Fun Fields - New Wave Pool 2018

[Tim Dasco]

So I did some looking online and it seems that FF has registered for a building permit to build a Wave Pool and associated building. Its great to see the park investing in another attraction of 2 million a year after building 2 new rides.

 

[-nick.white.1543]

I went to FF for the first time last season and loved it. The only thing I thought it needed was a pool to just cool off in, so I'm glad to see a permit for a wave pool and I hope they follow through with the plan.

 

12 minutes ago, Tim Dasco said:

another attraction of 2 million a year after building 2 new rides.

It's kind of sad to know that a seasonal theme park in Victoria is currently getting more attractions than Dreamworld.

[Tim Dasco]

I found this article from a while back that confirms a lazy river is coming this season.

http://www.starweekly.com.au/news/funfields-to-be-home-to-victorias-first-outdoor-wave-pool/

[themagician]

1 hour ago, Tim Dasco said:

lazy river

Wave pool

[Gazza]

1 hour ago, Tim Dasco said:

I found this article from a while back that confirms a lazy river is coming this season.

http://www.starweekly.com.au/news/funfields-to-be-home-to-victorias-first-outdoor-wave-pool/

Can you quote the part of the article that says lazy river 

[Tim Dasco]

@Gazza Lazy River, Wave Pool same thing. (End sarcasm) All jokes aside I did mean a Wave Pool.

[-nick.white.1543]

Here is the article:

JULY 9, 2018 3:00 PM
BY LAURA MICHELL

The first outdoor wave pool in Victoria is on its way to Whittlesea.

Whittlesea council voted last Tuesday to approve an application for a wave pool and cafe to be built at Funfields.

Funfields owner John Verga said the wave pool was being added to the Plenty Road fun park in response to a patron survey.

“By and large, people were asking for a body of water they could chill out in,” he said.

“We drilled that down further through further surveys and the preference was for a pool or wave pool.”

Mr Verga said he expected the pool to be open on December 1, with the new attraction and cafe set to create 15-20 jobs.

Before the pool can be opened, Funfields will need to build sound walls along the northern side of the pool and along the northern site boundary, along with a 2.4 metre sound wall along the park boundary which will be tapered at the eastern and western ends.

Landscaping will also have be carried out on council land to the north of the park, at a cost to Funfields.

An acoustic report must also be submitted to council to monitor noise levels.

Councillors included the conditions in their planning permit for the pool and cafe in response to concerns from Funfields’ neighbours.

The application received six objections, mainly around noise levels.

Cr Tom Joseph said Funfields was important to the municipality.

“It is a business that is beneficial to the entire municipality and as a fun park, it is important for them to bring in new attractions,” he said.

“These types of conflicts will be there but we need to manage them taking into consideration the concerns of residents and the interests of the owners.”

[WalleyWorld]

Volcano Bay Beach opening in December. Fingers crossed the budget holds out and we see the Volcano rockwork 'waterfall' come to fruition. Also some nice lush landscaping and private cabanas would be nice.

[blurrybilly]

This looks really cool, hopefully funfeilds pull it off! 

[-nick.white.1543]

Where in the park are they planning to build it (what near) ?

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

30 minutes ago, -nick.white.1543 said:

Where in the park are they planning to build it (what near) ?

Given it's planned to open in December, one would think it's probably already under construction....

Nearmap made a pass on 13 September - so this is about as up to date as you can get!

 

 

And yes, it does look like the go-kart track has been shortened significantly to fit it in....

[-nick.white.1543]

@AlexB Ok, cool. Looks good. Shame to see the go-kart track get shortened though😕

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

It's ok - if you drive badly enough - you can still drive the old course!

[Tin Foil Hat]

Fun Fields is very quickly running out of room!

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

You think so?

They're sitting on about 39 acres \ 16 hectares.

7.5 acres \ 3 hectares of land is up behind the wavepool \ gravity wave \ kraken \ alpine slide. That's almost 20% of their land.

(In comparison, the wavepool, which is one of the largest single attractions water parks will build, takes up about 1.6 acres \ 0.6ha)

Then, when you move on to look at the rest of the park...

The alpine slide takes up about 4.5acres \ 1.8ha. Its a huge tract of land, that actually occupies very little of it. Alpine slides are awesome fun, but their capacity sucks. Maybe they can build things around it? There's plenty of opportunity to install waterslide supports, or other 'overhead' attractions, but otherwise, its a huge part of the park that could really be used in many more interesting ways.

