Jobe

Dont get me wrong- it was a legitimate question. I was genuinely interested in why they had moved them to Feb and March. Its quite a reasonable reason as explained by @Adam C. If it works for AW then more power to them. However, are these nights in lieu of a October event as well? Not sure I 100% agree that people do not make the connection between Horror Nights and Halloween though. I would argue that Halloween is becoming more and more recognisable in this country from a retail and micro event point of view. The fact that is becoming so commercialised and embraced by more and more Australians points towards greater awareness for mine. Also the fact that virtually every park now has a Halloween event ( even the smaller parks such as LPM, LPS , Aussie World have very successful Fright Nights) is more evidence that Halloween is becoming more mainstream than ever. My opinion only, but I would say that perception between a park Horror night event in October and Halloween itself would not be stronger.

Remind me why they are having Fright Nights in February and March again? 😳

Excellent work @19Michael96. Thanks for the update!! It looks like the Volare will meet its expected opening in late March. Its great to see a new permanent ride come to LPS at long last!! Fingers crossed this now signals the start of the previously announced $20 million ride reinvestment stage- lets hope this is carried out as planned. Bring on that often hinted at and much needed new coaster! I will be passing that way on Monday afternoon- will check and see what progress is being made.

Absolutely!! The Kennedy Space Centre was a highlight of our trip 18 months ago- its well worth the effort to get to! Also- do not discount going to Busch Gardens Tampa- its also about an hour away. They have an excellent array of good coasters, as i am sure you are aware. Since you are staying at near Universal, there is a bus that leaves from the main entrance to the City Walk every day. It leaves right on the park closing. Its excellent and very easy to use and fairly cheap as well. Enjoy your time there- I had an absolute blast!! Cannot wait to go again.

And in the forums......just saying. :-)

Thanks for the clarification here Paula- it really did not seem that Funfields was the longer unit! Is this longer than the Octo 8 racers at WWW, or the Racers at Wet 'N Wild Sydney, do you know? Ah..cheers thanks for that clarification. Where in Victoria is the Indoor unit located? We saw Kryal Castle when we went to Sovereign Hill, but sadly did not get time to go there!! Will have to check it out !!

Cheers for the video Paula!! Where in the park were the karts located?

No it was on the shortlist but ultimately we had to drop it. Honestly, we did so much I guess we had to leave something to do for next time 😊👍

Thanks for the info Paula. How long ago were they removed? Were they similar to Funfield's karts at all?

