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On Friday next week, it will sadly be the 20th anniversary of Wonderland shutting down. While in the two decades since the closure, the Australian amusement park industry has developed greatly, for many people, especially Sydneysiders, the park remains a fond memory, and the closure is still saddening. The community that has developed around the park is honestly one of the strongest theme park groups, aside from Parkz, in Australia, and I am proud to be part of it. Use this forum to share any fond memories you may have, as well as any facts regarding the park. Additionally, any hopes for future parks in Sydney can also be shared here.

Let me start off by saying this is NOT a criticism of Wonderland History or Chris Watts. I admire the guy as he has dedicated a large chunk of his time to preserving Wonderland's history. I am also not saying that I could do a better job at making a website as trust me, I don't. What I am saying is that Watts has so much great information on Wonderland History that he deserves a better site. It's a bit outdated and doesn't do itself justice. For example, there is this section on the site named 'Almost Wonderland' which is about proposed upgrades to Wonderland. The section is currently blank, however, if you type in 'proposed beach upgrades' it comes up with an article that is about a plan in the 90s for The Beach to get a wave pool. The article is meant to be in Almost Wonderland but isn't, and that's a shame as I assume there are many more articles with equally great content that I can't find. Another thing I've noticed is some of the images don't load properly, which sucks as again, there are so many great images. Also as a side note, where do all the clips from the below news report come from, especially the lady in the Space Probe tunnel

As many of us know, Wonderland Sydney was once a theme park in Western Sydney that operated between 1985 to 1994 and was the biggest theme park in Australia. It was originally operated by a mixture of companies, including James Hardie, Leighton Holdings (now CIMIC Holdings) NSW State Annuation Holdings and Taft Broadcasting Parks. The latter bought the Hanna-Barbera characters to the park as well as relocated rides from Kings Island and other parks owned by Taft Broadcasting, although it didn't have a majority stake. In 1992, Taft Broadcasting Parks was bought out by Paramount Communications (now Paramount Global) and rebranded its parks as Paramount's (name) in 1994. However, Wonderland Sydney wasn't bought out by Paramount as they didn't want it due to them only having a minority stake and it being on the other side of the world. Tafts shares in the park were sold to James Hardie. The park was bought out by Sunway Group in 1997, who screwed up the park and closed it in 2004, branding it for a number of reasons including 9/11, Bali Bombings, the Iraq War and SARS. However, what if the park was bought out by Paramount in 1992? Here's what I think would've happened: Paramount Era Like the other parks, it would've most likely been branded to have the Paramount prefix in its name. My guess is it would've been branded as "Paramount Australia's Wonderland" similar to how Paramount Canada's Wonderland was branded. Nick characters would've been added at Wonderland eventually instead of at Dreamworld and the Hanna-Barbera characters would remain (most likely wouldn't have an effect on SDSC as it was based on the 2002 movie). It would also likely been sold to Cedar Fair by CBS as CBS didn't want any theme parks. Cedar Fair Era Like the other parks again, it would've been branded as "Australia's Wonderland" again like from 1985-1994 by Cedar Fair. The Nick and HB characters could've remained until 2010 like the former Paramount Parks, until they were replaced by Peanuts like the other CF parks. Unfortunately, it would've most likely been a lower-tier park (Worlds of Fun, Michigan's Adventure etc.) and not get as much investment as the other sister parks just like how it didn't before it was sold (Taft wanted it to be smaller than the others IIRC). So this is what could've happened if Paramount/Cedar Fair bought Wonderland like the rest of the parks and would've been the only park in the chain outside North America. Unfortunately, this is just in my imagination, and it is now gone in real life. At least one of its old sister parks will be joining them soon with California's Great America closing soon. It is good to wonder though, tell me what you think.

I've always have had this question fueling in my mind. Personally, I think that probably another incident. Maybe even worse would have happened. But, let's pretend that there was NO INCIDENTS AND THERE NEVER WAS! I think Wonderland would of never been built because it was because of the void of LPS that got Wonderland going in the first place. 7 people would still be around today. A family would not be in smithereens. Probably the owners would of either tried to knock down the park like they tried to do in the early 70s. It may of been successful. But I think that if it stayed. The Big Dipper, the Ghost Train, and the River Caves would have also became heritage listed. I don't think that Maloney's Corner, and Lavender Green would exist in this world. And lots of rides around the front of the park and where the Wild Mouse is today would move around. It would look more like Luna Park Melbourne now basically. But what do you think? And also I want you all to check out this video uploaded by Yyosh. It's about Clive James going into a empty and abandond LPS in 1991 during a storm. It's great, and I think you should watch it too!

Zoomerang Rollercoaster at Alabama Adventure (which is the Demon from Wonderland Sydney) is up for sale. Who would like to see this piece of Australian Rollercoaster History return to Australia?