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5 year rebuilding plan after 20 years of neglect people. DW aren't looking at fixing everything year 1 & 2.

And we have some new photos of construction today too thanks to @Luke https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/supanova From the video, the layout: Compared the original design: Happy that they made the the final drop the same size as Gravity Wave, looks much better. The flying saucer looks a bit supernova-ish too.

100% this. Arguing the loss of the fountain over things like temporary seasonal activations for fire machine and the like, over the permanent introduction of a new, year-round attraction is weak at best. Main street needs a kinetic energy. We need to give up the 'preservation' of Longhurst's Disneyland Main Street - Because even Disneyland has kinetics down main street with trolleys, carriages and the like. DL's Main Street also has the castle weenie to draw people in. The current arrangement does none of this. Why can't a parade happen? Does it need to cut off the ride like an island? I absolutely applaud the installation of this attraction, and i'm intelligent enough to recognise its the first step in a very long journey - Just because they haven't mentioned plans for MDMC, it doesn't mean it isn't on the whiteboard for stage 3\4 once this initial $50-60M is done and dusted. There's only so much money - you can't expect them to completely renew the entire park in one foul swoop. Get the new rides in to take the pressures off the current ones so you can shut them down for a rework without leaving the park desolate. the next 5 years are going to be an exciting time on the gold coast.

Hmmm if there is no interest it wouldn’t make sense to bring in a fresh ambition focussed theme park person as CEO. We may be pleasantly surprised.

Is there a reason why they wouldn't be doing the splash pad in the 'Chill Out' area left by Wipeout's departure? I would think that would make a great spot for that to bring back Ocean into Ocean Parade, but maybe I'm missing something? I think once this multi year plan is done, some kind of big splashy water ride in the area would really round it out, and that's PROBABLY far enough since 'you know what' to do a water ride. Yes there would be mental cases that still cry foul, but hopefully they are too busy protesting about trams at the time to notice 😛 I think it's safe to say regardless of whatever anyone things about these announced plans, it would be hard to argue that they are not 1000% better than anything idiots in charge previously came up with this past decade.

That's a fair opinion to have based on the park's history, but one I must respectfully disagree with. I personally see a lot of thought and vision in the announced plans. Ocean Parade is actually going to get some 'ocean' injected back into it, and they've directly included the attractions left orphaned by the loss of Dreamworks by including Panda (because it definitely didn't fit into the dreamland concept they had for the rest of it). The Dreamland plans (as has been mentioned already) give cohesiveness to the area, integrates the orphaned wiggles attractions which (absent BRC) no longer support an entire land dedicated to them. This, in turn clears the space by the river to return RiverTown in some form and all announced with it. Ok, they haven't said what they're doing with MDMC. Cool. Maybe they don't know yet, maybe they're not ready yet. This park got trashed over decades and it isn't going to come back overnight. I'll judge these announcements on what is announced and how it turns out, not what they didn't include. Blue Lagoon and BB Studios still sit partially demolished and disused, but I'm not going to assume it'll stay that way forever just because it's not included in the current announcement. When Westfield opens a new extension, the older wings tend to look a bit... dated by comparison. But Westfield can't close the entire centre just to make the old area look as good as the new area. It'll go on the list and be slated for a refresh or a repaint at some point in the future when finances allow and depreciation has run its course.

We can always hope, but I would assume that would need commitment from the owner, and there appears to have been no interest from Lindsay Fox in investing in the amusement park

Why is there a requirement for DW to be Longhurst DW? He sold it and wanted nothing more to do with it.

The large fundamental issue with this entire vision outlay is the lack of consideration to the greater area these ideas reside in, which has been an Ardent bug feature for the last two decades. Consider that whilst Rivertown will be absolutely solid if not great, it completely ignores any consideration for Motocoaster. As such, guests will literally see green modern theming juxtaposed against jungle. The same goes for this Ocean Parade splash pad stuff - guests will see, in essence, Tiger Island, ABC Kids & Ocean Parade all butting up against each other. This isn't being OCD about Disneyland sightlines, this is literally like having Troll's in Ocean Parade all over again. Then there's the Dreamworld Flyer - take everything that makes what they're copying from Phantasialand good (the colouring, the fountains, the integration into the greater village space) and strip it down to a concrete pad that visually competes for kinetic and physical presence next to the landmark people see as they walk in. This is juxtaposed again by the Abu Dhabi Airport facade that calls Main Street home. From a revenue-raising perspective, they've got their last three new attractions all within a few seconds walking distance of the entrance, thereby creating multiple choke points early on in the experience and also greatly limiting the opportunity for pass holder revenue to be made during repeat visitation. And let's not talk about how much it'll impact private events, how it'll make any parade or any special show (think Fire Machine) beyond impossible... I could go on.

