines, music videos, and is frequently used for filming, due to its unique location and wacky items on site (including a 1949 London Double Decker bus!) Whilst websites aren't their greatest asset (it needs a bit of a revamp, but when compared to Village's recent monstrosity, its pretty good) but their Facebook page is where they're focussing their attention. the Wonderland History page recently hit 15,000 members, and it'd be great to push the profile of the Artisan's Park FB page - noted above as well. I realise this isn't everyone's bag. Most of you know how much the park means to me, and i'm sure many others have similar memories. So if you don't care - by all means scroll on by - but for those who do - start making plans to head out to Bathurst!

Top of my head, i don't know the precise location where they were located before they were acquired by the History team, but I believe they were purchased off a guy that ran a 'carnie' business (not intended to be derogatory) like Chant's or Wittingslow or something (not them specifically, but companies like that - the name escapes me). As you can see from my post above though, not every carriage was obtained, as they had previously sold them off one by one. Dom, you're absolutely fine. Apart from a few factual inaccuracies in your video (which we could have helped with) and that you hadn't actually asked to use them - Everyone quite liked what you'd produced. We're not vigilantes, and we don't hold grudges. We're all about everyone's love for the park - and wouldn't deny anyone wanting to visit. you're welcome anytime... join us for a beer, hey?

Make sure you let Channel 7 know so they can send the chopper over from DW....

To add to this - the 'construction' pic Yoshi posted above was taken back in December, before this thread was started - details weren't announced as artisan's wasn't ready - but now we have the info, i can share some other pictures, and some other info too: So - a few more 'construction' or 'onsite pics - in the first one you can see the bottom part of the 'vulture' sculpture i referred to above: Something else the History team are looking into is whether the Operator's control panel can be replicated, and perhaps even a simple PLC system in behind it to simulate the ride actually running. It's also been suggested perhaps this could be tied into a ride simulator game - similar to the ones hosted by themagical.nl. Old blueprints and photos have been scoured over, and even suppliers sourced for the right buttons, lights and indicators: If there are any old operators who remember the functions well ( @Bussy i'm looking at you) please drop me a PM if you can give a good description of each indicator, light, button and sensor. I know a lot of them, but not all... and it would be good to get a full time trained operator's description of what was there... As for how much of the trains are there (per Yoshi's post about how many carriages) - here's the full list: The Bush Beast Red Train Carriage A1 (FRONT) Carriage A2 Carriage A3 Carriage A5 Carriage A7 (REAR) The Bush Beast Yellow Train Carriage B11 Carriage B12 Carriage B14 (REAR) The Beastie dark blue train Carriage A1 (FRONT) Carriage A2 Carriage A4 The Beastie light blue train Carriage B6 (FRONT) Carriage B8 Carriage B9 Carriage B10 (REAR) We are missing Bush Beast carriages A4, A6, B8, B9, B10, B13 and Beastie carriages A3, A5 and B7.

