Old Wonderland Photos

[Nightshifter]

its arrived, after a very long wait we have the wodnerland photos that a few people have been asking for, now they arent the bestest of photos, and im missing a few but this will do. They have been taken well before i was born so these photos, well the old rides date back from 1985-86. The new photos are from 2001. If anyone would like to contribute more old wonderland photos they have, please post them in.

[Schwarz_freak]

I got heaps from 2003, is that classified as old.

[Slick]

Are you asking a question? In that case, no, no it's not.

[Schwarz_freak]

Well if you want to see them there on my web site .

[mikrowave]

Remember jpeg's are your friend. Nice pics.

[Gazza]

its arrived, after a very long wait we have the wodnerland photos that a few people have been asking for.

Hey look, theres that german Wodnerland again, I think I may have found the parks long lost brother :http://www.rcdb.com/locationdetail367.htm. Please put your photos up as jpgs, they take up less space and we can view them directly, not after a download.

[GoGoBoy]

Shifty - those old photos are great. Well done. I have never before seen any pics of those old rides. Do you think that Spider ride is the same one that is now in Melbourne's Luna Park? It looks very similar

[Schwarz_freak]

Hey look, theres that german Wodnerland again, I think I may have found the parks long lost brother :http://www.rcdb.com/locationdetail367.htm

Only by name becuse wonderland Sydney had good coasters not crap kiddie coasters.

[GoGoBoy]

Wonderland Sydney didn't have any good coasters except for the Beastie which Sunway decided to close a few years ago

[Schwarz_freak]

Stupid sunway and there excuse for closing it down was that people where complaining that the park was to big and could'nt see the whole park in 1 day and we all know it's not true.

[T-bone]

And if they had some decent Transport rides up to HBL, that circulated the whole park, then they wouldn't have had a problem if there was a problem in the first place.

[Bussy]

Seeing as Shifty doesn't seem willing to change to format of his photos I thought I would. I have to say that 'Wodnerland' is my favourite park, I just wish that I could remember where it was, Shifty is it in Germany? Or is it in Belgium?

And if they had some decent Transport rides up to HBL, that circulated the whole park, then they wouldn't have had a problem.

What kind of transport system should they have had? Would you like travelators all over the place? As far as I'm concerned people were just lazy when it came to HB and there are to many people, particularly in Sydney's west who are WAY to fat, go to Westfields at Mt. Druitt any day of the week and you will see exactly what I mean. "The Bus is now leaving for Zero Mile Peg, Western Australia"

[GoGoBoy]

I even recently found proof of Sunway's lies regarding the closure of Hanna Barbera Land. In one of their annual reports I noticed a section which said something along these lines - 'In order to cut costs at Wonderland Sydney a large section of the theme park has been closed. This will save a considerable amount in staff and maintenance costs'

[joz]

Goboi: Not that I doubt you - quite the opposite - do you have a link or any idea where this report was?

[T-bone]

What i meant was that The only transport ride that circulated the whole park was the "Old Westfeild Miranda People Mover", and that circulated every part of the park except HBL. If they even had it go up to the Zodiac area, let people off, then turn around and head towards Goldrush. It wouldn't have been to hard for the managment to do that. I'm am not one of those lazy people who were say the park was so big. What i amm saying is that people with babies and prams would have complained about it (about 3% of the parks daily population) an the managment used it as poor excuse to shut off their Hanna Barbera licence. They shouldn't have done it. Kids need an area to play in with rides that suit them while basically the whole family (apart from the mother) head down to rides such as the Bush Beast, Space Probe and the Demon.

[GoGoBoy]

Ok joz after much searching I finally found the offending annual report. As you will see it is quite a different reason to the one Wonderland's CEO gave the public (no surprises there) The exact wording is: 'Wonderland Sydney Theme Park undertook various cost cutting and productivity improvement measures to improve its earnings. This included reducing the sprawling 60ha park size by 3ha through the relocation of rides and facilities, thus reducing running costs and enhancing the park presentation. Coupled with new revenue generation programs, the theme park had significantly improved its gross operating income in 2002.' The report takes a while to download as it is quite long but if you want to check it out for yourself is at http://www.sunway.com.my/sunwaygrp/invest/...ty%20pg1_44.pdf

[GoGoBoy]

