In 2000, Australia's Wonderland ran a competition where 24 passengers boarded the Bush Beast and were challenged to stay on it for as long as they could, in order to receive a cash prize of $20,000. Ultimately, two contestants, Steve Fletcher and Rosa Vacarro, agreed to split the money after 40 days of riding. However, I read somewhere that this challenge was live-streamed on the internet. Does anyone know anything about this challenge and have access to the live stream (dumb question, I know). 

1 hour ago, Ranger said:

In 2000, Australia's Wonderland ran a competition where 24 passengers boarded the Bush Beast and were challenged to stay on it for as long as they could, in order to receive a cash prize of $20,000. Ultimately, two contestants, Steve Fletcher and Rosa Vacarro, agreed to split the money after 40 days of riding. However, I read somewhere that this challenge was live-streamed on the internet. Does anyone know anything about this challenge and have access to the live stream (dumb question, I know). 

It was in 1999. Whilst streaming technology existed, it was in its infancy and I highly doubt it was live streamed by wonderland 

a few news reports can be found online however, such as this 

https://www.facebook.com/thewinnerissydney/videos/1617105535084666/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

Edited October 6, 20241 yr by Brad2912

DW ran a similar competition on the Thunderbolt.  You slept on it and only allowed off for scheduled toilet breaks.

The competition was run by Triple M Sydney, but they partnered up with their sister stations in other major capital cities. The Orange train was used and the front car had the competition and sponsor logos on it. The competition ended on April 7th 1999, and riders rode 14 hours per day, completing 6806 laps of the Wildcat Clone. By splitting the winnings (and after taxes) the two winners took home around 93 cents per lap, which would be worth about $1.83 in today's money.

I find it extraordinarily unlikely that they were live streaming in 1999. Wonderland's own website had "park cameras" showing various parts of the park and they were updated approximately every 30 minutes. Even if a stream existed, it would be in such terrible quality, and few people would have had the capacity to record and store such media online. Your best bet would be finding news footage from the timeline, which shouldn't be too difficult given you've got the exact dates to search.

You could also ask @Spotty for details given his whole family experienced it for the first 3 days. 

• Parkz had a discussion thread on it in 2006
• Ultimate Rollercoaster's article - April 12 1999
• Illawarra Mercury Article - April 8 1999
• 1:44 video of the competition on Youtube