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This article about Wild Mouse was in The Sydney Morning Herald today, I copied it to bypass the paywall: ‘White-knuckled terror’: Luna Park’s most popular ride to reopen after years-long restoration Luna Park’s famous Wild Mouse rollercoaster will reopen to visitors after a two-year restoration project that left the amusement park to decode fading 60-year-old plans for the ride that were written in German. The rackety wooden rollercoaster, which famously takes riders to views of Sydney Harbour before sending them on a series of gravity-driven dips, turns and bumps, will reopen on Thursday after being closed since 2023. During its closure, the park’s operators removed every section of the ride and had to create a new 3D model of the site because there were no usable plans: the most recent ones they could access were more than 60 years old and entirely in German, the language of the original manufacturer. “We’ve basically replicated every element on the old ride and then made it much better,” said Luna Park maintenance manager Raees Rafeeq, who oversaw the restorations. “We’ve got better timber structures, we have newer control systems. Everything is basically new.” Luna Park chief executive John Hughes said the result was an “incredible engineering masterpiece that packs a lot in”. The rollercoaster uses a conveyor-belt system that drags riders up to the highest point, by the water’s edge, before they plummet through a series of ups and downs propelled by gravity. The Wild Mouse is one of the city’s iconic amusement park rides. It appeared in Sydney in 1963, after the park’s general manager, Ted Hopkins, had found the ride at Seattle’s World Fair years earlier. He purchased plans for the ride, which were created by German manufacturer Mack, and worked with his staff to assemble it. It was originally conceived as a temporary ride and was dismantled and taken to the Brisbane Ekka, Melbourne and Sydney’s Easter Show. The ride was replaced by the Wild Cat in 1969 but returned in 1995 and was immediately placed on the heritage register. “Its position is what makes it really different,” said Helen Pitt, a former Herald journalist writing a history of the park. “It’s right on the water. Unlike the Big Dipper that went high up and around the eastern side of the park, the Wild Mouse gives you a terrifying ride over the harbour of Sydney, and it feels like you’re going to go up and spring right into the water. “Most people don’t see the view though; they’re shutting their eyes and gripping on in white-knuckled terror.” The ride’s restoration is the latest in a long chapter of the park’s recent rollercoaster-like ups and downs. Last year, then-owner Brookfield announced it was selling the remainder of its lease on the site. In December, NSW-based hospitality group Oscars was revealed as the new owner.

It it doesn't open it can't break down!