Two Toboggans and a Mouse

[Gazza]

I went on a bit of a road trip around regional NSW and rode a couple of toboggans, and broke a 1 year coaster drought, amongst other sightseeing.

 

-On new years day I visited Corin Forest, which is a 40 min drive out of Canberra on a winding, but surprisingly fun road.

https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/corin-forest

Due to Covid they were running the Toboggan in 1 hour slots, which was actually awesome because it was like an ERT session, and you didn’t have to get off.

The ride is on the wild side, the sleds don’t have governors, the track is steep, and there are a couple of hard turns you absolutely must hit the brakes for. It’s not just back to back u turns either, it does mix it up with other random turns along the way to break up the straights.

You have to lean into the turns, but look out for the long weeds that whack you in the face growing by the trackside.

The track itself had a few dings in the stainless, and some of the sleds could do with calibration because they pull to one side….In fact on my first run I came partially off the track on a straight section because the thing was listing to one side.

Subsequent runs were a bit quicker, and with limited numbers you could space yourself to avoid catching up to anyone.

 

-Later on New Years day I drove over the hill to Nowra, and checked out the Huskisson Carnival, operated by Joylands amusements.

 

The place was very busy with half of Sydney seemingly on holiday, but it was well presented with a wide variety of rides including the Claw, Hurricane, Jurassic Coaster, and the target of my visit “Wild Mouse”,  not actually a wild mouse, but a Galaxi type coaster that used to operate at Funland at Weston Super Mare in the UK (Thanks @Noxegon ). Come to think of  it, I don’t think I’ve been on a Galaxi for years. Thrillseeker is a distant memory, as is Metropolis, none of the major parks in the US seem to have them, and I haven’t been to Merimbula in a long time either, so I guess it felt novel.

 

I dunno why they let bogans decorate rides though:

It actually ran much smoother than I expected, no jolts or bumps aside from the final brakes. Reasonably popular with a 20 min wait. Good fun.

"Step right up there's no waiting"

I was thinking to myself, it would be great if someone like Gerstlauer took this layout, made the lift hill an uphill launch, and the first turn into a fan turn…would be a great standard model indoor coaster.

 

-The drive back to Qld was long on the 3rd, but fairly easy these days since it’s largely non stop with the opening of Northconnex and the bypass of Grafton (I had to non stop through Sydney to meet the border pass restrictions at present).

I made a bit of a decision on a whim to divert into Nelson bay to visit Toboggan hill park, my reasoning being the place has irregular trading hours, so I might as well do it whilst It was open and I was driving through the area at an appropriate hour (Often If I road trip to or from Syd, it’ll be very early or late passing through the area north of Newcastle) and rolled in around 3.30pm

https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/toboggan-hill-park

The place was surprisingly busy, with a 30 min line for the toboggan, but the staff were on the ball in terms of moving people through.

The setting for the run is very nice, bushland and almost subtropical. The run is a decent length, with the turns a bit easier than the one at Corin, though the sleds have governors, so even if you send it and do a no brakes run you’ll max out fairly quickly and still not risk crashing.

Unfortunately I caught up to a nervous rider halfway down so the thrills were short lived. At the bottom the operator saw that a catch up had occurred and told me to go again so I could get a proper ride. That’s service.

If I had to rank the operating toboggans in Australia:

 

-Corin

-Jamberoo Fast

-Jamberoo Slow

-Funfields

-Toboggan Hill

-Big Banana

 

Thredbo and Kinkuna Country I did too long ago to really judge fairly.

 

-Bonus

 

I was in Narrandera a couple of days before new years. I went down to the Lake Talbot swimming complex hoping to ride the last remaining Toboggan slide (As seen in the old SW water park, WnW Double screamer etc).