Right inside the front entrance - theres a huge open grassed area, and a lot of picnic shelters (i assume) which is ripe for the next step up into proper park status (i remember when Jamberoo had a lot of these too).

The park's maintenance and back of house area, along with the 'non-overflow-parking' area at the front also measures about 4.5 acres. This area could be redesigned to provide access to back of house, maintenance etc, whilst utilising space closest to the park boundaries for in-park accessible area.

When you consider that between the Alpine Slide, the front unused \ maintenance area, and the as yet undeveloped land behind the wavepool amounts to almost 45% of their total land available within the block, i'd say they're nowhere near to running out of room - they just need to be smart about how the use what they have....

(and all this is without even touching the  3.5 acre carpark and overflow carpark - plenty of options to deal with that too)

Of course - with all the undeveloped land behind them - who knows what the future holds for them.... so I think your statement is a little alarmist @Boyden Hingston-Muir - and that's coming from someone who has never even looked at the park's space before yesterday.

[themagician]

And for comparison, here is how they changed the track

[-nick.white.1543]

Thanks for that comparison @themagician. Disappointed to see the track get shortened so much.

Does anyone know what the need was for the pool to be put in that position ? FF clearly isn't short on space, as @AlexB pointed out.

[Paula]

On 30/09/2018 at 1:29 PM, -nick.white.1543 said:

Thanks for that comparison @themagician. Disappointed to see the track get shortened so much.

Does anyone know what the need was for the pool to be put in that position ? FF clearly isn't short on space, as @AlexB pointed out.

Land elevation.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

^Precisely.

As we saw with the Kraken construction (and naturally one can assume the alpine slide also) the available land they have to the rear of the park seems to have quite a slope to it. The gokart track would be relatively flat, and its the best bet in terms of wavepool space without significant earth levelling.

Keep the slopes for slides to use the natural elevations... similar to Jamberoo (Jamberoo's wavepool was also built on about the flattest section of land in the park)

[Paula]

3 hours ago, AlexB said:

^Precisely.

As we saw with the Kraken construction (and naturally one can assume the alpine slide also) the available land they have to the rear of the park seems to have quite a slope to it. The gokart track would be relatively flat, and its the best bet in terms of wavepool space without significant earth levelling.

Keep the slopes for slides to use the natural elevations... similar to Jamberoo (Jamberoo's wavepool was also built on about the flattest section of land in the park)

From the entrance, the land immediately begins to elevate getting increasingly steeper as you walk towards the Kraken & Gravity Wave. Great hill for great slides.

[WalleyWorld]

Volcano Beach - Construction Update - 7/10/2018

I had a chance to visit the park over the weekend, and take some construction pictures of the new Volcano Beach wave pool. It was an absolute stunner of a day; beautiful 27 degree sunny day. Crowds were light, but more than I was expecting for the 2nd Sunday of the 2018/19 season. The grounds and gardens were in great condition; as always.

The wave pool is bigger than I expected. It's a big attraction for the park that will definitely be a hit. It''ll give guests an alternative 'home base' for their day; other than the shelter/bbq area and kids water playground.

I'm glad a compromise was found to keep the Go Karts. It's still a very popular attraction for families. The shorter course doesn't take anything away from the experience IMO. But I really would love to see some more theming around the track.

There is a lot of work still to do. But knowing the Funfields team, they will have it completed by December as advertised. Also, expect some high quality rockwork all around the Volcano Beach area. FF are using the same team who did the Voodoo rockwork.

 

Edited October 10, 2018 by Luke

[WalleyWorld]

Edited October 12, 2018 by Luke

[rappa]

NIce addition but makes me sad it’s another ‘undulating wave’ style pool which we have already in Australia. 

Would be great to see someone build a big ole water dump style pool with breaking waves like at say Typhoon Lagoon. 

[Jobe]

On 13/10/2018 at 2:47 PM, djrappa said:

NIce addition but makes me sad it’s another ‘undulating wave’ style pool which we have already in Australia. 

Would be great to see someone build a big ole water dump style pool with breaking waves like at say Typhoon Lagoon. 

Yeah agree Joz- to me its a massive missed opportunity. as an aside, does anyone know if there is a massive difference in cost between the 2 models? 

[rappa]

I would say the Water dump style of pool is much more expensive to both run and maintain.