Today In Rollercoaster History!.....

[WalleyWorld]

I was looking for rollercoaster calenders , and came across this website:Rolercoaster World. I scrolled to the bottom and I found some really interesting information! . Dreamworld is celerbrating it's 25th birthday . Yes, that's right my fellow enthusiasts, on this day in 1981 Dreamworld opened. If people could help me out and find out what rides opened up with the park, that would be great! Oh and if any body has brochers from past years could you post it up! Thanks, CoasterBoy6

[T-bone]

Not sure exactly about 1981, but I have a Park map from 1982, which wouldn't be too far off the map. So what I have picked as the first attractions are. - Cannonball Express (Now known as the Dreamworld Railway) - Imax Theatre - Vintage Cars - Captain Sturt - The Roulette Wheel ride (Now known as Stingray) Those rides seem to be the major ones, and there were a few minor flats in the now known as Ocean Parade area. And for those yelling at their computer screens saying "T-bone, your a ****ing idiot, you forgot the Thunderbolt you knob, your supposed to know about this stuff, especially with your involvment with ThrillHistory.com", well no, I haven't forgotten Thunderbolt. The Thunderbolt Roller Coaster opened on March 16th 1982, as it was not yet ready to open with the park. Now here's some useless things which some people may/ may not know.

The Design process of Dreamworld's "Main Street" was conducted by the same people who designed the main buildings for Disneyland, in California.

From 1984, the park sat quite dormant for a while, with no new attractions, and even a sign of Bankruptcy. However, in 1993, Village Oval was re-themed to Ocean Parade, where a new attraction was bought into the list of rides at Dreamworld. Yes the Wipe-out was open, and ready to give riders plenty of experience on how a surfing accident can go wrong.

So there we go, a few things you didn't know about before. Anyway, Happy 25th Birthday Dreamworld. A well deserved Birthday if I must say. Edited December 14, 2006 by T-bone

[Richard]

The full listing of the major opening-day attractions can be seen on our Dreamworld profile. Of interest is that all of these attractions are still operating today in some form. All but a few were manufactured in-house or by non-industry companies, including the Rocky Hollow Log Ride, which was Australia's second permanent log flume. In regards to the design of the park, by the time Dreamworld was in design stages, most of the Imagineers responsible for Disneyland were at least into their 70s and many had even passed away. Most Imagineers are fiercely loyal to Disney (in those days most of them had started out in the early days of the company working on Disney's groundbreaking films) and would have never agreed to be involved in what was ultimately a rip-off park. The student document on Dreamworld's website where that information is from is so riddled with typos, mistakes and omissions that I wouldn't be citing it as an accurate source for information that is so subjective.

[Chaos-Maniac]

Does anyone feel that the Dreamworld Main Street should be longer? And contain some classic Main Street rides like a carousel, Chair swing etc?

[Gazza]

Nah, I cant say I do, all of those things are in Nick Central anyway...

[myk]

Not much has happened in 25 years. Well not as much as should have.

[Chaos-Maniac]

Not much has happened in 25 years. Well not as much as should have.

What the F&#K!? How hasn't much happened in 25 years? Dreamworld installed world class rides such as; Tower Of Terror, WipeOut, The Claw, The Cyclone, Giant Drop, Flow Rider etc etc. Keep in mind, Dreamworld was also sold off. They nearly went bankrupted. Constructed WhiteWater World. Demolished ThunderBolt. And, I'm sure alot more.

[Psycho]

What the F&#K!? How hasn't much happened in 25 years? Dreamworld installed world class rides such as; Tower Of Terror, WipeOut, The Claw, The Cyclone, Giant Drop, Flow Rider etc etc. Keep in mind, Dreamworld was also sold off. They nearly went bankrupted. Constructed WhiteWater World. Demolished ThunderBolt. And, I'm sure alot more.

Flow Rider...World class? Hmmm I can see what myk meant though. There was not a whole lot of capital expenditure at Dreamworld until about 97-98 (or when TOT was installed). Prior to Macquarie purchasing the park, not a great deal occurred - when compared to the past 5-8 years. Edited December 19, 2006 by Psycho

[Chaos-Maniac]

Flow Rider...World class? Hmmm I can see what myk meant though. There was not a whole lot of capital expenditure at Dreamworld until about 97-98 (or when TOT was installed). Prior to Macquarie purchasing the park, not a great deal occurred - when compared to the past 5-8 years.

Yeh, that's true. But, they have also had to install new rides/attractions to keep up with the current race that MovieWorld is holding with. Also I think that Macquarie has also learnt from Sunway's mistake with Wonderland Sydney, that the park cannot run itself without new rides/attractions.

[Psycho]

Also, I believe the previous owners (who owned the park when TOT was installed - a Malaysian or Singapore company?) started the major ride every two years concept - before the park was sold to Macquarie Leisure. But you're right, the main reason for that was to compete against MW and Lethal Weapon I think...

[joz]

I think if DW gets into competition against MW, then it really will have lost its way. IMHO, the reason DW is doing so well right now is because new rides were added no matter what the competition was doing. DW was for a time, adding attractions like the skys the limit, which given the constant increase in attendance, seems like the way to go. WVTPs on the other hand, was growing SW and MW alternatly, so at any one time, one park would be getting 1.4mill, and the other would be giving away the gate at half price. If DW kept doing what they were doing, I suspect they would be looking at cracking the magic 2mill vistors a year in not much more then 10 years. They were looking red hot, but in the last couple of years have really let themselves go, and I don't think the reputation will save them if they go another year or two without something big. MW on the other hand is giving itself a really good reputation, by adding quality ride after quality ride and running them well. Now Village has outright control of the parks, they are starting to be the company acting like the skys the limit and growing all their parks at the same time and making them more profitable. Still, to say DW hasn't done much in 25 years is a laugh. I challenge you to go to DW and only go on the rides or attractions they opened with. They haven't closed that many rides since they opened and nearly everything that makes the park good was added after opening. Ok, thats true of everypark on the Coast, it does prove how much better they were.