mba2012

The spit as exists now is mostly man made. Wavebreak island is entirely man made, as is the seaway. Before the seaway was built, the original bar moved around, less than 100 years ago it was about where the southport yacht club is now. At some point they decided to build the seaway and Wavebreak island. As MickeyD said, this stabilised the sea entrance and allowed the spit and the southern end of south stradbroke to form. I do believe that there has been significant reclamation of land to make the spit more useful as well. I know there are pictures on these forums that show the significant amount of broadwater that sea world has taken over. But Alex, you are right when you said it was entirely natural until the seaway was built.

It hasn't been approved. This is the first concept, chances are it'll look quite different if it gets built.

For what is probably going to be the parks flagship ride, I don't think a villain theme would be quite appropriate. And yeah, it would probably be a bit out of place.

I was able to see the footings themagician was referring to briefly the other day. There's a line of them following roughly the red line I've drawn onto this image. Looks very much like that's where the station will be. The direction may be a bit off, I think it goes more towards the bottom of the image.

I know right, I can't see many free spaces either.

Yes, I've noticed that too. The treatment of new members on this site certainly has gone downhill in the 9 days since you joined.

I don't think anyone was anticipating huge crowds. The park has been closed for six weeks, after a tragic accident, and not everything is open. Once the park has been open for a few weeks, and everything returns to normal, it will return to normal levels. I wouldn't be surprised if the park struggles to surpass previous years attendance, but give it a few years, a few new attractions, and it will be back to where it was previously. And look at Alton Towers; it's still reporting reduced attendance, but it's nothing dire. It will and is recovering. Dreamworld will likely do just the same. The only place that I've seen a huge drama made of the park's reopening, and about its future attendance is here. There isn't a huge fuss being made in the media as far as I can see, which would only be good for DW.

As long as you can keep the same colour on the track and supports and any other elements that you've ordered already.

I don't think the context there is entirely accurate. The police may have concluded their onsite investigation, but a final investigation will take months to complete. The wording in that statement is also fairly vague, it states that they couldn't recreate the "freak conditions" but not necessarily the outcome itself (however it can probably be assumed as such). I don't think you can dispute the fact that it was a freak accident, but I also don't think this is entirely accurate reporting.

^ Since there's only one footer in the car park, I don't think it'll become a car park coaster. In other news, I was at MW the other day and from the top of superman you can see a straight section of footers running diagonally from the direction of the service road, towards the studios. I'd assume this is for the station. There's also some work going on behind the JL building, which may be for an access point from the superman/AA area.

I was over in Southport yesterday and noticed what looked like shipping containers in the sea world car park. Has anyone been there recently/going soon that may be able to shed more light on what they are/are doing there?

But thrill seekers probably don't make up the majority of park guests. DW is much more geared towards families and people looking for a good day out. MW on the other hand is significantly more geared towards thrill seekers, as most of their recent attractions will attest.

I'd assume it's probably better to under promise and over deliver. Natural variations in the construction of the ride, and the conditions of the ground and foundations could affect the overall height of the ride. Remember when GL first opened, the published angle of the drop changed a number of times before being finally determined as what it is now. I think it will be over 200 feet, but in the case that it doesn't make it in the end, they won't have advertised it as being a hyper coaster.

Seven news tweeted a video that seemed to show a carriage stuck just over the top of the lift hill.

^^ Given how long the footings have taken to go in, I'm assuming when they say construction, they're referring to vertical construction. If we're looking at a September opening then given a four month construction timeline, I wouldn't think it would start until February or March. You also have to consider that the peak Christmas period is almost here and that the best place to store parts would be the carpark. I'd think you'd want as much of the carpark available during this period. Personally I wouldn't be surprised if they held off delivering parts for as long as possible.

I'm pretty sure that scaffolding goes up pretty much anytime that there's maintenance on the flume.

Marina Bay Sands in Singapore is right next to a major motorway and it's a five star hotel. Noise can't be too much of a problem.

Yeah, I don't see any reason why they'd not purchase from S&S again. If it's a concern over safety then I don't see why they would still be selling rides, let alone movie world still operating GL. And I don't think MW got terrible treatment from them, as it appears that they were very quick to prepare a redesigned wheel assembly. If anything, I'd think MW may even be more inclined to purchase from them again, given adequate assurances over the design from the beginning.

Bit of an off topic question; what was the reasoning behind removing the pirate ship?

^ I drove past this afternoon and whilst that last turn in the bottom left corner of your diagram seems fairly accurate, there's also what looks to be a pretty substantial footing right in the middle of it. It looks almost like there may be some kind of vertical loop element there.

All of the work is now closer to MW than WnW. They go not quite as far as where all the crates were. To add to what Brad said, there's some obvious land clearing taken place next to the JL building and the pile drivers are working their way away from the road at the moment.

^ I was about to post that photo. There's a slight better version here. But yes, that is where the top of the conveyer belt is and where it loops back.

Got a quick look driving past this afternoon on the M1. More fittings are appearing towards the south towards WNW. Still plenty of footings to go in by the looks of the stuff laying around.

^ I've seen some work happening closer to 1, mainly filling in of ditches and things. More likely to allow the heavy machinery through.

No photos again sorry, only driving past on the highway. There seems to be a fair bit of earthworks going on now, a small portion of the swamp might be being filled in. There's a few pile drivers working away, but you can't really see where (and if) they've actually done anything.