So Wonderland used to be owned by paramount?

[Shaun]

I never knew that? Can someone give me a quick wonderland history lesson there? Thanks Shaun

[Flea]

Hmm.. I remember seeing a post around here stating the information on the owners of Wonderland. All I know is that when Paramount owned wonderland, they added the zodiac, which was orginally located in one of the Paramount parks in America (I think?). Sorry for the lack of information, ~Flea

[Richard]

The park was built for an opening in 1985, owned by Taft Entertainment. At the time, they owned the "Kings" parks (PKI, PKD). This company was bought out by Paramount in around 1992, and so naturally, they got Wonderland Sydney. They held onto it until 1998, doing the bare minimum to keep the cash flowing (i.e. adding Space Probe to counter Luna Park's Big Dipper). I think they wanted to get rid of it for much of the 90's. Let's face it - the Aussie dollar isn't exactly great, and add onto that the park only gets about half the attendance that their bottom US parks gets. You've got profits, but nothing to be terribly proud of. They sold the park in 1997 or 98 to Sunway, the Malaysian company who are the current owners. They're the ones responsible for bringing some life back into the grounds, turning what was once a very dirty and unimpressive park, into one that is certainly very presentable (and it and Sea World top my list for most impressive overall park) and quite pleasing to walk around. That's the basics, add Demon some time around when Paramount got the park, and add that they changed the name for the Sydney Olympics in about 1999, and you've pretty well got everything that's happened at the park.

[Guest Cokecool]

Why did Paramount sell the park? Was the park branded with the Paramount name? :x :? :shock:

[GoGoBoy]

Hi there... As far as I was aware James Hardie (Australian company) actually owned Wonderland for the majority of the years before Sungei Way bought it. Can you explain this at all Richard? I'm sure there must be some catch but surely James Hardie is not linked with Paramount in any way? UPDATE (5 days after original post above) ..... Ok I guess no one else is going to come up with any answers so I have done my own research and found as much info as I can... Australia's Wonderland was originally built by Taft (as mentioned in earlier posts) after they built and managed a number of other theme parks such as Kings Island, Kings Dominion and Canada's Wonderland. Taft then became Kings Entertainment as Taft was getting rid of its theme parks. Kings sold its parks to a financier named Carl Linder who then on-sold the parks to Viacom's Paramount Studios. Paramount Parks sold Australia's Wonderland to James Hardie. Until Sungei Way (now Sunway) bought the park, James Hardie owned Wonderland. James Hardie was involved for quite a considerable length of time although I am still trying to find the exact date when JH took over.