Back onto the TRR speculation - in particular this 'sensor' thing. (cue a Roachie groan) - Wonderland's Snowy River had an "invisible beam" infra-red sensor, like we see on many water rides, mounted at the top of the conveyor. There were more IR sensors placed throughout the loading zones. The PLC wouldn't allow the conveyor to lower the next raft if the zone immediately after it was occupied, like any block system (Although Wonderland's conveyor reached it's peak and then lowered back down into the water on a slope, rather than allowing the raft to tip off it). I'd always been of the opinion that there was a sensor at the top of the TRR conveyor that wasn't functioning properly - however it is possible to alter the PLC (or fool the sensor) if it is malfunctioning. Judging by some of the things said above, it seems like this may not have been the case - that there wasn't a sensor there at all. For my own uneducated opinion, the slats certainly contributed, but the slats don't cause this issue on their own without several other factors. The 'inexperienced' staff member cited by media immediately following the incident isn't portrayed clearly, and while i don't know all the facts, what i believe was that the cast member was not responsible for a panel - they were more of a loader\unloaded role - but that they had completed the required training for the task they were undertaking. And for me, regardless of the placement of the e-stop for the cast member closest enough to witness this occurring, by the time you would notice the raft rising beyond normal, the time it would take you to hit the e-stop, it might as well have been located at tiger island. the raft would have tilted beyond recovery point before any stop could be engaged. This is why sensors and PLCs should have prevented the rafts from ever getting that close in the first place. The rails underneath the water in the station are also, for my thoughts, contributing factors - they were trying to rectify a risk (boats tilting while guests step on and off) without thinking through the flow on consequences. In this circumstance the raft in front was immovable, which in my view is what forced the raft to flip. The pumps themselves are pretty powerful beasts. I've seen these things suck up some very large objects and spit them out the other side. If the rafts were capable of floating out of the station under load (which it would need to, for them to have operated it all day) there was sufficient water pumping through the attraction and the offline pump probably wouldn't have made any difference. Wonderland also stopped the rotation of the stationhouse. On many rapids rides i've been on overseas, i haven't yet come across another park that has done this. The turntables clearly prevent other issues, but they of course contribute to slip and fall accidents on behalf of a guest and in today's litigious society, if you could come up with a way to load the ride without the turntable it would probably be something you'd do - but by stopping the boats in the station, you're causing other issues to pop up elsewhere, and unless you can think of, and address them all, staying with the manufacturer's (or best practice) design is probably the better way to go. (yes, i realise the irony of me saying this here) and it gives me pause to wonder whether Wonderland's version could possibly have seen similar risks as it wore on (another 14 years wear on the slats - could they have done similarly to Dreamworld?, might they have installed rails?)... anyway - that's my 40 cents.

I was only trying to make a joke. But both choppers must have been there because 9 news was too.

Since when was it sitting at the top of the drop? I thought it was just stopping at the breaks before the station?

It's was the channel 9 chopper.

Always nice to see some old bits and bobs recycled for people to enjoy. I would love to visit, but I feel like the Wonderland History team might be waiting for me... They're like elephants. They remember.

The previously announced funding is no longer on the table. However, i don't think this is what Webslave meant, and i think it was just a fun stab at me for what is obviously perceived as me rambling on about the park as much as I do.

Cynical as most of us are about what DW \ Ardent will do with this area, i'm glad to see them at least start the removal process. It is an all too ugly reminder to people visiting the park about what happened, and the sooner it is gone, the sooner that open wound in the park can start to heal. I do hope that they, in consultation with the families, do something tasteful and touching in memoriam, either on the spot, or nearby, and I'd really like to see the area reinvigorated with something new. I only pray that the new area is done as much justice with theming and layout as the original area was - which likely will need a Buzzsaw retheme as well (which shouldn't be too hard).

So it seems at this stage it's all non-essential buildings & facades.

Now you can donate as much as I have! It's a public donation. https://www.ceosleepout.org.au/fundraisers/mark-shaw/perth

So apparently Wonderland History has teamed up with Artisans Park out in Bathurst to display some of the Bush Beast and Beastie's trains permanently. They currently only have one car on display at the moment but they intend to display a full set as seen by one of the pictures where there are at least three carriages are out there. Exciting news that these relics of Wonderland can now be seen in the public eye once again despite being required to travel all the way out to Bathurst to see them.

It certainly is impressive

Sensors can only fail if they exist in the first place

Illumination !!