The last fully fledged theme park of our Victorian trip is Funfields. Funfields is located at Whittlesea, which is a 57 minute drive from the Melbourne CBD itself. Very easy to get to by car, but as with Adventure World, getting there by public transport is problematic. The park bills itself as having 3 record holders in slides. I know this has been discussed on the forums before so I will only mention them briefly for each ride. We arrived on one of the hottest days of the year with a top temperature of 42 degrees. Not sure what we were in for crowds wise, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the soaring temperatures actually served to keep people away from the park. Like Adventure Park, Funfields is a park that divides itself between a water slide section, and a dry ride section. It has in recent years , been the destination for a couple of former rides from 2 of the Gold Coast theme parks. ( more on that later) Like Adventure Park, Funfields utilises a height meter to sort ticket prices. A single ticket for the highest height bracket (135cm+) was $48. There is no family option so the grand total for a family of 4 for us was $192. (once again..ouch) Given the heat, I had decided to bring in a small esky filled with water. This is allowed , however, upon entry, we were told that there are only certain places in the park where eskies are allowed and this was in the BBQ and picnic area. Eskies are not allowed anywhere near the water section of the park nor near the new area for the Volcano Beach. This was not an issue as there was plenty of seating and shaded areas in the section we were directed to. Finding a spot, we then set about getting a locker for our valuables. This was the same price as Adventure Park ($12 all day) but did not feature the eminently practical wrist band solution as found at Adventure Park. Oh well back to remembering locker numbers and pin numbers!! As well as the heat, there was a very strong hot wind that was blowing. At the entrance, the helpful gate assistant advised us that due to the winds, some attractions could close. With that excellent advice in mind , we decided to hit the dry rides first. The first one we tackled was the Burnout, In a previous life, this ride had spent a number of years at Dreamworld as the Stingray. It was very well presented here and in excellent condition- it had received a very good refurb in its move here to Funfields. The kids tackled the Samba Balloons next, a very nice looking unit from Zamperla. This and the Burnout formed a small family ride precinct that also included a small Ferris wheel, a carousel, a kids go kart track and a tea cups ride. Very well presented and very appealing to the younger family members. We then decided to tackle Blackbeard's Fury, a HUSS swinging ship. This unit was an original ride from Seaworld on the Gold Coast. Once again, FunFields have done a wonderful job of refurbing this ride and it looked and rode excellent. The difference between this and the Meisho unit at LPM was night and day. Blackbeard's Fury swung an impressive degree and it was an entirely smooth ride experience. Funfields have even attempted some theming elements in front of the ride. Not sure what Seaworld were thinking in getting rid of this ride- in its current excellent condition it could still easily operate at Seaworld today. A rather short sighted decision , in my opinion! As a curious side note, Funfields also offers this ride as a VR experience for the princely sum of $6. Apparently the VR content is themed to a Dragon ride somehow. We rode Blackbeard's Fury 4 times throughout the day and not once did we see any VR units being utilised. I found the concept of VR on a swing ship ride quite odd. We then headed to Voodoo , the parks 360 degree swing pendulum ride. This is an excellent attraction for any number of small parks- it gave great forces and yet had quite a small footprint. It also was a very smooth ride experience , although the seating was a little uncomfortable. We got 2 rides on this in quick succession which proved a shrewd move as about an hour later this was closed due to the high winds. It never reopened for the day. This ride is an exceptional addition to Funfields attraction lineup. The next order of the day was to ride the parks Alpine Toboggan run. This example featured the traditional cable lift hill to the top ( unlike Jamberoo's chairlift). It was not as long as Jamberoo's toboggan run ( they also have 2) but it was a good example of this type of ride. In my opinion, the track felt in better condition that Jamberoo's 2 runs and the toboggans themselves were also in far better material condition. This was a walk on and we got in 5 runs in very quick succession. Excellent fun. After the toboggans , we then headed to the Go karts. The layout had recently been shortened to accommodate the new Volcano Beach Wave Pool but I didnt feel that this affected the track overly at all. The karts themselves were all 2 person cars. You need to be 145 cm plus to drive alone and 100- 144cm can be passengers. There were 10 karts in operation this day and it was my sons first experience in driving them. They certainly were not overly fast but they did provide a decent speed once you stretched them out. Operations were a little slow on this and they would have been brutal if the park was majorly busy. Given that the heat was increasing, we decided to hit the water portion of the park. Funfields has the standard water play structures found in most water parks now. This example included something a little different insofar as that it does not have a swinging bucket overhead. Instead, it has a "shack" structure that periodically releases the water deluge. There is no warning as to when this will occur so it was a little random as to when the water was released. Also, unlike a