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And the government is paying for it! A STATE-of-the-art animal research centre will be built at one of the Gold Coast’s biggest theme parks. The State Government will this morning announce it will spend $2.7 million in partnership with Dreamworld to expand the park’s Corroboree and wildlife area. It will include the Dreamworld Future Lab, a “world-class’ facility which will be the state’s first native animal genome research facility. Baby Koalas at the Corroboree park at Dreamworld. Pic Jono Searle. Gold Coast-based Assistant Tourism Industry Development Minister Meaghan Scanlon said the new development was the latest step in diversifying the city’s economy. “It will allow us to deploy experts to tackle some of the biggest issues facing our native wildlife — like the threat of chlamydia on the local koala population,” she said. Meaghan Scanlon. Picture: Jerad Williams “It will be the first of its kind in our state and will enhance the research capabilities of experts at the University of Queensland by allowing researchers and science undergraduates up-close contact with animals in the field. “Our native animals are a hit with tourists around the world, particularly Chinese visitors today’s announcement will help to keep the Gold Coast front-of-mind for prospective tourists.” A Bilby at Dreamworld. Picture Mike Batterham Construction will begin mid-year. It is the latest in a series of big announcements for the Coomera theme park. The 25-year-old Wipeout was decommissioned recently while the park launched it’s Sky Voyager virtual reality ride. (*cough* BULLSHIT *cough*) Once open, it will allow school groups and visits to get a first-hand look at research being performed. Tourism Minister Kate Jones said the project would be funded through the State Government’s Advance Queensland Connecting with Asia initiative. Queensland Minister for Innovation and Tourism Industry Development, Kate Jones. (AAP Image/Darren England) “When it’s complete, the Future Lab will be the only operational scientific laboratory in Queensland that will have the practical capability to create a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) tourism experience visitors based on the conservation of koalas and other wildlife,” she said. “The Dreamworld Future Lab will give our experts vital access to native species and will help to build on Queensland’s world-leading reputation for science and technology.” Dreamworld’s General Manager Life Sciences, Al Mucci said he believed the development would be a “world-first” by allowing the public to see the researchers working on current wildlife conservation projects.

In the current "make an announcement, but it's ok to change your mind later about it" environment, here's how that should go down. plan for new giga coaster (or similar) determine demolition timeline needed for ToT order new giga coaster, and ensure financing arrangements are taken care of Announce new ride, and demolition of TOT same day. Announce closing date of ToT within ~few weeks. Make big noise about one last ride. Maybe run a competition on a radio station for people to win seats on the last ride ever. give them some sort of one of a kind or limited edition souvenir from the ride close the ride immediately begin demolition if you've timed it right, you can also begin surveying the site for the new coaster (and you should have been surveying the other non TOT parts of the ride path already If you've timed it right, ride parts should begin arriving in the carpark. Once demolition is complete, start construction. THAT is how you replace a ride. (and i hope Movie World and Sea World are watching this too.

I asked Luna Park some questions regarding theming two weeks ago. They finally responded to some today.

976 pages will be devoted to discussion on what colour the ride actually is...

This would’ve been better to announce during Wipeouts closure but I get that it’s a government announcement so it’s never really anticipated. Why is there a kid with a football in a bush? Why is there a guy with two wives? Why is Sky Voyager still not open? And of course, my favourite comment “Can they throw in an extra few dollars to open the ride that’s been going to open since last year 🤔”

Different how? It will actually open on time?

From Dreamworlds Facebook page ”The Queensland Government today announced it will inject $2.7million dollars into Dreamworld, helping expand the Corroboree area with a world-class research facility. The Dreamworld Future Lab will be the first of its kind in Queensland and will help support Dreamworld’s conservation drive. See it begin to take shape soon.”

