Jobe

The Plantation Coaster is very close to opening and there has been a flurry of media content surrounding this. Australia's second Alpine Coaster installation should open just in time for Xmas! Who is going to ride it? https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17dBQawogv/ The website has also been updated for the opening of the new attraction. https://bigbanana.com/rides-attractions/plantation-coaster/ The park is auctioning off its very first ride of the new attraction and the below article states that it will open Saturday the 13th December. https://media.destinationnsw.com.au/media-releases/final-section-track-installed-big-banana-fun-parks-58-million-plantation-coaster

Appears to have been a glitch or an error Hair Raiser is back on the website as under maintenance, but still with no timeline for it’s reopening. Hopefully this means the ride is just having some loner than expected fixable issues. i have had reports that this ride can be temperamental . There were reports of some corrosion early on in its life. Also there could be some anomaly with the winch that could be causing the problem. Either way it’s a fairly simple ride overall to operate and maintain. So unless it’s a parts issue there shouldn’t be too much wrong with it from an operational point of view. Hopefully it’s nothing structural.

Nagashima Spa Land validates your post! 😉

Was in Coffs Harbour for work and decided to stop by the Big Banana to see the progress of the Plantation Coaster! It’s looking very good and I think it has a good chance of being open by Christmas. This will be the 2nd Alpine Coaster installation in Australia and it will be the most accessible given that the other one is located at Thredbo on the ski fields of NSW. This one should be a great ride but it does appear to be a little short. The installation appears to have 2 lift hills. I thought that originally it was meant to loop behind the water park and back around but it’s actually very compact. It will certainly give a great reason to stop at Coffs Harbour and I think it will be a great success for the park when it opens! Hopefully this gives other Aussie parks the impetus to consider installing one of these as part of their lineup- Jamberoo/Funfields I am looking at you!

Should this car be called B1 perhaps??

Work has officially started on the 2nd and newest Alone Coaster in Australia. The Big Banana’s Plantation Coaster is due to open for the September school holidays. Here is a link to vision and a report of the start of construction ceremony https://www.facebook.com/share/1Bb4HryE3c/?mibextid=wwXIfr

@jhunt2 I absolutely owe you an apology. My intention was not firstly to bully but merely comment on what occured. When I have re-read my phrasing I can definitely appreciate that it was 100% the wrong way to illustrate my view. In no way , shape or form did I wish to belittle you because of your illness ( or belittle you in general!), or attempt to mock you because of it. I can however, see , unreservedly, how you arrived at the conclusion that you did. I 100% agree with you on this and I feel very aggrieved that I have caused you such pain in how you have interpreted my poor choice of phrasing. That was never , ever my intent. I can see and empathise with you how you have arrived at this and I can feel and hear the pain in your voice in the video you have posted since. Again, I offer my humblest and sincere apologies. Please feel free to PM me as I would welcome the opportunity to clear the air further in an offline situation.

Yeah absolutely. I get that the owners of LPS were under a heritage order to maintain Wild Mouse as a heritage ride in its original form but i think we need to give kudos here to LPS for delivering what they have- a complete rebuild of an historic attraction to the original plans and specifcations. That doesnt happen very often on a world level let alone in Australia. Great committment by the park and this sort of attention to detail helps put our little industry on the world map. There have been so many prominent Youtubers who have visited Australia in the last 2 years ( Theme park Worldwide, Airtime Thrills, Coaster Studios, Canobie Coaster) who has lamented missing out on getting this credit. Thsi will certainly give them the impetus and motovation to return and that will mean focus on our parks and rides again and that can only be good for our local industry.

100%. That particular Youtuber has a history of clickbait titles that are only generated for one thing- viewership and monetisation with a particular focus on exaggerations and amplifying small issues into big ones to try and support his arguments. They are usually nothing but his own wild speculation and can be very damaging to the park in question. Please note how he toots his own horn in the video- several times- about how good his last MW rant video went and it garnered 75k views. He certainly sees this as some sort of validation when in all honesty its just people reacting to the click bait titles. He started a failed "coaster odyssey" where he was traveling the world and riding the best coaster in every country. Ambitious and it was laid out with much fanfare but he had some health issues and came home with his tail between his legs. His prior videos were ok- he has stolen and mined a LOT of material from a lot of different sources and he is quite mercenary in this.His video ideas seem to be lifted almost entirely by airtime thrills...best manufacturers coaster etc. He does not like anyone at all giving him criticism , be it soft, hard or genuine, and he is known to block anyone from commenting on his videos if they do. The video he did for Luna Park Sydney with the title of "Is Luna Park Sydney going to close forever?" did it for me. It was a wildly speculative opiniontated video that was very tenuous in its information and delivery and was made on the back when LPS had announced that the park was for sale. In short it was head shakingly terrible. I would avoid at all costs.