lot of other play structures, this one was situated in a shallow pool, which was perfect for parents to sit in either under or near the water mushrooms found therein. This was a welcome advantage on such a hot day unlike other water structures that are placed on foam or sponge underlay. The kids then tried the bumper boast- an old school attraction to be sure. They are getting harder to find in Australia and they sure are ordinary when it comes to capacity but the kids loved them. 10 boats only does mean very slow operations though. We then moved on to the Typhoon- billed by the park as the as the World's longest Proslide cannonball. Have to say this was my favourite slide of the park and was so much fun!! It certainly had a good length of slide before hitting the bowl and it gained a good deal of momentum as you burst onto the lip of the curve. Great fun and very re-rideable. What is great about the operations on this slide is that Funfields offer single tube and dual tube rider options. This gives a lot of flexibility for any group of riders. The slides directly next to the Typhoon are the original body slides and obviously have a bit of age about them. They are nearly identical to ones found in Jamberoo and even share a similar name in Splash Down. However, at Funfields, they make you ride these with mats and this makes for a very disappointing slide experience. The mats seemed to slow down your momentum to the point where we all thought we would stop on the course at some point.These slides should remain as body slides to get the most out of them. Jamberoo's are far superior , in my thinking, The next 2 slides are enclosed tube slides called Blackout and Wipeout. They are pretty standard slides but fun nonetheless. As its name suggests, Blackout is completely dark through its course entirety. Like Typhoon, these slides operated with singe tube and double tube options. The next slide is the Kraken racer, the 2nd purportedly record holder. Its billed as the World's Longest Proslide Kraken Racer and when I saw it i was very underwhelmed. I have been on many different racers in water parks around the world and to me, this is really stretching a point. There are longer racers in Australia, by far ( albeit by other manufacturers- hell the racers at Adventure Park in the SAME state were far longer.) Its fairly representative of its type of slide but the less said about its alleged "World Record" the better. The third Record holder, the Gravity Wave, is a far more impressive slide. Billed as the World's Biggest, Longest and Tallest Proslide Wave and Victoria's tallest waterslide this is a slide to be proud of. This gave an impressive amount of ride time and the dive into the wave is great fun. Interestingly , you can only ride this in either 4 person or 2 person configuration- not 3. I asked about this and this is Proslides specification and not the park's , according to the ride attendant. Funny how you can ride Tornado's with 3 riders but not this slide. And as can be seen, Funfields are also touting a new slide to join Gravity Wave in the near future. The infrastructure is all there, they just need to erect the slide. I am betting that they have already purchased the next slide and we will see it installed early next year. This is a very cool thing which Funfields have done very well in implementing. Near the queue lines to all the major slides, they have installed these structures made of PVC piping for riders to store their thongs and hats. This was crucial and very beneficial , given that it was such a hot day and the heat emanating from the cement necessitated wearing footwear of some kind. This allowed all riders to neatly stack them in the pipes provided and to gather them to move on once the ride had finished. This played in very well with my love of all things practical. All water parks in Australia should see this and take note!! (Jamberoo hint hint) Volcano Beach is the new inclusion for this year and opened in December. As a Wave Pool its a little on the smaller side, ( its only reaches 1.8 metres at its deepest depth) but the surrounding area is nicely themed. The vegetation surrounding the area will look much better in 12 months and will give the area a much more organic look. This is the first wave pool in Victoria and it is also heated so that its use can be extended into the cooler months. It certainly did not need the heating element on the day we visited!!! Stage 2 will also see a new cafe and eatery be added to this area. All in all, a nice addition to the park. Funfields , for mine wins the battle of the water parks in Victoria. It feels far more complete and well rounded. It certainly is Jamberoo's Victorian cousin and those 2 parks share quite a lot in DNA and similarity. Given that this is also the closer of the 2 parks to Melbourne, it is the easiest to get to by car. If you are staying or planning a family trip to Melbourne, then a visit to this burgeoning park should be on your list of things to do. My next installment of our Melbourne trip will see non theme park related attractions added in together to give an overview of some of the other points of interest that you can experience whilst in the fair Victorian capital. These will include: Werribee Open Plain Zoo Sovereign Hill Melbourne Zoo The Melbourne Aquarium Amaze and Things, Phillip Island The Penguin Parade, Phillip Island ArtVo 3D Art Gallery and Southern Star Observation Wheel MCG Tour and National Sports Museum. Because I am a glutton for punishment and like us all, a bit of a theme park nut, I will be visiting Wet 'N'Wild Sydney this weekend and also our annual Jamberoo trip is the weekend after. I will post a trip report for each of them as well in the coming days. Thanks for letting me share our experiences and I hope you have enjoyed the trip reports as they come.