 

It’s no longer there aside from a tribute photo on the entrance sign, but they have modernised the pool, and it’s huge for a regional town, with a new long body slide and a couple of brutal turbo tunnel type slides with an excessively tight and roughly joined helix. The open body slide was much more fun.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 7, 2021 by Gazza

[Smol bean]

Why the hell do those kids faces look like that on the art for the fast food stand at the carnival 

[DJKostya]

Thanks for the trip report on Corin. As a local I never really think of it as a place to go unless there's some snow on the Brindabellas. I just wish they'd get on with the expansion plans that they have talked about for years, would make it a much more attractive place to visit.

[Gazza]

1 hour ago, Smol bean said:

Why the hell do those kids faces look like that on the art for the fast food stand at the carnival 

 

[Jdude95]

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

On 07/01/2021 at 8:28 PM, Gazza said:

On new years day I visited Corin Forest, which is a 40 min drive out of Canberra on a winding, but surprisingly fun road.

 

On 08/01/2021 at 7:50 AM, DJKostya said:

Thanks for the trip report on Corin. As a local I never really think of it as a place to go unless there's some snow on the Brindabellas. I just wish they'd get on with the expansion plans that they have talked about for years, would make it a much more attractive place to visit.

I love Corin, and it is possible to go 'no brakes' all the way down but its a wild ride, that's for sure. I've quoted these two comments because one little point needs to be made about that dang road.

It is for sure a fun road to drive in summer but when there is some snow on the brindabellas, that road is no fun whatsoever. Beware the black ice, and beware the kangaroos!

[Jobe]

Thanks for the trip report!! I love Toboggan rides - they are a great family attraction.

I have never been to Corin Forest before and would dearly like to visit- the ride looks like it is one of the best examples of toboggans in Australia.

Here is a few more facts that i posted in the Facebook site Lost Amusement Parks of Sydney and NSW .

Quote

There are quite a few Tobbogan Runs/Alpine Slides located in NSW and they are cheap, easy to maintain and moderately thriling attractions. These include installations at;

• Jamberoo Action Park- 2 slides with access via a chairlift
• Corrin Forest in the ACT- 1 slide, uphill tow, 1.2km long ( longest Alpine Slide in the Southern Hemisphere)
• Tobaggan Hill Park- Nelson Bay 1 slide , up hill tow, 1 km in length
• The Big Banana Fun Park, Coffs Harbour, 1 slide ,up hill tow, 500m long
• Thredbo Alpine Slide, 1 slide, up hill tow, 700m in length.
• Magic Mountain Merimbula, 1 slide , up hill tow, 900m in length.
• Big Buzz Fun Park 1 slide concrete, up hill tow, 480 metres in length.

These cover all the NSW installations - I know and have been on the one at Funfields. I also am aware that Gumbuya World also used to have a toboggan installation but was removed prior to the refurb and relaunch of the park. There are calls for the park to reintroduce this back into the attraction lineup.

• Funfields- 1 slide uphill tow 400 metres- 700km in length.

 Are there any more in existence in Australia? It seems odd that NSW appears to have the lion's share of the rides in this country.

Here are POV for each of these slides.

Of course the Big Banana has just annouced the introduction of an Alpine Coaster to their park- this will hopefully be installed by 2023. These are the natural progression the the Toboggan units and I am surprised that Australia has not seen the installation of one of these before now. Jamberoo was also reported to have been looking at installing an Alpine Slide and even submitted a DA for it, however , the project for this has been delayed and deferred with not projected timeline on installation.

The Big Banana plans to call their unit "The Plantation Coaster" and this will occupy the space round the existing banana plantation. The only released graphic so far is below and shows the course and intended site for this installation.

The Jamberoo Alpine coaster , as stated , got to the planning and DA stage and would have looked like the below if it had gone ahead. The proposed Alpine Coaster is in red with the 2 Toboggan slides in blue. Yellow inidcates the Chairlift that takes you to the summit for the toboggan ride- something unique in Australia.

[Gazza]

In terms of the other Wiegand ones in Australia 

-Samford Grass Ski park

-Kinkuna Country Lakes Entrance

-Mermimbula Magic Mountain (I've done this one but forgot it, its probably somewhere equal with the Jamberoo ones)

-Lakeside Lesiure Park Adelaide