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Drove past what was Wonderland this morning. The Skyrider towers have been pulled down and as I drove along Walgrove Road a bulldozer was demolishing 'The Beach' and the waterslides. They have also removed a lot of trees and you can now see ino the park; there are just piles and piles of demoished materials.

I can think of three shows/movies that featured Luna Park. A movie called the Summer of the Seventeenth Doll was made at LPS in the late 50's. It is still available at the video show because the ''play'' is still a HSC Englisg text. Also, an pisode of Skippy the Bus Kangaroo was filmed at Luna Park in the sixties, it is black and white though. Lastly, The Saint in Australia was filmed at Luna Park after it had closed the second time and the face had been removed. There is heaps of footage of Luna Park in this movie.

Thats correct Jobe, the Big Dipper was bulldozed and later burnt by order of the Department of Labour and Industry. Both the Big Dipper and Wildcat were purchased at a public auction held at Luna Park and purchased by the Haas Family who owned the Hollywood Pleasure and Picnic Grounds at Lansvale in New Soth Wales. The family purchased the Big Dipper and Wildcat for a total of $300,000.00 and were given six (6) weeks to remove the two massive rides. The family were successful in removing the Wildcat but were unable to remove the Big Dipper in the specified time. The Wildcat was later erected at at Lansvale where the Haas amily decided to pull their travelling carnival off the raod and base it permanently in the Hollywood Pleasure Grounds. The WildCat sat derelict for many years into the early nineties and was dismantled and sold to someone in Tasmania, I was involved in inspecting the ride as part of my role with the local Council and was on site when it was dismantled and trucked to Tasmania. I have not heard of or seen the Wildcat ever again. For those of you that are interested in Luna Park, I did a thesis on the site as part of my Town Planning studies back in the early nineties and have many newspaper clippings relating to the fire, sale of the rides dating up to present day. I do not have a scanner but an happy to photocopy the articles and post to anyone interested. Send me a private message with your details.

Does anybody know what happened to the chairlift from the old Sydney Showground that has now become Fox Studios. I do not mean the larger Gondola lift that later went to Wonderland and become ''Skyrider''.

Does the shop also sell the book ''Just For Fun'' detailing the pictorial history of Luna Park?

The Wild Cat was purchased after the Luna Park fire by the O'Neill family whho owned and operated Dizzyland at the end of Hollywood Drive Lansvale. The family purchased both the Big Dipper and Wild Cat for the sum of $360,000.00 and were given six (6) weeks to remove both rides, with only the wild cat being removed in time. The ride was reerrected at Lansvale and sat derelict until the early nineties. I last saw it being dismantled in 1992 and it was purchased by a guys from Tasmania. I do not know if the ride ever went to Tasmania or was ever erected there.

It is the remians of the Tassie Devil

Paul, In response to your question concerning access from the front carpark, I have a friend who works next door at the M7 (freeway) and he tells me the gate to the carpark remains open.

I made an appointment in response to the advertisement in the Trading Post. There has been an ad running for a while now selling everything. You had to submit a price and they come back to you letting you know if your offer was successful. I purchase some memorabilia and advised them that I intended to take photos to show my wife what I had purchased. I had not been to the park since 1997 and was surprised at how it had become neglected. As I said in a previous post, all the water had been removed from the SRR, the ponds and lake around Bounty's. Many people were on site removing items that they had purchased such as pavers, fencing and building materials. I was more suprised to see rides such as Tassie Devil dismantled and sitting out in the weather to deteriorate.

Attached are some more pictures, I have not ever attached pictures before so I am learning as I go along.

I had the opportunity to walk through the park back in early November and have attached some photos.

The park was looking really derelict. Yes there were weeds growing through the paths, many plants had died due to lack of water. In respect to anything that held water, everything had been drained. People were on site pulling up pavers and removing fencing. Everything was being removed while the rides sat idle.

I have to agree. The longer the rides at the park sit idle, the more likely people are to get a false impression that it will reopen at some point in time. I had the opportunity to walk through the park a couple of days ago and everything is so neglected. For example, the tassie devil is still sitting out the back dismantled, the tarps that were covering the ride have blown off and it subject to the elements. Clearly the park are asking too much for their rides as most remain.

Hello Peter I remember the stell roller coaster you refer to. A local family by the name of Haas bought both the big dipper and the steel coaster for an amusement park they 9really travelling carnival rides) called Dizzyland at the end of Hollywood Drive Lansvale. They successfully dismantled the steel coaster but the big dipper was demolished because they were unable to remove it in time. It is my understanding that they actually paid for both rides and they fell upon hard times due to the money paid for both rides. The wild cat was erected and sat derelict until the early nineties when I believe it was sold to someone in Tasmania. I think I have pictures somewhere that were published in my local paper. I will try and dig them out. Andrew