I think the biggest difference between AW and the east coast parks is i expect majority of the visitors are locals. Sure we have some tourists, but nothing like what the gold coast gets. This means the park really needs to keep innovating and adding new experiences to justify people returning and spending money. If they stop investing into new attractions they'll be fine for 2 - 3 years and people will get bored and stop going or at least going less. For example my personal experience - i used to have a season pass every year back around 99 - 2000 ish. However after the Power Surge they invested into the Kids areas, and a couple of water slides - none of which were really epic or a draw card of any sort. So from memory i went once the year after the Power Surge was installed and then i don't think i went again until Inferno was put in. Following that it was another few years until Abyss was installed before i returned. As mentioned the park only opens for ~half the year, so that would reduce it's operational costs quite significantly in comparison to the east coast parks. Rides are expensive to operate - and running rides with 1 - 2 riders during low seasons or mid week don't cost a whole lot less that running it full to capacity. Also given the lack of competition or alternatives people will actually visit whilst the parks open. Basically it's not like they're missing out of alot of business by being closed for half the year, instead those people will come when the park reopens and they run at capacity for those few months. So TLDR - they need to keep investing to keep people coming back. If they stop investing, people will stop coming. I don't think the level of investment is way out there in consideration of the returns they're seeing. The MI's are done every 2 years right, so that's 2.5 - 3 mil every year being put aside and reinvested into the park. If the park keeps growing and attracting more visitors - and really the only way for that to happen is to keep investing - then it will become sustainable. Especially as theirs no investors queuing up with their hands out wanting a return every year, there's no reason the money can't get all reinvesting into the park. I expect we'll see the MI's move to every 3 years soon or maybe even 4 years with a smaller attraction added in the alternate 2 years (~3mil). The more rides AW has, the more capacity is has to soak up crowds and thus get more bodies through the doors on the days it's open.

TRRR is a "High Level" meaning only senior ride operators are allowed to operate it, its also a "Major" attraction meaning that every staff member responsible for the ride is highly trained and has to work very hard to get picked to operate the attraction. Inexperienced staff is defiantly not the case, but the amount of staff at the attraction is something that wasn't very thought out, the attraction was running at 2 staff usually, defiantly not the smartest.

Wow, thanks IWERKS for your very generous donation tonight. The reasons most people finding themselves homeless are not what most people imagine. The root cause is usually about traumatic experiences like domestic abuse, violent abuse by parents (unthinkable) sexual abuse, gambling/drug/alcohol abuse of parents and so many (not all) are worthy of our support. Iwerks has donated considerable amounts over the past 4 years and I think that is a measure of the man. Kudos to you Iwerks and big thanks for getting my 2018 fundraising off to a great start! His generous donation is already making a difference tomorrow. I would love the community here to support me in my efforts to raise another $15k this year. Its not easy. Every donation, small, medium or large certainly counts. Do what you can. I assure you Vinnies make every dollar count. Announcement of my next theme parks chapter coming next week. Exciting times ahead. Thanks IWERKS. Wonderful support.

Just a quick report from the inaugural AWNights. Got there about 5.30pm and was at the head of the queue for entry (they were still chasing day patrons out - apparently it had been quite busy). They opened the gates at 5.50 or so for a rope drop of sorts at 6pm. Yarlotte and her minders even showed up. Headed over to the lockers and then the pool, which had lots of flamingo inflatables on it. Went on the mat slides next and had four runs with no one but me on them. Went over to the racing slides, before deciding to dry off. Got on the chairlift, which was operating, and captured some nice shots as the sun went down. After wandering around the park, I decided to take an early dinner on the upper deck of the Kahuna Cafe. I was tucking into a patented Mark Shaw Chicken Caesar Salad, when the lights on Kahuna Falls went out. Kids kept going on it and they eventually fixed it an hour or so later. At first I thought they had hit the lights on purpose in order to emphasise the DJ, who was playing nearby, but then I saw a guy with a torch. Put my camera away after that and then went on the Grand Prix and Abyss with next to no wait. Abyss was awesome, as I was expecting it to be completely dark when we got out - it wasn't. It was like entering an elaborate show building (kinda like the old ET ride), with the forest on the left and the moon overhead. Once we were over the lift hill, it was a little more intense than normal. Abyss' tracks have this bluish/purple lighting, so you could only see a few meters ahead at a time. Did one last lap around the park. It was 9 o'clock. Checked my photos and the Kahuna Falls lights came back on. Overall, the night kinda reminded me of extra magic hours at a Disney park, where you can ride your favourite rides at night with little wait. The DJ was very chilled and didn't really gather a crowd. It was a very mellow, family friendly crowd, with couples picnicking on the lawns. Got in for free since I'm a Platinum member, so not bad value for me. The weather was so much better than Fright Nights and there were tonnes of people in the pool all night long. Looking forward to next week's event.

Another sad day in DW’s history brought to you by AL. After close to 18 months AL still have no master plan forward and how to get out of this mess.