Search the Community

So, according to this Illawarra Mercury article (which is behind a freakin paywall), the Eddy's, the owners of Jamberoo Action Park are planning a new slide. May I remind you that Velocity Falls, a mega slide complex with 3 different slides, opened just last year. I swear to god, this park is the opposite to Sunway-era Wonderland. https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/8276236/the-risky-business-of-being-jamberoo-action-park-owner-jim-eddy/

Seems that Getaway is at Jamberoo Action Park today. I’ll watch it and see what they think. David Whitehill was the one to visit the park. He is first seen on the new Velocity Falls, and here’s what he thinks: Firstly, he thinks that The Stinger is faster and scarier than he thought. After, he rode the Octo Racer and unfortunately “had a disappointing result” not coming first and being beaten. He also notes about the food there, and also notes that it is in the middle of dairy areas that makes it different from other parks in the country. He also interviews a few people, including some families visiting and a worker at the park. Overall, he thought it is a great place for families to visit.

Photos: https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/jamberoo-action-park This summer I decided to do a road trip down the Princes Highway from Brisbane to Melbourne. I had not been to Jamberoo Action Park for about 10 years, but the addition of Perfect Storm and Velocity Falls made for a good excuse to make a pit stop. Dates and timings meant I had no choice but to visit on Boxing Day. Normally you’d avoid a park on a public holiday in the middle of summer, but my fears were unfounded and it turned out to be “busy” but not unbearable, helped a bit by the operations being good. I drove down from Taree that morning so didn’t get there till about 11. First impressions, wow the trees have certainly grown a bit. If there is an award for the nicest looking car park, Jamberoo gets it. In fact, the park as whole is well hidden. The boundary is surrounded by a line of trees, so you see none of it until the entrance to the car park. I headed in, avoided the crowds by getting the lockers near the mini golf / pizza place and actually started on Taipan. Last time i was here they only had left side running, so made sure I did the right with the helix instead. Similar comments as my last visit, its quite a fast slide and quite lengthy so it feels like a bit of a space warp. It doesn’t wash wildly onto the walls like Mammoth Falls. Due to its tucked away location it was a walk on. Right, time to take on Velocity Falls. At first I was wondering how they spent $10m on a mat racer and a couple of drop slides, but really it's an entire major new area with pathways everywhere, literal mountains moved for earthworks, several new bridges, and even 10 ‘luxe’ type cabanas that more resembled a proper caravan park type cabin than a picnic shelter. Yeah the plants need to grow in and yeah some minor things need to be finished, but judging by the rest of the park it'll look very lush in a couple of years. Heaps of rockwork, and even some waterfalls running underneath (The bridge for the bobsled also doubles as a footbridge) Stinger Twist is a skybox drop slide like wedgie, but it is followed by a few enclosed twists and turns down the hill, not unlike the River Rapids at WnW. Surprisingly less intense than i expected, after the initial helix, it actually peters out a bit and you do the rest of the turns at a steady pace. Not much water spraying in your face either so thats a plus. If you've ridden Wedgie you’ll know it can be quite full on with its forces, this one is more moderate. Stinger Bump is the other one and is more just a very drawn out speed slide. This one seemed to throw an absurd amount of spray up so ended up riding half squinting all the way down until eventually there was a bit more water around me, indicating i had reached the runout. Couldn’t really feel the drops because they were so gradual. Both slides had about a 20 min wait. They are popular with thrillseekers, though obviously capacity is limited. They did seem to have an issue with people getting in the wrong queue (and lifeguards would constantly make announcements to the queue to tell you to make sure you are in the right line), and having two similarly coloured slides doesn’t help. I’d suggest extra signs and stencils every few metres along the queue to help, to supplement the sign at the front of the queue. Octo Racer (Why did they pick sea creatures for the ride names in a waterfall themed area?) is a highlight. Excellent capacity, they were operating in a common sense manner starting one race as soon as the previous one had crossed the finish line (Plenty of time for people to clear out before others reached the bottom). The intermediate open air “rally points” sort of don't work since they are so short, so you seldom see other competitors, especially if they are more than a few body lengths ahead or behind. It’s not really until the final stretch where you see everyone at once. The enclosed sections are good. I preferred starting from the ‘middle’ lanes, because the helix on those