Yes Tim I am aware of that and mentioned that fact in the trip report here:

Yeah I cant remember riding the Tornado at Wet"N Wild GC at all- it must have been longer since I was there!! The Clover Leaf rafts are not overly heavy true but they are very bulky and difficult to ascend a narrow stair with. This is hampered even more if there is a decent wind as well. The best technique we found was to roll them up the stairs- this kept greater control and could be better managed by just 2 people. WnW Hawaii's Tornado you also had to manually carry as well, so its not an uncommon issue. I guess when you find an example that is automated , it certainly is a welcome relief. It certainly, in my mind, is cause for considering WWW's example The Green Room to be superior , just on this feature alone.

Not having been to Wet'N'Wild Gold Coast for at least 10 years but if you are required to carry the cloverleaf raft up the stairs by hand ,then yes it is definitely a pain in the arse. Especially when parks such as Jamberoo, Whitewater world , Wet and Wild Sydney all have automated conveyor belts to take the raft up. Why wouldnt you find it a pain in the arse?

Continuing with my Trip reports from Melbourne/Victoria here is our day at Adventure Park Geelong. The day we visited was quite a mild day with a top temp of around 26 degrees but there was a decent wind which made it seem cooler. Adventure Park is a bit of a trek to get to from Melbourne- from our apartment in St Kilda it was a 1 hour 16 minute journey. Easy to get to by car but much more difficult if you have to rely on public transport. The tickets are based on height not age so my family attracted the top price with the total tickets coming to $178. Ouch. Interestingly, the carpark is all grassed area with easy to navigate designated areas to park quite visible. We bought our tickets and headed in. What struck us was the amount of covered areas for your bags etc- there were literally dozens of tables and chairs under large marquees where you could base yourself. There was also a huge building that had at least 40 tables and chairs in a large open area which was adjacent to toilets/ change rooms and also lockers and the main food outlet area. After settling on a space, we then booked a locker for our valuables. This cost $12 for all day but the system was quite practical. Where you paid, it assigned you a locker ( with handy card payment option) and then it asked how many wrist bands you required. We decided on 2 and then all you did was place the wrist band on your arm, select your locker and then the wrist band is assigned to that particular locker. No worry about remembering pin numbers or locker numbers. Very easy. Forgive me if other forum members are familiar with this type of system, but I had never seen it before. Extremely user friendly. The first thing that strikes you about the park is the Ferris Wheel which dominates the skyline near the front. We rode this straight away as there was little to no queue ( and remained so throughout the day). It provided great views of the entire park and the surrounding area. As you can see the main slide area is bounded by the lazy river which circumnavigates the entire area and passes underneath the racer slides. We decided to do all the dry rides first up so the next stop was the Wave Swinger. This was a nicely presented smaller unit ( I am unsure of the manufactuer of this one- @HussRainbow87 perhaps you can help out here?) with only 2 rows of riders. It featured murals of iconic world destinations as well as familiar Melbourne locations. What I was surprised about this unit was that it had a weight limit of 104kg. To me, this was not overly heavy and I have never seen this specific a weight limit applied to a Wave Swinger before- can anyone answer if this is normal? I am assuming its the manufacturer's specifications and its size would be a factor but none of the other park Wave Swingers I have checked have a weight limit ( Aussie World's certainly does not). Curious. Anyway the kids loved this ride and got in 3 rides in quick succession. We then moved on to where the remainder of the dry rides were located and rode the Crazy Coaster, another unit from SBF Visa. This unit differed from the LPM unit insofar that was a smaller figure 8 circuit whereas this included another helix. This remained popular all day , given its family nature, and once again , I was surprised at how good these rides are. This is a perfect installation for a small park such as Adventure Park. The kids then tried the Little Buggy Speedway, which was well themed for what it was. I found it a little confusing that a park of this size has this for the kids yet there is no option for a full sized Dodgem set. Surely this would not be a huge capital cost but I guess there is the factor of riding this if you are wet or damp. This may play some part in their decision ( and Funfields) to not include Dodgems in their ride lineup. I guess they could look at including a Go Kart set up ( like Funfields) as a future attraction. The park also has some old school retro attractions such as paddle boats on the lake. The kids loved these! Speaking of old school attractions, anyone for archery? The big new inclusion for this season was the standard run of the mill Tornado. These are becoming fairly anachronistic in Australia as most water parks seem to have an example. This one has been installed with expansion on the left for another slide in mind for sure, but obviously the budget this time around did not include the conveyer for the cloverleaf rafts, I have to tell you, lugging one of these up by hand, is no mean feat and it was this fact alone that certainly kept ridership to a minimum throughout the day. I am sure this will be rectified in the future when Adventure Park installs an expansion slide into the ready made area. The Aqua Racers are your standard mat racing slides- I always seem to get a mountain of airtime on this variety! Bonito's Bay is your standard kids play area - it was well presented with cabana's available for hire on the periphery. It was a nice setup. The Lazy river also hid access to premium cabanas on the other side, These were in an elevated position overlooking part of the Lazy river and included full fridges and TV's in each one. Very nice indeed! The park also included on a separate island in the lake 2 x 18 hole mini golf courses. These were excellent and were also quite popular and were a great way to soak up a couple of hours as a family. The last 2 major slides ,Wild West Canyon and Gold Rush Rapids , are enclosed raft slides. These ones are obviously original slides hearkening back to the earliest days of the park. Certainly do not see Wooden Towers much anymore!!! They both provided a good ride experience, operations were excellent and as a result, there was minimal lines. Adventure Park is a park that is quite beautiful - it has well landscaped grounds and a picturesque lake in the middle. It has huge areas and huge potential for expansion- they are certainly not lacking in land options. The food options were excellent and quite varied throughout the park- this was a bit surprising to see. The option to bring in esky's and your own picnic lunch is a welcome choice , especially for larger groups or families. Its a park that is very old school in some of its attractions (paddle boats, Archery and Mini Golf) but this does nothing to undermine the charm that it has acquired. This park is on the cusp of becoming a larger player in the amusement market in Australia and they are really only another major slide and dry attraction from really putting themselves on the map. They dont quite match up to FunFields offering ( more on this later) at this particular time, however, I can see them really challenging this status quo in the years to come. The somewhat strange ( to me ) combination of water park and traditional amusements is of course driven by Victoria's weather and its high seasonality for water rides. It does work but it means that they are going to have to continue adding dry and water attractions back to back to maintain some sense of equilibrium. The park was also open to 6pm during holidays in the summer to take advantage of the later day light that Victoria enjoys. This was excellent and something that Wet 'n' Wild Sydney and Jamberoo should take note of. All in all, we had an excellent time at Adventure Park and for families , it really is a great day trip. I would definitely recommend a visit!

