DaptoFunlandGuy

owww man I would have liked to see all that stuff come out of the lake! there'd be Drivers Licenses in there from like 85.... imagine all that crap... be interesting to see it...

curious - i wonder how and where this guy got it?

even without the OTSR, i dont think with a seat belt and a lap bar that it would have caused too much of an issue. i know the otsr's are still vital, but didnt Schwartzkoff persuade american safety officials that his lap bars were sufficient on his loopers by holding them upside down for more than a minute with nothing but a lap bar?

Hasn't lethal just finished a maintenance run?

Its not pertinent to the discussion, but I just want to point out that what i said was intended to be ONE swap... eg, the rotation was only performed ONCE - eg : a single ride ROTATION meaning the ops generally had TWO rides in one day.

Sorry Rappa, but bus is right on this one. Scandal'us took off from the Helitours pad in goldrush after park closure, they circled out and around to come in on the car-park helipad at an angle that gave the cameras a good shot. The show was held in Action Arena, in the shadow of Demon, and the stage was actually built at the level of the bottom row of seating in the ampitheatre. the stunt floor was about a metre or so below the stage, which hid some of the more ghastly props of the Action Man Set. if you go and watch this concert, you will see the X industries logo, and the building facade of lime green cracked concrete and brick. very little was done to action arena to make way for this performance, and Action Man was back and performing either the next day, or the day after that. ok, time for another tidbit hmmmm *thinks hard* Over the years, Wonderland has had 5 helipads. One in the staff area car park near security post, one in hanna barbera land, one in goldrush, one in the upper car park and one where Action Arena stood. Action Arena used to be a basketball court, where the sydney kings did demonstration games and the like, however, prior to its construction, it was a helipad. When the park opened, most of the bush and trees were newly planted, and were only saplings. it was possible to see bounty from beastie, and it was possible to see the rainbow from the bush beast. over the years, the trees, predominantly from the goldrush entrance to the bush beast grew so tall, it hid all but the tallest of the rides from view. as IVBotany Bay were predominantly a concrete jungle, there were very few trees to grow, however the strip up behind dodgems also created a natural barrier between botany bay and HBL.

Wonderland would never have made it a legal dispute. Doing that would turn it into a full scale safety investigation of the park, the operations and maintenance staff and management, and the rides themselves. they knew full well that they were not providing a program, roster or system that adequately covered the safety requirements necessary. they would have opened up a much deeper can of worms, which ultimately could have closed the park even earlier than they did. Can you imagine the safety inspectors coming across coathanger wire on demon? what about a poorly patched up job on one of space probes controllers? cable ties holding parts to a ride that spins round and round or goes very fast? insufficient rest time for operators insufficient maintenance all sorts of badly worked fixes over the years that would be picked up in a heart beat. Wonderland would never risk that.

seems the mulcher has been through this thread.......?

bus, i know its a situation where nobody wants to admit its true, but sometimes operators make mistakes. and the sad truth is that the safety of the guests at wonderland was on a backseat to the hip pockets of the operations managers, who would not fork out the extra money to staff the attractions the way they are supposed to. A single ride rotation per day was not enough. out of everything that happened, this was thef irst mistake he made, and he was at the park longer than i was, and one of the first cast members I met in my quest to secure employment there. Everyone makes mistakes. but yes, he should have checked those harnesses. fatigue and boredom can simply get to a point where you would just assume the guests would have worked out the OTSR's on Bounty need to go over your head. im not condoning what he did. its downright scary to think of it happening... but as soon as he found out.. what did he do? he phoned it in, shut down the ride, and gave full detail on what he had done. he lost his job over it... but he was honest. Putting aside what happened on bounty that day, i won't stand to hear a bad word said about him.

an interesting thread showed up in my searches in regards to this Welding Company in NSW. the same rumor has been thrown up by the same user, two years running now - Original Thread Here: http://www.parkz.com.au/forums/sh...hread.php?t=550

Dan, you talkin bout me or Melanie? I dont recall any of the guys who started with me being stoners...