Probably not your best moment....

Yeah the land behind Maloney's Corner is still state owned and still utilised by Citi rail as an important marshalling yard for trains. Its also a very important walking corridor around Lavender Bay and is highly used. LPS tried to get the zoning for the land that they use as picnic grounds and overflow seating to allow rides and attractions and submitted a DA to allow this. The independent member for North Sydney Council, Ian Mutton ( a real douchebag when it comes to LPS) led a chorus of residents against the proposal and LPS instead of fighting it, quietly withdrew the application and so it remains what it is. Ian Mutton is also the main voice behind converting the railway line to a highline walkway all the way back to Wollstonecraft station. He has been lobbying the state govt for this for a number of years but the fact remains that Citi rail still require the land and the line so this is not happening anytime soon. There is zero chance of LPS getting any of the land behind Maloney's Corner due to a lack of political will and fierce resident objection plus the fact that the land is still currently in use and not surplus to demand by the railway. My ideas for how to expand LPS would definitely cost more that $37 million ( which if we are being honest- is not a huge amount of money if we are talking about reinvestment of attractions) but I guess any of my ideas could be done in stages. They are just ideas and form part of a plan on what I think would be great for the park- plenty will disagree or hate what I propose but at the end of the day they are just my views and ideas. The original poster who said that the top of the carpark is the only real available space left to expand is 100% correct. Currently it is a green space with soil, grass and seats but this could be easily removed. The soil and grass would have some weight to it but another factor we would need to check is safe load bearing for this area and if it can handle the weight of any attractions that would be placed upon it. It may mean that it will require some extra bracing and reinforcement to attain the safe load bearing structurally but I am sure that this could be easily done. What I first propose is to move every single kiddie ride and attraction to this central point. This includes all 6 kiddie rides from Maloney's Corner to be reinstalled here. This includes the Freaky Frogs, the Silly Sub, the Cloud Nine, the Loopy Lighthouse, the Bug mini Ferris Wheel and the Little Nipper Rollercoaster. This would then form a kiddie precinct with all the kids rides available in an accesible space. This then could be themed with sails and plenty of seating for the mums and dads. To access this new kids precinct, there would be a need to erect a walkway and accessible ramp with lanes for up and lanes for down. It needs to be big enough to accommodate prams and wheelchairs and its important to note that there would also be an entrance to this area located on street level at Alfred Street. This pedestrian ramp would be built in front of the current ticket office and shop at the front and would snake out so that it starts in the middle of the midway, allowing for access to the ticket office and shop underneath. Of course it would need to be themed and Luna Parkified and the below pic is just an illustration showing the concept. Now that we have room in Maloney's Corner we can think about what attractions we can add that would give value to the mix. IMHO, I feel that LPS is currently heavy in kiddie rides and then thrill rides. There is not a lot in between so I think that some rides that the entire family can appreciate would be in order. First order of business I would move Hair Raiser from its current position to inbetween Boomerangs Helix- making much better use of the available space. This would then free up its current space for a new attraction. In the space that is currently occupied by the kiddie ride Cloud Nine, I would install a Gerstlauer Sky Roller 16. This is a mild thrill ride that the entire family can enjoy and its thrill factor can be upped by how far you want to roll your gondola. This would fit well into the current available space and would not be too high so that it would interfere with the Luna Park Planning act. In the space next to Boomerang and what was formerly home to the Little Nipper kiddie coaster and The Bug Mini Ferris Wheel, I would install LPS's 5th roller coaster- an Intamin Vertical LSM coaster. The designs for these coasters have small, medium and large and they are promoted as being highly customisable. If Intamin can design and fit a Hot Racer coaster into where the Big Dipper is situated then they can surely fit one of these into the footprint that is available. I did consider the Zamperla Heart Coast or a Premier ride Sky Rocket II but I feel that given LPS's good relationship with Intamin this would be the best option. Not great capacity for a new coaster but given what is available and the land we have to work with this is probably the best we could see without taking out more rides than you are adding in. I would then remove the Dodgems from where they currently reside and build a new Dodgem Pavilion where the Silly Sub currently is situated, along the back wall of Coney Island. I would theme it to be sympathetic to the Coney Island aesethetic, The below pic is meant to give an illustration of what the new Dodgem pavilion "could" be like. In the space where the Hair Raiser currently sits, I would put in a family attraction that has a great throughput, is thrilling but fit for the whole family and would give much needed kinetic energy back to the midway. I am referring to a Fabbri Flying Carpet ride, which would fit in nicely in this footprint adjoining the ice cream parlour building. They have a high cpacity with 40 riders per cycle and up to 960 riders per hour. Where the Loopy Light house currently sits I would install another great family attraction in the form of a Zamperla Nebulaz. These are fascinating to watch and add great amounts of kinetic energy to the midway but I have heard they are fairly forceless. Still they are visually excellent and a unit would fit into the footprint perfectly and its a great ride for the entire family to experience. My plans for the space that is currently filled by the dodgems would possibly be controversial. With the dodgems removed to Maloney's Corner, this allows quite a large space to be utilised for a dark ride to be returned to LPS. I would envisage that this footprint could be expanded in 2 ways. There is a redundant ticketing office situated at the side of the front of the dodgem footprint that could be used and the footprint could also be extended to come out into the midway as far as the Big Dipper bridge which would also give back some space for the footprint ( please see below photo to see what I mean) Luna Parks Main toilet block for that end of the park is behind the redundant ticket office so that part of the footprint could not be utilised. Still this would give a decent space for a dark ride of some form. What would I like to see? Well I would return the Ghost Train back to LPS. Yes some would say that this is quite triggering but there are a few things as to why this could work. Firstly I think that the dark ride would work well as shooter with some scare elements attached to the ride. The shooting scenes could utilise props or screens or a combination of both. The concept is sound and is one that Luna Park had explored before- the park did an excellent in house scare walk through called Mystery Manor which was so popular that it stayed for longer than was intended. Lastly, the return of the Ghost train was planned in the early stages of the refurb for Maloney's Corner. A dark ride is needed at LPS and this plan would give the space available for the park to have one again. I think it would be an asbolute winner. Time to call Sally Dark Rides methinks! The final stage of my plan is also quite contoversial and one that I have mentioned here in years previously but i still see it as having merit. I would replace the current Ferris Wheel with a new unit. Specifically an Intamin Coaster Wheel. This would be unlke no other Ferris Wheel in Australia and it would cater to all members of the family- rides on these are quite thrilling on the swinging cars and there are also the static "normal" cars on the outside for people who wish to have a normal ferris wheel experience. This would be a win win in my opinion and you could theme it approriately with an excellent lighting package. Call it The Moon Wheel. So there you have it- my musings on how LPS could expand their ride and attraction lineup. This would give a total of 6 new rides - 1 new thrill coaster, 4 new family flat attractions and the return of a dark ride to LPS for the first time since the 1979 fire. Also you would have reimagined Dodgems and a "new" version of the Ferris Wheel. This would be quite an expansion for the park and it would certainly give the park an overall "Grona Lund" feel.TGis would round out the parks attractions , adding much needed capacity and would also flesh out the day for any visitor to the park. It also leaves the Big Top and the Crystal Palace intact for their functions side business which is hugely important to the overall LPS business plan. $37 million would not really cover it but lets all remember that they spent $15 million alone on the Big Top and Crystal Palace Immersive experiences.

