Gazza

I think they would be the same, the difference is the angle of the photo of the Sydney one has an embankment in the way, making it look like the bottom of the loop is at ground level. Meanwhile, the Gold Coast one is still a fair distance above ground level at the bottom of the loop: http://www.parkz.com.au/photo/AU/Gold_Coast/Wet_n_Wild_Water_World/1251-AquaLoop/6,3,4631-Aqualoop_Nearly_Done.html Julys has another construction video up... From 4:45 ish you can see the Bowling Alley, Tornado Wave and Dark Tornado:

Another pic, courtesy of the Wonderland History FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/112682402142538/

A 4.2 Billion resort from a Chinese investor has been slated for Cairns at Yorkeys Knob and has been submitted to Government for approval: http://aquisgreatbarrierreefresort.com/ http://www.dsdip.qld.gov.au/resources/project/aquis-resort/aquis-initial-advice-statement.pdf Basically it would contain a Golf Course, Casino, a bunch of hotels, aquarium, lagoon, high end retail yada yada yada. But this is Parkz of course, and one of the things slated is a "a 13 ha Water Park" (Pg 14 of the IAS) In terms of land area, that's about the size of the Gold Coast Wet n Wild. http://i.imgur.com/z6DNLks.jpg The indicative location can be seen in this render.

^Does a theme park need a main street though? Could it be a circular hub or something along those lines?

Yep, went to the park a couple of years ago. Well, its a pretty small park so all stuff is pretty close. This overlaid image shows the new coaster construction, relative to turbo mountain up in the top left. http://i.imgur.com/DmkksoA.jpg And here is how the coaster looks at the moment: http://i.imgur.com/wTelVXm.jpg

Its going at the back of the park, sort of behind the mountain which has the two body slides and tunnel of terror. No rides are going to make way for it.

Guitar Hero I imagine as an enclosed launched coaster, like Rock n Roller Coaster.

I think most are going to say WnW, MW and SW....More coasters all up between them, and better rides. Can't you do all of them though? $109 for the VIP and $99 for the World Pass...Works out to $41.60 per park, which is pretty good considering how much you'll get to between them.

I guess it depends on if they use translucent or opaque fibreglass. The one at WnW Orlando would be pitch black inside if it weren't for the lighting effects: The one at Lalandia is not dark at all:

The funny thing is, we really only have the one local ride manufacturer...Australian Waterslides & Leisure, and the park has bought multiple slides from them in the past, so you can't say they haven't tried.

^I kinda reckon the bowling alley plays out like a glorified helix though..You don't seem to go on the wall very much Still "new slide type" for me to tick off the list. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I48dK6rwiQM

^You can always just do a trip in a loop like I did last time..Singapore first, then home via Perth...turned out to be pretty affordable, plus more Australians need to see Perth anyways.

Nearmap is still a bit behind in what we can see in Julys updates, but a couple of interesting things in the expanses of dirt: -The Tornado has the framework up to fully enclose the funnel: Latitube: Rings to support the bowling alley slide:

They may have two coke postmix machines, but what if they were doing something that affects all units at once at the back end that prevents both being used at once? It can happen.

But it's only a small patty (Cheeseburger size rather than Whopper/Quarter Pounder sized), hence doubling up to give it an adequate amount of meat. It's no different to the way Big Macs come with two patties as standard. They've kinda fallen into use for night time events, so I guess that explains why they stay up all the time now. [*] Dunno if it's warranted at this point in time though....It'd be a $5 Mil investment for something that only really has benefit a few weeks per year. [*]Could you spread the crowds spending $5 Mil on another ride, and have the bonus of something new to promote?

Cool, can't wait.

Dunno, perhaps you can pop down to Sea World and get some photos for us?

Fair point...though at this stage of the game if we are looking to invest in electronic infrastructure around the parks, electronic queue time boards would be at the top of my list

Besides, people who own smart phones, yet don't have a data plan aren't really worth the time of day TBH.

