NEWS: Massive water park coming to Sydney

[Airtime&Gravity]

 

 

SIX years after the closure of Australia's Wonderland, Sydney's west is to get a new theme park tipped to be one of the biggest in the world.

 

Premier Kristina Keneally unveiled plans for the $80 million Wet'n'Wild theme park in Prospect yesterday, saying it would provide entertainment for families across the state and create at least 300 jobs.

 

It is expected to be among the top 10 water parks by size in the world.

 

The state government has signed a 50-year lease with Village Roadshow for the 25-hectare site - designated for commercial use - off the M4. Leppington, Bringelly and Camden had also been considered. It will be the first big theme park development in western Sydney since Australia's Wonderland at Eastern Creek folded in 2004 because of declining patronage and ageing infrastructure.

 

Ms Keneally said a merit-based assessment, including water use and transport, would be examined when a development application was tabled.

 

The company planning to run the park, Village Roadshow, had shown it could run similar venues, including Wet'n'Wild on the Gold Coast, in a sustainable way. The cost of the lease was not disclosed yesterday.

 

''It's good news for those mums and dads in western Sydney,'' Ms Keneally said.

 

The chief executive of Village Roadshow Theme Parks, Tim Fisher, said tickets would cost about $45 or $50 a person, with family discounts.

 

''Sydney was chosen as the venue because of its large population and because it's a world-class city.''

 

He said it would be environmentally friendly, without detailing its water use.

 

Village Roadshow expects the park to be completed in the summer of 2013-14.

 

It would attract 900,000 visitors a year, including 175,00 interstate and international tourists, the company said.

 

Link

 

For those who don't know, $80000000AUD = $75000000USD.

[stellaclose]

http://www.wetnwildsydney.com.au/

[DBru]

Wow.

 

Australia just became that much more awesome.

[eefff1]

I'll believe that this is going to happen when they actually break ground on the site and start construction. Honestly, I hope it happens, but have serious doubts that it will.

 

First problem here is the development application has not been tabled (as mentioned in the article). The current government is about to go to an election, and will almost certianly get thrown out of offce because they are unpopular, incompetent, corrupt and completely useless. The only other political party are complete tools too, but they are they don't have the universal unpopularity problem the current government does. Given this, by the time the development application gets tabled, we will have a new state government, and they are likely to reject it just because it wasn't their idea, and its in an electorate that they never get any votes in anyway. Its the age old political problem, you don't vote for us, we won't do anything in your area.

 

Second problem, Sydney has a sad history of failed themeparks of all nature, there was even a waterpark located less than 10 miles down the road (http://www.ask.com/wiki/Mt_Druitt_Waterworks) that failed. Sydney, for whatever reason, despite being the biggest city in the country, just can't seem to support them. There has been everything from the small crappy parks to big investments, even Sega couldn't make a go of it and they were located in CBD.

 

I seroiusly do hope I am completely wrong and this goes ahead and is successful. On the positive side, it will be run by the effective Australian monopoly themepark operator, so atleast they have a successful history.

[Gav]

September 11, 2010

New Waterpark for Sydney!

Six years after Dreamland's closure, Sydney Australia will get a new park!

I thought Dreamland was at Margate in England.

Wonderland Sydney you mean

 

Given this, by the time the development application gets tabled, we will have a new state government, and they are likely to reject it just because it wasn't their idea, and its in an electorate that they never get any votes in anyway.

Unless the park proposal had a massive surge of local unpopularity the Liberals were willing to exploit then I'm not sure that would be the case. Besides, this is a private sector project....The NSW government is just 'endorsing' it.

 

it will be run by the effective Australian monopoly themepark operator, so atleast they have a successful history.

I think this is the key. The Wet n Wild name is fairly iconic in Australia, and VRTP do know how to run water parks well, and the product they are planning looks pretty engaging

(PS, everyone should check out http://www.wetnwildsydney.com.au/pdf/WNW_Sydney_Proposal.pdf since that has plans and concept art). I think some of the failures like Wonderland can be put down to lack of capital reinvestment (Eg the last big ride WL built was Space Probe, and then basically nothing till the place shut down) and silly management (Eg trying to run it as a year round park)

[downunder]

I'm of the hopeful view that if someone builds something that is actually good then people will go. Wonderland just didn't have anything to keep people going back.

[rosscoe]

I am not sure if Village Roadshow really know how to run things, Wet n Wild only got new slides on the Gold Coast due to the opening of White Water World, Movie World has not had anything new or worthwhile in years.

 

This could very well turn into another Wonderland, build it, add nothing new and hope the punters come!

[eefff1]

This thing still faces some major obstacles before it can ever get built and given Sydney's record, its an up hill battle. I do expect local interest groups will be against this, everything from its a misuse of water resources, to planning objections, environmental issues, traffic problem, misuse of government land (yes, read the article, its on leased government land). Its the typical nature of Sydney, you can't build anything here that might benefit the greater community anymore. Whilst the proposal is there, that's all it is. Hasn't been submitted for development approval, no environmental impact assessment and no local community opinion sought. Local Iconic names mean little in Sydney either.

 

A classic example of Sydney's local interest groups overriding popular opinion is the whole debacle of the rebuild of Luna Park. Dreamworld only has the Cyclone Coaster because Nth Sydney residents lobbied the government for its removal because it was too noisy and obstructed their view. The fact that Luna Park was there before their apartments were built was irrelevant. Another great example was the Sydney airport noise levy, which added about $3 to every ticket for planes that landed at Sydney airport. Why was it there, so that it could fund reverse cycle air conditioning, insulation and double glazed windows for all the residents around the airport. When they introduced it, the airport had been there for 70 years, longer than most of the residents have been. Don't know if its still added to tickets, but it lasted for atleast 10 years.

 

Wonderland's failure in the end had less to do with aging infrastructure and bad management and more to do with the fact, once again, local interest groups were against the park and stopped its redevelopment and expansion plans, that and the land that it was sitting on was too valuable, in the end a property development group bought it, leveled it and redeveloped it. A key difference with many Australian parks to most others around the world is that they sit on large lots of land. With Wonderland, the park only used about 10% of the land that the company owned. Dreamworld was the same, though I'm sure Macquaire Bank fixed that issue.

 

I really do hope this happens, it would be great to have something more than the pitiful state that Luna Park has descended to, now effectively a convention center with some rides, to go to, but its got a serious uphill battle to get there, which will take a lot more than some nice artwork to win.

[tazzygpr]

this could be good, but even up here on the Gold Coast through the winter when temp is between 18-25c wet and wild has very low crowds even with heated pools. the weather in Sydney's west will be cold over the winter season and people will not go. Its about time Sydney got a new park after wonderland closed that place was good but even there the water park was closed for winter.Good luck to them.

[crazywolf88]

All of the proposed things for this park are owned by white water west, take a look at white water's website