Yeah this is great news. Further in to the podcast the CEO also revealed further that the Alpine Coaster is set for a September 2025 opening date and that he envisages that the Big Banana Park in 10 years will have an expansion to the water park with onsite accommodation as well. He would also love to install a family coaster within that timeframe and they have plans to resurrect the Bunyip in the lake. These are exciting times for this small regional park and its great to see the investment continue to gorw with plans for the future.

Yeah Narra wasnt saying that it was. He was referring to the text as the biggest in your face text on the front page...........

Yeah agree. However a retheme is 100% needed. I think that a new Straddle coaster type train such as quad bikes such as on Juvelon in Denmark would be ideal. Change colour of track, retheme station to be more sympathetic to the Rivertown area and maybe some themed elements without going to huge excess around the course could be done fairly efficiently. I think this would be a viable option and would make an unpopular and uncomfortable ride into a family coaster that would be far more enjoyable. Problem is as stated , I do not think Dreamworld would see this as a priority or even as a real option.

No one is disputing his right to defend his team. We know and he knows that media hype when these incidents occur are horrendous. We all agree with him in principle here. Even the poster who called him out in the screen shot agreed with him on that point. However, it was 100% completely unprofessional that he even mentioned his direct competitor's worst ever accident on social media in reference to this. He represents a brand and a directly competing park to the one he mentioned. He could have got his point across quite easily without mentioning Dreamworld or the 2016 accident. If he had , we would have all been supporting him in this. Now, because he directly referenced Dreamworld and the accident, it comes across as extremely petty, uneccessary and unprofessional in the extreme. That one comment is undefendable IMHO and it shows Bikash's complete arrogance and disregard for any sort of decorum. I bet any Dreamworld executive would be furious at this intimation that the park is unsafe after a full 8 years after the incident and various measures and new attractions have been put in place to revive Dreamworld's trust in the publc face. This is nothing but a cheap shot and Bikash would know that , hence why the comment has been deleted.