According to the official page there will be a story on the new ride on Perths today tonight...tonight. Anyone want to record it?

Looking cool, but urrgh what's with all the random coloured out of place pieces? I do hope it was just a manufacturing error and they paint the outside to match. Curious they got both a tantrum alley, and a rattler....aren't they really very similar rides?

I'm guessing the outdoor bit won't be a direct clone, because the main outdoor bit of saw kind of extends to the left of the indoor section (See Google Earth), and Adventure World the hillside and park boundary is in the way if you wanted to do that, That's not to say they haven't at least recycled the indoor section...If it fits a good amount of a track into a small space, why not do it?

But I don't think a water park necessarily "needs" political support...If it were an operator, building it on their own land, without any undue environmental impacts, and contributing appropriately to local infrastructure (For local road upgrades) Then I doubt they would face much opposition. When a park operator starts asking for free land, and free money, then they'll run into trouble. But thankfully, water parks are fairly cheap to build compared to a dry park, which probably explains why they are booming around the world, and somewhat in Australia. Just Legoland waterparks....there's only the one at the moment, at the Californian Legoland. I reckon Legoland would be a logical new park for Australia. But back to the topic...A legoland water park packaged in with a dry park would be cool. But a Lego Water park a standalone attraction, I think the fact it focuses too much on families with kids under 12 means it's not really capturing the full market. If you were proposing a well water park, surely the best approach would be a big water play structure for the kids, a lazy river for those who want to relax, a good mix of other slides, with flowriders and extreme slides for the teens. Again, If you did what is tried and tested chances are it'll work.

Why are we talking about the state governments looking to invest? All recent water park proposals have come from the private sector off their own back...Qld Govt doesn't have anything to do with the one proposed in Hervey Bay. The one being built in Perth at the Maze was probably because the operators decided they wanted to take the plunge and expand, not because of the WA government. Similarly WnW Sydney was like the opposoite of African Safari World, they are building it with their own money, and are in fact giving money to the government to fund local road upgrades. The only reason they have to get approval from the state government is because that is typically the case with developments above a certain size and value....Its the same if you were building a huge new factory, or a major expansion to a shopping centre or a marina etc...A bit beyond what a local council can approve. It's mostly for the Sydney market then Here's a nice little rundown from a media release when the park was approved http://www.nswalp.com/media/news/another-great-reason-to-visit-sydney/ Potential economic benefits About 1.2 million residents live within a 20-kilometre radius of the site, and 3.3 million people live within a 40-kilometre radius. An independent economic impact assessment, commissioned by Village Roadshow, concluded that the theme park would: - Support more than 300 local full-time jobs during construction; - Support more than 278 jobs once operational; - Bring more than $340 million in tourism expenditure to Sydney during the first 10 years of operations; - Contribute more than $500 million to the NSW economy during the first 10 years of operations; and - Attract 900,000 people every year – including 175,000 international and interstate visitors. So only about 20% of visitors will be from outside NSW. Notice how they are playing up the fact that millions of people live within quite close proximity to the park....That's what really makes the park viable and provides the "base load", if it weren't for them coming every weekend, you'd have a pretty quiet park. On the other hand, if you magically took away all the visitors from outside NSW, 725,000 is sill a pretty solid annual attendance figure. Better than Whitewater World even If we examine those numbers even further, 340 million over 10 years in tourist dollars is 34 million per year. 34 million divided by 175,000 visitors from outside NSW equates to about $194 per head, which sounds about right. A day at WnW will probably result in an extra night of accommodation in order to visit for accomodation providers, some extra money for the hospitality industry (buying dinner after a day at the park, even if it's just the local maccas), some money flowing towards transport providers to facilitate visits (Eg Coach transfers, or an extra day of car hire?) I disagree, and think "Tried and tested" works better than an unproven concept.

It means the journalist was clueless and assumed that "ride at a waterpark" = "ride is automatically wet".