That would make the timeline perfect then. Wonderland History reports the Funnel Web leaving Wonderland in 1989 where it sat out back in maintenance for a little while and its eventual fate is unknown. On Wiki, it says the Spider was built in 1983. It COULD be the same unit..... That's very interesting. I am sure that is a by product of that. Do you have a source for this? Yeah the Dodgem's height is a bit puzzling. LPS has 85-95cm can ride with an adult for its Dodgem set. The other restrictions I get, looking at the rides. They seem pretty standard across the board with most other parks. As for Scenic Railway, I guess its a function of the ride itself. Its not a very forceful ride and any child 100-110cm can ride with an adult. Riding such a big coaster is such an awesome thing to do for someone at that age so its great they can experience it with the whole family. The Pipe Organ is a historical feature of the carousel and is fairly integral to the overall experience. I have been to LPM on 5 occasions and have heard it play on 2. I was lamenting its silence on this visit- it really adds to the overall atmosphere of the ride. Yeah agree 100% here on the condition of the Holodeck. It was in pretty poor shape for exactly the reasons as Webslave outlined. Like a few other attractions, it needs some love and attention! What a pity LPM didnt pick up Rail Chase at the same time- going for less than $140,000 it would have been an absolute bargain and a great addition to the park! Also consider if the sale of the Titan had been actually completed from Expo Park in 1989 and this had arrived at the park. I know Boomerangs are old hat now but it would have been a great addition in LPM with its relatively small footprint. It certainly would have made the loss of the Big Dipper a bit easier to swallow. Yep operations overall were not great. Scenic Railway was good, Powersurge and Speedy Beetle was decent and the rest was a bit of a lottery to be honest. However, I thought that the park did a good job of rotating the operators- I saw first hand operators handling the majority of the rides withing their shift- with the exception of the Scenic Railway. This appears to be a more specialised field and was limited to 5 operators for the 8 hours I was there ( including brakemen) I think you are spot on here Huss. There is several spots in the park that seemed "odd placement" for mine and the current layout of rides could definitely be tweaked to be better suited for space management. I think that the SBF Coaster placement is not meant to be a permanent position. Honestly and realistically, if i was in charge of LPM, with the exceptions of the Carousel, The Ghost Train, the Spider and of course the Scenic Railway, I would gut the park and completely overhaul the ride lineup and alignment and placing. The place has great potential to be a fantastic mix of the best of the historic and the best of the new!! Thanks guys- its important that we support the smaller parks in Australia- its not just all about the Gold Coast , even though they are the main focal point of the Australian industry. I will complete the other reports in the next couple of days and I look forward to posting them