Daniel, was that **** ** ****** in the photo i sent you, i've got a funny feeling it was ****, *** ****... man he was a tops op. One of the best Ops I have seen, at any theme park, anywhere...

mmm... yes... hair, bandaids, hair, pieces of skin, hair, bandaids, environmental refuse such as leaves and crap, dirt, bits of paper, food wrappers carelessly blown into the filters.... mmmmmmmmm yummy.

i was under the impression that coaster track fabrication was generally done by the company commissioned to provide the coaster (that being overseas)?

i slept in that morning, and caught the last 20 minutes. it was interesting to watch, but i would like to see a more in depth documentary. it also ran down to sea world and spent 15 minutes on the polar bears, which, in a film about movie world just made me think they ran out of stuff. i'd like to see a full "behind the scenes" on all the gold coast parks. the intricate workings of all their big rides, as well as the day to day operations... like "American Casino" on discovery on monday nights.. that i would like to see.

LOL. we get lots of stories about poor safety on the rides Melanie, but that bounty story is one I haven't heard before. On a sidenote, inserting 2 cents is my trademark! but i suppose you can use it... I know how you feel though, as far as it being sad to see it go. You only have to read the posts in this subtopic to see how we all feel about the park going. Incidentally if you are interested, or have something to contribute, there are currently a few members you can speak with. Wonderbuzz is our closest link to the current management. As far as I know, the park is no longer staffed, as the handover is imminent to ING. He was however, one of the last surviving staff members at the park. send him a PM, he is on very often, if you would like to find out anything about the site at present. Mickazee is our resident Web Wiz, and is currently constructing a site about Wonderland, at www.----URL removed for non-compliance with Community Guidelines----.com . visit the site to have a look around (very sparse at the moment but its a work in progress) And should you have any information, stories, insider detail, or videospicturesliterature about the park, please see his "contribute" section. Paul Hollibone and Liam Schembri (Flea) are our master movie makers, and between them have made some very interesting videos on the park. you can find some of them on this site, and links to others within threads on this site as well. For further information, its best to contact them directly. For other operators of the park rides, you can't go past Wonderbus2003 or Daniel. So theres my two cents. so now we're up to 4 cents. anyone else care to add some, all proceeds to the tsunami relief effort... lol.

Hey Melanie. there are a lot of ex-WL staff on these boards, including myself, although I doubt you would know me. I worked mainly in retail, games, outlets, minilab and park photography. I was there around 2000-2002

Again Gazza, you have another brilliant drawing here. it looks awesome. My only question is about the Wave pool and the mountain - the wave pool is covered on 3 sides by the mountain facade - this minimises the wind (which is a good thing) but it reduces the amount of sun the pool gets, which would make it very cold, mostly in shadows etc... LOL. problem is he'd eject anyone he thought was a turd, but anyone causing serious havoc, he'd probably join in... lol While im sincerely touched, I could never stoop to the levels of Michael Croaker and company. Croaker was a nice bloke but his entire cast were plastic. besides, I never saw much in the way of entertainment at WnW... I think Rappa would have something to say about that... Not that I'm doubting Flea here at all... but heck.. i'd want in on this one too!

Disneyland opened in 1955... how old would this guy be now? I would assume he'd have been at least in his late 20's, which would put him at least 75 this year. If you're saying what I think you're saying, can he really have that much of an impact on WBMW at his age?

im not saying the brakes were needed, but i have heard of a model in the states that has trim brakes in that particular section. don't ask me....