lanes gets tighter towards the bottom so a sense of increasing force and speed and It gets even faster in the twister section. Also have to give credit for the little things. It has a good timing system, with beeps, not just lights, and it gives you your time in addition to your placing. The start tubs are nicely designed, positioned at waist height so you can lean into them instead of crashing onto your chest. Ended up doing 4 laps, trying each relative lane position from the middle to the edge. The last new slide I had to tackle was Perfect Storm. The line was huge, stretching a good 50m down the hill from the load area. Again, high capacity saves the day. The park had four staffers at the top. Two pulling rafts off the belt and two loaders, so they were more or less able to send people down as quickly as they would load, so the line moved quite fast and was probably only 20-30 mins. It helps too that the queue line is really nice, with trees on both side, so its very shady. As for the slide, it's surprisingly rapid fire. Normally these tornadoes with long lead ins can be a bit lumbering as you make your way around the turns an helices. On this, you drop almost immediately into the first funnel, a brief S bend leads into the next funnel, and from that its pretty much a straight away into the big drop, so it wastes no time at all really. My 2nd ride was in a fully loaded raft so crazy airtime, and almost a little scary since it felt like we were headed towards the pointy end with too much speed. In fact the final helix is very fast too, you can expecct to bank high. The main letdown is that the big funnel had none of the thunder and lighting SFX, and wasn't all that dark. Still a good ride, but I would have liked to have ridden it in its prime. At least the outside looks cool, and quite impressive how much stuff that structure could take. Also, was the school bus in the theming supposed to be a South Park reference? Surprisingly, the line for Perfect Storm was only slightly longer than Funnel Web. Yeah Perfect Storm is better, but not that much better would you believe. Jamberoo Express is a trackless train that does a lap around the park, even running steeply up the hill along a high road behind Taipan, Velocity falls and Perfect Storm. The driver commented they are getting a more powerful engine, since the current one struggles a bit with the hills. We had to stop a couple of times to make sure it didnt overheat. The park has evidently spent heaps on roads up here, since there are full on concrete bridges at a couple of points. Was hoping to get some shots of the rides, but the trees they have planted obscure most of them. A good problem to have I guess? I did one go on the Bobsled to reaquaint myself The main wait seemed to be for the chair lift, but the Advanced track itself was quite empty (Most seemed to be going on the beginner track and it was hilarious seeing the number of slow riders with 7 or 8 people backed up behind) It's good how the park actively discourages slow people from using it. It seemed the top area was a bit of a bottleneck. The line for the easy track seemed to block the hard track, which meant the capacity of the hard track wasn't being used that efficiently. Was good for me though since i could do a no brakes run to the bottom, and it's a pretty good run overall. The new tunnel under the walkway to top of Velocity falls is a real headchopper, but you lose a bit of speed on the new bridge. I'm not sure why I skipped Rapid River last time I was at the park, but I'm glad I did it this time! The park was enforcing a single lap policy, so it was only about 5 mins to line up and get a tube. It's the nicest lazy river in Australia, heavily shaded by mature trees, and a few elements on the way. From the entry point you drift past some low fountains that shoot across the channel. No avoiding these and plenty of giggles from everyone. On a long straight section you pass over some spa bubblers, which dont really generate much movement but do tickle your feet. The course is built up against a hillside, so the best part is a cave, which also features a wave generator. Holes in the ceiling have water trickling down through, much like rainwater seeping into sinkhole. Finally, you pass a set of cascades running into the channel, so drift towards these if you want to get wet. Went for a dip in Outback Bay, its rather quite shallow, even 2/3 of the way out you can touch the bottom. Credit to them for playing the Boxing Day test on the big screen! I decided to close out on the one freefall attraction I haven't ridden in Aus. The Rock. Slight nerves on this one, but hey, if little kids are jumping off so could I. I built up to the 5m jump by doing the little drop slide that's 2m up first. Anyhow, it's not too bad, over quicker than you expect, and very refreshing! Overall, Jamberoo is a great place. The whole day felt hassle free. In the space of 5 hours (had to leave at 4pm) i managed 13 attractions, which wasn't too bad considering I was just ambling along amongst the crowds. It's clear capacity is a huge focus, staff were good and the park feels nicely presented and easily the best landscaped in the country.