I had the opportunity to go down to Melbourne in the past couple of weeks for work and I thought I would combine work with leisure and bring the family with me for a extended break. We had a jam packed time and fit in quite a lot in our stay. I decided to tick off a couple of the Victorian parks that I have never visited and I will present them here as a trip report with my musings on each for all here to enjoy. The parks and places that we visited included: Luna Park Melbourne Action Park , Geelong Funfields, Whittlesea We also visited attractions such as: Werribee Open Plain Zoo Sovereign Hill Melbourne Zoo The Melbourne Aquarium Amaze and Things, Phillip Island The Penguin Parade, Phillip Island ArtVo 3D Art Gallery and Southern Star Observation Wheel I will restrict my trip reports to the aforementioned 3 parks, but I might do an overview of the other places as there are some excellent experiences to be had. So onward to Luna Park Melbourne! Melbourne's Mr Moon is decidedly creepier than its Sydney counterpart. We did the park on a Saturday as the park is open until 11pm at this time ( like LPS,we wanted to experience LPM in the night. It was quite warm when we arrived at around 2pm and the crowds were quite large. It was around $149 for a family ticket of 4 however, thanks to a helpful work colleague, we had an entertainment voucher which gave us 25% off and this brought the total down just on $100. Good start so far!! It is worth noting that that the park now charges $5 for just entering the park, regardless of riding or not. They justify this by saying that it is helping to maintain their heritage attractions of the Scenic Railway, Carousel and Ghost train. If you buy a ride ticket or pass this is included in that price , of course. I don't doubt that these attractions are seriously labour and financially resource draining so to me, it seems like a reasonable request , for mine. The first ride we tried was the Spider. This is a Eyerly Aircraft Company example and these are becoming rarer and rarer these days. This type of ride debuted in 1967 and this unit is a typical example of its ilk. The operations on this ride were very slow as the ride was attended to by only one ride op. It was also hampered by the cycle before our ride where a rider was sick and it had to be cleaned up. Overall the ride experience was smooth and was quite an enjoyable experience. My son and I spun considerably in our car. The ride has been maintained well and it looked in good condition. Not sure if this is the same unit as once resided at Wonderland in its early days. I am sure one of you esteemed knowledgeable forum members can tell me! Interestingly , the Eyerly Aircraft Company went out of business in 1985 and the rights to their rides went to Oregon rides Inc. They are one of the more interesting ride manufacturers out there IMHO. We next rode the Twin Dragon, a Meisho Swinging ship. As far as I am aware, this is the only type of this ride in Australia by this manufacturer , and they are extremely rare elsewhere. The ride experience was ok, however they certainly do not match a HUSS unit in any way. More on that later though. We then rode the park's Enterprise, a unit which has obviously seen much use. It is a genuine HUSS unit(@HussRainbow87 will be happy about that! ) but its a unit that is in need of some love and attention. Still, the ride was smooth and as always, gives great forces. My son and daughter had never ridden this type of ride and they thoroughly enjoyed the experience. This is LPM's new cafe and function centre. It looks excellent and is 3 levels- the first level a retail cafe and eatery , the 2nd level a function area and there is also a third rooftop level for functions as well.The food looked good and we decided to wait until later in the evening to have dinner to try out its wares. Alas this was not meant to be, as LPM made the inexplicable decision to shut this ( and almost all other food outlets) except for The Diner car at 7pm. This is in direct contrast to LPS where all food outlets are open until close. The park could have made some serious dollars if their food options had remained open. Subsequently , we left the park to nearby Acland street for a quick meal to return to ride. An amazingly short sighted decision on managments part IMHO. The kids wanted then to ride the Powersurge and this is a fairly recent arrival at LPM. It was well presented and was quite popular with good sized lines throughout the day!! My daughter had to be talked into going on this with my son, but when she did, she loved it!! They ended up riding this 4 times throughout the day! We then lined up for the Hellerious Clowns walkthrough attraction. This is a experience that has stayed since Halloween, and although not as well presented as LPS's Mystery Manor, it was quite an enjoyable scare attraction. The scare actors werent quite as good as their Sydney counterparts and it required you to wear 3 D glasses but it was certainly longer than Mystery Manor. This attraction was only open during the day and shut at 5pm. The kids rode the Coney Shot Drop and the Pharaoh's Curse in quick succession. Both pretty standard park rides and fairly forgettable. The restraints