There are way too many things that require change at this point that it's far more viable to just build a housing estate on the property. But since we're all contributing, I figured I'd join in with this massive piece you see before you. If you're up to it, take a journey of Pure Imagination, otherwise, just scroll past, you're not really missing out on anything. In terms of park layout - the former gold rush country has left a gap in the loop which needs to be reconnected. Connecting pathway between DW and WWW needs to be optimised to encourage traffic flow and a lot of the shortcut pathways need to be removed or 'hidden' in order to drive people past F&B and Retail outlets. Now onto attractions.... Rocky Hollow/Gold Rush Rocky Hollow Log Ride basically needs to be removed; there's no saying if/how much those DIY alterations have effected the boats. Movie World hasn't altered theirs and the fleet on Wild West Falls is suffering from age related issues, so I can't imagine the Log Ride fleet are holding up all that well. Would free up heaps of space, allowing the entire Rocky Hollow/Gold Rush area to be redeveloped. I'd choose some kind of forest based theme, you could even have some fictional tribal inhabitants of which you'd base any architecture around. Would be a very greenery focused area with a modern log flume, medium scale family coaster and even relocate the carousel to this area, have it next to a retail store that sells a few small snack items/drinks. This would also provide access to the parks Rivals competitor, a large inverted coaster that travels partly along the main access road to the parks. (Could be named after a mythical bird) Amphitheatre would survive underneath the coaster and can still be utilised for night-time events. Positives: Removal of old 'unsafe' water attraction (as mentioned before as an in house ride it'd likely be much more expensive to insure) and replaced with modern standard, and more immersive flume ride. New family coaster New thrill coaster Updated classic Effective revenue opportunity with minimal labour requirement Negatives: Replacing one ride for another of the same type Money. Corroboree I don't see Vintage Cars lasting much longer, it's far too out of the way. To make anything viable on that side of the river they'd need to redesign any access point to it, in order to make it more inviting and visible to even the laziest of guests. Only way to do that sort of thing would be to remove the old Skylink station, relocate the Bilbies (expanded edutainment display would fit on the Vintage Cars site) alongside a new Crocodile show enclosure and new exhibit for Goldie. Which would greatly open up the pathway between the existing Red Kangaroo/Emu and Crocodile enclosures. Toilets can easily be relocated (well, ignoring the need for new plumbing fixtures) behind the existing Croc enclosure. Positives: Further increases links between Dreamworld and animal conservation Increased capacity for display and rehabilitation of Crocodiles and new show venue Increased opportunity to spread plight of Bilbies Goldie gets a new home Negatives: Removal of a classic Dreamworld attraction Money. ABC Kids World I feel like this area is pretty well contained and well rounded. Ultimately, it'd be great to expand the area into the existing footprint of MDMC, but realistically this ride still has quite a while ahead of it. Refurbishment of Big Red Car to bring it up to today's technological standards and a small indoor childrens ride inside the old F&B outlet. Positives: Updated attraction New attraction Negatives: MDMC survives Money. DreamWorks Experience New indoor shooting dark ride that takes over the Kevil Hill footprint, as well as some BOH space themed to Kung Fu Panda (accessible through the existing Pass Centre) Remove Dronkeys Flyers and use the space from the relocated Carousel and Dronkeys Flyers for a mini coaster (almost identical to Spongebobs Boating School Blast at SW) Positives: Solidifies focus on the family market with two rides that reach all ages Negatives: Relocation of existing, themed attraction Money. Ocean Parade Now this is probably the most interesting of all, well apart from the Tower of Terror section below... Wipeout replacement... I'd actually put a Volare style ride here. Tourbillon sounds great and all, but to round out the parks offerings, another family ride would work well in this area. Destroy Trolls and put in an RMC Raptor... Custom layout, utilising the Thunderbolt Station and weaving in, around, and over this area. Trolls would feature majority of the queue and ride area. Small pre-lift indoor section in laser-tag briefing room areas. Remove Hot Wheels and demolish all queue and station structure. Create a tree-lined walkway between the Thunderbolt and Old HWSW Queue tower. Place an Enterprise style ride partly where the V8 Simulators currently reside, alternatively building could be utilised as queue for the ride. Dreamworld Exhibition Centre could fit an extremely small interactive dark ride, or house a dark ride section of a rollercoaster, but I don't know what would be the best use of that space. Positives: Moving away from temporary attractions Proper utilisation of that corner of Ocean Parade New family-thrill coaster New family (and thrill) attraction that's not shaded seating Negatives: Removal of rough Dreamworld classic No defined use of Exhibition Centre building. Lots of money. Tower of Terror The unique footprint of this ride makes replacements hard to work out, especially if you factor in the noise you'd need to avoid around the Tiger Island area. You could use the length of the tunnel for a launch track and top hat or inverted element; or for a lift hill and then feed the track over or around MDMC and onto the Murrissippi Island area. (You'd have to factor in the need for a turnaround at the end of the ride, which would push the station closer to MDMC and reduce usable land in the little pocket between ABC, Dreamworks and Tiger Island) Alternatively, you could refurbish the ride and have both forward and backward facing seats. (Like Turbo Track at Ferrari World Dubai) Theme the ride to space travel and have the small pocket of land themed as a quarantine zone. (citing bacteria and not wanting to take anything dangerous to space) Positives: A ride that actually works Negatives: Uhh, yeah, you guessed it, Money. WhiteWater World Go ahead with existing expansion plans and add a tower (HWSW Station) feeding slide(s) towards that expansion space. Remove Wedgie and add a TornadoWAVE slide that utilises some of the space on that side of the wave pool. New, more comfortable version of Wedgie or similar slide can be worked into expansion plans if guest demand saw it as a viable opportunity. Positives: Something new for WWW for once. (Expanded attraction line-up) Utilisation of empty space. Negatives: It's just sad at this point. Money... ... Well, that was fun.