yes but Dan, did this result in the ride getting stuck on the lift hill or the boomerang? I was present one day when an operator actually demonstrated the cats eyes on each coaster car, the "magic eye" that read those cats eyes, and exactly how far the train got if one of those bars was down.... precisely nowhere. the ride stopped within a metre of the eye being read... (although, this was a modification installed after the ride was itself constructed at the park, to be a failsafe against operator error, so there could be incidents prior to the installation of the "eye" that I am not aware of.) As far as I know, Demon has, at least once, stalled mid-boomerang, with guests on board. I am aware that she got stuck there at times with no guests, that she got stuck in the gully below lift 2, that she got stuck ON lift 2 and even on lift 1. I know it sheared its cable more than once, and that one time when it did, the train came down lift 1, with the catchwagon still attached, ran through the station, so the electronics and ballast package which hung below the tracks reamed the station sideways and ripped out one or more brake elements in the station itself, not to mention throwing a wheel or two. It is highly possible that I do not know of every single breakdown event that ever happened on Demon. It is also highly possible that other people on these forums do not know of every possible breakdown either. Bus is a great authority on the operations at wonderland. but it doesnt mean he is always correct. I believe the original statement about demon is correct. it has charlied in the middle of the boomerang element.

i can see some similarities there Gazza, i just still think its a bad practise for any park to be naming things like flush frenzy. a couple of the rides you listed dont fit the criteria because they are more than two words, and i feel inclined to disqualify Ketchakiddee and humunga, because thats a lot of syllables. But as you had said you were scraping the bottom of the barrel, and honestly, if they (the names) worked in a theme park, you should be applying to Disney right now... Its easy to come up with names for rides based on a single drawing, build a full scale ride, and then come up with a name for it that captures its best features and is also interestingintriguing enough to make the general public want to visit your park just to ride it. Imagine if Wild West falls was originally called "flume ride" or if Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster was originally called "Wild Mouse" - how many people would flcok to the park to ride it? I can't see myself booking a trip to WnW to ride "flushing frenzy". sounds like a case of Starbuck's slipping a laxative into every coffee they make... But anyway gazza, regardless of the names of the slides, its a good design. keep it up. (and maybe see if you can get a woolworths discount coupon to fill up the tank on that barrel of yours...)

I always wondered why our boomerang model didnt have certain modifications other models do have. for example - trim or emergency brakes in the boomerang element itself? And if it was such an issue with the train stalling in the lower elements of the track, eg: bottom of lift hill 2, why dont the units come fitted with a winch style device that can pull the train back to its staging point?

Ok, i was talking in the current ride base in australia, and counting bush beast only because it still stands. i meant a two-word name alliteration or rhyme. and it was Boo Boo's Balloon RACE SpeedSlide is one i'll give, but this is just a description of what it does, its a SLIDE that has a very high SPEED. its nothing near "Flush Frenzy" again, these are all multi worded ride names. Road Runner is a character you can't do much about, that came from WB. and its a ROLLER COASTER... Reptar is a three word alliteration that shows a bit more thought, and its not "Terror Tower" but "Tower OF Terror" which shows a bit more thought, and is hardly as obviously lame as say... Nippers Slippers? I was talking about two worded titles that have alliteration or rhyming for no other reason than to be alliterated, or rhymed. all of the examples you guys came up with had a purpose, a design, and had a bit more thought put into it. Not only that, but the rides that came close to truly fitting my specification were mostly kiddie rides Im not hacking on Gazza's Ideas, I love these little things he does. If we've learnt nothing on these forums, we HAVE learnt that the parks do pay a little attention to what we're saying - the most recent example i can think of is Stephen Gregg's attention to the queue and capacity issues. While it could be argued that its just their own perception of the general public, why didnt they do something about it earlier? they only acted after we spent three months whinging about their capacity. coincidence is possible, but I'm farily confident management in all 4 parks on the gold coast do pay some attention to this site. So maybe, although im sure they've had designers working on the Sunshine Coast version of the park, but maybe they've got stuck on an idea or two - for instance, the "transport river" idea, if it could be made to work, is an ingenious method of getting people around the park. nobody likes to run around in bare feet on hot concrete.. i've experienced that myself at WnW. this transport river would tour past every major attraction in the park with an opportunity to get off anywhere you please... maybe Warner Village might note this and consider implementing it into their design. they have the technology already from calypso beach.. all they need to do is expand on it.

regardless of whether people were on it or not, the event still occurred...