on the Pharaoh's Curse were quite restrictive on the legs, making for an uncomfortable ride. The Ghost train is well presented but with very slow operations. Its a ride that of course has quite a history, as it is one of the few remaining Pretzel dark rides left anywhere in the world, having opened in 1935. Its old school fun inside and can get quite dark in sections but i think it desperately needs a refurb inside, with some of the scares looking quite tired. Also, the ride would benefit enormously from having live scare actors roaming the track but unfortunately , this is not allowed anymore. However, there is plenty of technology that could be utilised to enhance this ride and the overall experience. Of course the Great Scenic Railway was what we really wanted to see and ride and it was great to see it finally in action. This ride had 30 minute waits for the entirety of the day and was extremely popular with all ages. The only had one train in operation at any one time and the ride was down for about 40 minutes due to weather conditions. It was quite windy at this time and the train ( Red Train) valleyed after the first initial drop. It was quite amusing seeing 4 LPM employees scale the ride and walk to where the loaded train sat waiting. They then pushed the train to complete the circuit. To fix this issue, the park changed trains, (red to blue) and they completed several circuits with the maintenance crew oiling several sections of the track as they went. The ride then continued without any further stoppages. I am told this does happen quite regularly when the wind is blowing at the right angle. Fun times!! The blue train awaiting riders and also displaying the awesome mural on the back wall. The Scenic Railway station is a beautiful work of art in itself and is a pleasure to see and view. We then decided to ride the park's smaller family coasters, the Silly Serpent a Zamperla powered coaster, and the Speedy Beetle, an SBF Visa spinning coaster. This was the first time that I had ridden one of these types of rides and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. They are an excellent family addition to any small park and they pack a good punch in a very small footprint. This unit is the smallest option that SBF Visa offer but they do come in varying sizes. More on that later. Given that it does not get dark in Melbourne during summer until about 9:15pm, we opted to ride the Skyrider ferris wheel right on dusk. The view was magnificent looking out on Port Phillip Bay , riding as we watched the sun disappear from view, dipping below the horizon at last. It was a bit chilly due to the wind but an awesome experience and I would say a must do!! This Ferris Wheel has been in the park since the 70's and its quite a feeling to ride an open seating styled ride like this rather than the more common cabin style. This ride , like all Ferris Wheels , had to be carefully balanced in its riders. The other historical ride at the park is the magnificent 1913 vintage PTC carousel. This has just been restored after some serious downtime and money to get it back into operating status. Little known fact is that this is the only PTC carousel ever imported outside North America and is one of only 35 remaining. It was originally installed at Sydney's White City amusement park before fire destroyed this park ( perhaps a topic for another day?). LPM management bought it and transported it to Melbourne where it resides as the centrepiece of the park. Disappointingly, the 1909 vintage Pipe Organ was not running on the day. Of course this place takes on a new level when night drops and the lights are turned on. The park becomes a incandescent wonderland and the atmosphere is absolutely wonderful at this time. This it shares with its sister park in Sydney. There is nothing like going on rides on a balmy summer Saturday night. Brilliant! Interestingly , the Scenic Railway's trains are adorned with Blue LED's for night time action. The effect was brilliant and they looked amazing as the ride traversed its circuit into the night. The face does look much more inviting at night...... Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this trip report of a park not often reported on Parkz. LPM is a great place to visit for an afternoon, if only for the historical value of the Scenic Railway, the Carousel and the Ghost Train. Is is as good as LPS? Hmmm, thats a difficult one to answer. Both parks have their pro's and cons. LPM is quite a bit smaller than LPS but the Scenic Railway and its St Kilda setting is timeless. LPS does have the magnificent Harbour and bridge backdrop though to counter this. I guess we will have to wait and see what improvements are now brought to fruition for LPS. LPM does need some serious reinvestment to give it a lift- there are many things in the works and they are planned but of course financial backing is the key. We are incredibly lucky to have both LPS and LPM in Australia for us both to enjoy and they are significant in the amusement landscape and history of Australia.They cannot compete with the Gold Coast parks(nor are they meant to) but they deserve their place in our park lineup. My advice is get out there and enjoy them both