Nah, it blankets Sea World completely now. I'm not allowed within 100m of the boundaries. Apparently it's illegal to diddle a starfish

To reuse a joke over and over is like reusing a tissue over and over. You will end up with snot on your face and that's not a good look.

I’ve always thought the dome theatre ride themed to the creatures of the deep would be a really great attraction for Sea World.

Agreed. Travelling rides do not belong in parks.

I'll be there on Sunday, super excited to try it out! Really cool incentive in order to draw attention to the new ride, hopefully we see lots of people getting out there supporting the park and giving it a go.

Yeah, there's more than 4 people fucked in the country.

You can now pre-purchase Ricks for 2 online with a fairly good discount, still hoping a bulk hunger buster or Ricks Season Dining pass returns (10 pack hunger buster was discontinued in February)

Dreamworld have bet everything on Sky Voyager. $18 Million could have got a solid new roller coaster that would gone head to head with MW's offerings. When the GP think of a simulator, there first thought is moving seats and a screen. That is not something that is going to be a park savoir. It could be a park killer.

Just like me he takes his balls everywhere he goes. This is Frank. Frank has 2 daughters. DW have no money, so from now on the Queensland Government will be paying for all future expansions. I have a question of my own. Why do people rush to create new topics without checking if we already have one @Jackson13Walasek?

I do really like that concept art and do think it will be a great addition to that area of the park. Interesting to see where it is constructed and whether it impacts exciting exhibits/infrastructure

Some fancy covered seating area with tv screens then

Either way, I wouldn't want to reuse them

Haha. Was a pretty old movie by the time I was a kid but an Absolute classic.

The fire shooting truck-boat I’ve heard about sounds fantastic. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on steroids.. Speaking of Chitty, if we had a forum Child Catcher we’d have far less rubbish. The Vulgarians were onto something

Tissues are for snot? Huh. TIL.

If 2020 is a woody???????????????? this will become a thousand pages on it's own.

Less than 9 months till Boxing Day!

*scoff* would have been better at Australia Zoo. They already have the John Oliver Koala Chlamydia Ward, and plenty of native wildlife. Plus their track record on opening things, keeping them open, and the chances of them staying open are 1000.34% more likely. Well, I can't argue with this, they have made a series of big announcements:

Exactly. Give the public a new ride that distracts them from a ride that closes their doors. Our parks should attempt at planning attractions to replace others, that way, it isn't such a blow to the park. Did anyone really care when BATR2 closed? No, because GL distracted them from that. Corkscrew? Storm Coaster. Bounty's Revenge? Kraken. Turbo Mountain? Inferno. And that's about all I can think of for Australian theme parks. TOT's inevitable closure is a PR disaster waiting to happen. I don't see any other scenario happening. That will be where Longhurst's empire starts to crumble down.

Well you wouldn't be purchasing ride express for the ride queues

In regards to priority seating- Hi random Facebook commenter, Cosentino will be performing in the Dreamworld Exhibition Centre. You don’t need to pre-book seats, however, closer to the date you will be able to purchase Gold Ride Express which gives you access to front row seats 😊

There will be a new attraction this year, but the big signature investment will open late 2020. vikings Won’t return and I’d expect within about 12 months there will be no traces of it left

So this is happening.

Viking and sponge bob 4d are making way for the new "dome" ride I hear similar to sky voyager but different