Trident was testing a lot today. Not Leviathan though. Ride sign looks great! There's a themed Sea World logo behind the crane Cast members with Big Boy. Work is progressing on the Dockside Tavern. Look at the floor! A new themed pillar near the tavern and new lockers! Merchandise is here! Leviathan surprise egg toys. Didn't expect that... \ This was a nice surprise!

The Royal Palace of Oz (Green Palace) looks to be in the same spot as the Lethal Weapon preshow room where you watched a car chase/action scene. This room was bypassed when it was rethemed to Arkham Asylum. I believe this was often used in the Halloween events as well. Does any part of that building still stand, or will they/have they raze it completely and start the Palace from scratch?

The quotations weren't a mistake, just FYI

You got me! Seriously though, they're still copping it in the public eye about the $3M that was 'stolen' from the Koalas for Taipan. Can you imagine the feeding frenzy the media would have? "Dreamworld tears out 3 year old attraction after 3M Koala fund was spend on roller coaster just 6 years after killing four" They don't need to give them more ammunition.

I have 2 reasons, both probably incorrect. Night markets. Future ride location.

Yup, even in places like Victoria new attractions are opening. Best time to be an Australian enthusiast.

I'd agree with this - for the first time we've got really interesting stuff happening all over the country which is historically unprecedented, it's a really good time to be an Aussie enthusiast for sure. I'm sure management have got plenty of ideas that weren't in the announcement, and that still doesn't change the fundamental reality that when these projects are done, we'll still have the same haphazard Dreamworld master-planning that's been at play for the last two decades. This isn't about creating some unrealistic Disney-level of park because right now even industry substitutes (casinos, shopping centres, smaller play centres, local council parks etc.) are nipping at Dreamworld's feet in regards to immersion, and so the bar of "she'll be right, they're trying as hard as they can, give 'em a break" is not conducive to Dreamworld actually being profitable in the long term. Simply put - I don't think I'm being unreasonable in expecting Dreamworld to be more considered in their master-planning - if they can do it for Tiger Island (which is easily one of the best themed areas in the country) and if they could do it in the 80's, and if their competitors can do it, they can too. Speaking of the 80's, you're right, John's park is long dead and that horse continues to be beaten. For me I acknowledged that when they got rid of the facades for Sky Voyager John's park died (and died again when they knocked over Hollywood Cottage for Steel Taipan) - realistically if any management doesn't understand the significance or doesn't ask why the way things are before gutting them, then the hope for clinging to any other aspect of John's original park and what made it so great compared to now should be well and truly abandoned. And yet, the double-speak is at play, because the whole reason it's called Rivertown is because of its adjacency to the Murrissippi River. Both it and Rivertown are nods to John's Dreamworld. So which is it? We want to acknowledge the history and heritage whilst simultaneously not respecting it? I'll try and speak to this briefly because I acknowledge this isn't everyone's cup of tea. But, the tricky thing with theme park leadership is that unlike other businesses, any capital expenditure decisions, even at the sub-million mark, are going to have wild impact on other projects/amenities/facilities/attractions/etc. for two to three decades. So if you're not insanely considered in thinking about how your decision is going to look in three decades' time in the most holistic way possible, it's super easy to end up having V8 Redline in Ocean Parade, or worse yet Troll's, especially when there's a mountain of other stakeholders involved who don't respect or get how theme parks (and theme park design and its impact on revenue) work. Worse yet, if those stakeholders don't understand the rationale behind retheming something for the sake of it, why would any board approve major capex spend when it doesn't move the needle during a time when the business is still skating on thin ice? By extension, if you can't roll in a few million to include the park's most popular ride into the new precinct that's happening metres away, will it ever happen? I could go on about this forever but it'd probably bore 99% of enthusiasts here because it's not about the fun stuff we all enjoy talking about - point is, measure twice cut once, and I don't personally see a lot of that in some of these new announcements.

Funfields have just uploaded a video of the new slide which clearly shows it's final form factor, which includes a "flying saucer" element which I believe is an Australian first. Looks great!

For what purpose? As much as the ride is pretty meh, it has consistently been pretty popular ride over the years. If they rethemed the ride to fit Rivertown, and put some lifted faux rock work in around the track, it could be as good as Jet Rescue.

Was just searching funfield’s prices and noticed to get a day ticket along with fast pass (which get’s you a single skip the ride queue to 9 different rides) is altogether only 7 bucks more than GW’s hefty $78 dollar admission price coming in at $85. That’s actually a fairly reasonable deal if you want to go to a park during the peak summer months to ride a new ride and avoid the crazy school holidays crowds that often make these parks too hectic.

Pretty much every Parkz member will I think