Any pictures?

I get that difference having been on quite a few lazy rivers and adventure rivers in my time. My point is has any of that been confirmed? Is that exactly what we are going to get? Or will it just be a lazy river with animals on the periphery to give it the “adventure” tag....knowing Dreamworld this is probably what we are going to get.

Hmmmm.....and the major difference is?

The positioning of the Flying Carousel has been confirmed by Brad Loxley, the Senior Amusement Park Manager, and that is on he old Flying saucer site. Of course, that was well over 12 months ago but I dont think that plans have changed in that period of time. In reality, I dont think you could get a better site than this for this type of ride- the elevated position of the ride will give it an extra thrill factor as the ride rotates and swings out across the Midway. Will look fabulous!! In other news Brad Loxley, the aforementioned senior rides manager at Luna Park, has left the park to take up a position in Vietnam's Sun World. This is a huge loss for the park as Brad had worked at the park for well over 20 years and is well respected in the industry. I had managed to strike up an excellent relationship with Brad over the years and conversed on quite a number of subjects relating to the park, he was nothing but a consummate professional and his love for Luna Park was great to see. Luna Park is now looking for a senior Manager to fill his shoes!!! Anyone on these pages care to apply?? https://www.ausleisure.com.au/news/brad-loxley-to-depart-luna-park-sydney-after-20-years-to-join-vietnams-sun-world Its great to see an Australian do extremely well in the industry!! Good luck Brad, we wish you all the best from the forums here at Parkz.

Cheers mate- I will be down that way myself for work and I will try to call in at some point to get some pics if I can as well.

Just to clarify this point, which has been reported as a major bone of contention by the said North Sydney Councillor, Ian Mutton. Ride installs under the new legisaltion on Lavender Green are NOT going to be permitted. The only way that Luna Park can change this is to go through the normal DA process and have any addition or change to this area subject to the findings and auspices of said process. That would mean that any resident objection would be met and listened to. This is detailed in the DPE public information e-mail that was sent as part of the annoucement of the changes pertaining to Luna Park, as outlined below. Looking forward to the construction of the new Flying Carousel- perhaps @19Michael96 will be able to keep us regularly updated as to the ride installs progress from when it begins? Very positive times for LPS- cannot wait to see what they have in store for us- of which I am reliably told will be of an excellent quality. For now this month brings visits for me to Luna Park Melbourne, Fun Fields and Adventure Park. Looking forward to doing some trip reports and photos of these Victorian parks not often mentioned on these boards.

Sorry T-Bone I am going to have to disagree with you here.I have been on these boards since nearly inception and most know that my main points of interest are the Luna Park's of Australia and the smaller Australian theme parks such as Jamberoo, Aussie World , Adventure World and the Victorian parks such as Fun Fields and Adventure Park. Sure I have a huge interest in the GC parks as well and recognise rightly that they are are the pinnacle of the amusement park industry in Australia, but I always gravitate to any threads regarding our smaller burgeoning parks in the other states. My point is that I have shared my opinions and views on these parks over these many years and I have had (mostly) well rounded, intelligent discussions from members and posters that have certainly taken a fervent interest in these parks. This site is CALLED Parkz and as such encompasses ALL Australian amusement parks in the country as a whole. Its not called Gold Coast Parkz for a reason. Yeah sure the main thrust of the industry and the sheer scale of the parks on the GC mean that they attract the lion share of the focus on these boards but that is not meant to detract at all from the smaller parks within the Australian amusement park landscape. To say that no one seems to really care about the other parks is just a massive incorrect statement , IMHO. @iwerks, @Tim Dasco , @19Michael96 and myself are certainly examples of regular and respected posters who's main point of focus are not solely aligned with the GC parks.

Here is a very interesting case study video on the Sydney/Darling Harbour Monorail system!. I bet @pushbutton will approve of this!! From the same Youtube channel as the above Sydney Monorail posting, here is a case study video on the life span of the Australia's Wonderland. Very interesting and I know that there are several posters on this forum such as AlexB who worked at the park. I know that that the death of Wonderland has been talked about ad-nauseum on these boards but this video does provide an interesting take on the Wonderland saga. He certainly does provide an interesting viewpoint on a what if scenario if Wonderland had not been sold to Sunway. Enjoy the video!

Hi guys I just saw this extremely interesting video on Youtube regarding the history of Sega World Sydney. The video is a mine of information and features virtually every known image and video of Sega World found on the net currently. I had the pleasure of visiting Sega World in 1997 the first year of its operation and I remember feeling underwhelmed at the time. It had some ok attractions but there is no real surprise as to why it eventually failed. The biggest blunder for mine is that none of the major attractions were ever picked up by local operators- Rail Chase the Ride roller coaster was sold for a paltry $140,000!!! Imagine if one of the smaller operators such as either Luna Park, Aussie World or Adventure World had managed to secure this unique ride!! Such a waste of an opportunity! Also the Ghost Riders interractive Ghost train was a decent attraction and once again, would not have looked out of place in any traditional amusement park. Very interested to see how many members of the forums actually visited Sega World in its hey day? Please add your memories and impressions below! Enjoy the video if you have not seen it before!!