Jamberoo has recently posted some sad but exciting news Splash Out water slides will close from 22 February 2021 to allow for the construction of a new water ride development at Jamberoo Action Park. Until then, we welcome all guests to come in and Splash Out for the last time with the water ride that started it all! We apologise for any inconvenience and hope you follow us on Facebook for more news as it breaks. As many of us already know it will replaced by 'Grand Gorge Falls' which should hopefully be open by the 21-22 season, It's sad to see splash out go after all these years but its great to see that they still have major plans to keep expanding Jamberoo's range of attractions

Does anyone know what's going on with the Jamberoo expansions? 2 of the 6 new attractions have been completed (The Funnel Web & Banjos Billabong) but I haven't heard anything about the others. Before the start of the season last year, I know they did some refurbishing around the park, and even added a giant screen and sound system at the wave pool. But nothing to do with the expansion. It's been nearly 3 years since The Funnel Web and Banjos Billabong opened so hopefully they are planning for the new additions, I'm looking forward for the new attractions when they are constructed. Has anyone heard anything to do with the expansion lately?

Jamberoo Action Park's 2014-2015 operations started this week with the commencement of the selling of their 2014-2015 season passes. The 2014-2015 season - their first full season with their new competitor, Wet 'n' Wild Sydney - starts on Saturday the 20th of September 2014 and ends on Sunday the 19th of April 2015. The news relating to Jamberoo Action Park's 2014-2015 season is this: - No further ride development occurred in the 2014 off season. - However, there are a couple of 'enhancements' that will be included in the 2014-2015 season. Details of which will be put on Jamberoo Action Park's website at an unannounced date. - Jamberoo Action Park is now only open on school and public holidays (except Christmas Day) & weekends as well as the whole months of December (except Tuesday the 9th of December 2014 - Primary School Day Only) and January & Monday the 9th of March 2015. - Opening hours are still 10am to 5pm. - Season Passes have increased in price from $89.99 to $99.99. The fact that the season pass has increased by $10 even though Jamberoo Action Park isn't open on weekdays (except where stated above) and the 'season' has been shortened by approximately 100 days from last year has drawn some criticism on Jamberoo Action Park's Facebook page. Jamberoo Action Park has been opened daily between September and April since the 2007-2008 season when The Taipan opened. General admission prices are still to be confirmed. Dax Eddy of Jamberoo Action Park said that Jamberoo Action Park did have a 15.2% drop in attendance during the 2013-2014 season from the 2012-2013 season which is lower than the 25% average drop in attendance a theme park has when a new competitor enters. Dax Eddy of Jamberoo Action Park also noted back in July 2012 that the proposed 'Thunder Downunder' Water Coaster, 'Cockatoo Gorge' Behemoth Bowl and the 'Emu Mountain Rapids' Mammoth/Tantrum Alley won't be built until attendance figures are at a level suitable for the construction of those rides. Whether this also applies to the proposed 'Platypus River' Lazy River and 'Koala Creek' Interactive Water Play Area is unsure. Despite Jamberoo Action Park's attendance figures dropping less than the industry average when a new competitor enters, did Wet 'n' Wild Sydney's opening affect Jamberoo Action Park more than we expected?

From the 'Illawarra Mercury' on the 12/11/2011. Details on Jamberoo's smartphone app here: http://www.jamberoo....eroo-iphone-app Buy the Jamberoo Action Park smartphone app here: http://itunes.apple....54838?ls=1&mt=8 This is not an announcement of a new bus service from Campbelltown Railway Station to Jamberoo Action Park and return. A bus service has been running for some time and currently runs between Kiama Railway Station and Jamberoo Action Park. They have only announced that they have a bus that runs on the current bus service route which is totally decorated with Jamberoo Action Park marketing. A picture was provided in the 'Illawarra Mercury' article of the new bus but I cannot post it.