Ok joz after much searching I finally found the offending annual report. As you will see it is quite a different reason to the one Wonderland's CEO gave the public (no surprises there) The exact wording is: 'Wonderland Sydney Theme Park undertook various cost cutting and productivity improvement measures to improve its earnings. This included reducing the sprawling 60ha park size by 3ha through the relocation of rides and facilities, thus reducing running costs and enhancing the park presentation. Coupled with new revenue generation programs, the theme park had significantly improved its gross operating income in 2002.' The report takes a while to download as it is quite long but if you want to check it out for yourself is at http://www.sunway.com.my/sunwaygrp/invest/...ty%20pg1_44.pdf

[GoGoBoy]

Ok joz after much searching I finally found the offending annual report. As you will see it is quite a different reason to the one Wonderland's CEO gave the public (no surprises there) The exact wording is: 'Wonderland Sydney Theme Park undertook various cost cutting and productivity improvement measures to improve its earnings. This included reducing the sprawling 60ha park size by 3ha through the relocation of rides and facilities, thus reducing running costs and enhancing the park presentation. Coupled with new revenue generation programs, the theme park had significantly improved its gross operating income in 2002.' The report takes a while to download as it is quite long but if you want to check it out for yourself it's at http://www.sunway.com.my/sunwaygrp/invest/...ty%20pg1_44.pdf

[Bussy]

What i meant was that The only transport ride that circulated the whole park was the "Old Westfeild Miranda People Mover", and that circulated every part of the park except HBL. If they even had it go up to the Zodiac area, let people off, then turn around and head towards Goldrush.

Actually in the early days of the 'Express' it did the following circuit: Botany Bay, Transylvania, HB, Wildlife Park, Botany Bay, Gold Rush and then back. This was before the Wildlife Park had a separate entrance. The problem with going up to Zodiac and then turning around is this, where do you turn the thing around? The 'Express' had a turning circle of a real train, about 1Km. I drove that piece of crap, and I'm sure Daniel will agree with me that it was an absolute nightmare to get strollers and prams on and off it, particularly the three wheelers that were just a bit to big to fit in the carriage, I coped a lot of abuse because of that. I have only been to one park in the States and that was easily 5 times the size of Wonderland but they didn't have any transportation system of any description, no train, no cable car, nothing. Yes the park was open or 12 hours a day but they also had 1-3 hour waits for most rides. "The Bus is now leaving for Moven, NSW"

[Slick]

Can i have a guess? Was it....... DisneyLand?

[Schwarz_freak]

I think Walt Disney World is bigger than Disney land.

[T-bone]

Well with the HBL situation, they could have made a little track that went around the back of Zodiac and let it turn around there on it's on seprate track. That would have been easy enough and cost efective. As for the park that is 5 times as big as wonderland, there is nothing wrong with having no transport system. But what i am saying really is that if they had of kept the "Westfeild Miranda's people mover" going up to HBL when it was open, they couldn't have used the excuse that they did. Personally i think that the People Mover was good in the way it went (Botany Bay, Transilvania and Goldrush) because all of those lazy people that were complaining, could have caught the People mover to Goldrush and then catch a birds eye view of the park on the Skyway. That really was enough in transport ways. Wonderbus, I am not disagreeing with you. I think that they had plenty of transport rides avaliable, but what i am saying is what they could have done (at least trialed it) if this was the case of people complaining and that way they could have kept HBL open instead of just closing it down quick smart with no warning.

[Bussy]

Can i have a guess? Was it....... DisneyLand?

Yes you can guess, would you like to lock that in? Want to use a lifeline? Because that guess is wrong. Paul, they did try it as I said in my post and it didn't work out for several reasons. Skyrider was a good addition to the park but it was very unreliable from the start. I guess that’s what happens when you buy a second hand carnie ride. "The Bus is now leaving for Fear Not Creek, Victoria"

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

ok so im no expert in the operations side. the info i have, (from Roderick - if you know him) was that the WLX (while it did at one stage make the trek to HB) could not handle the strain of powering up the hill to HB every 20 minutes. Those of you who were involved with its operation know how often the WLX was out of action. >>> Coming soon - photos of HBLLWL after the closure as well as a stroll into the memories that were. 6 ROLLS OF FILM PROCESSING THIS WEEK

[T-bone]

That's good that your going to add some photo's to the site Alex. If they are good enough ask Richard to submit them to the Website. I have some pretty good pictures of WLS and submitted them to Richard. However they are not on the site even though he said he would post them up when he next updates the site. He'll get to it someday i suppose.