Former Australian Theme Parks: Sega World Darling Harbour

[AuSSiETiG3R]

Since most of this board is about theme parks over in America, I know Robb's done a bit of coverage on some of the ones here in Australia, I thought I'd share with you two that have since been closed and demolished.

 

The first of these: Sega World Darling Harbour, where I spent a couple of years working firstly in their Rides department, then moving on to the Games department.

 

 

The signature red cube and blue cone entrance of Sega World Darling Harbour.

 

This park was opened in Sydney's Darling Harbour area in March 1997, and was labelled as "Australia's Interactive Disneyland" by the media, which contained a mixture of both rides and electronic arcade games. Sadly, due to below required attendance and constant financial losses, the Park doors closed for the final time in November 2000, after failing to attract the crowds they were hoping for during the Sydney Olympic Games

 

Split into three distinctly themed areas, the Past, Present and Future, it only had seven rides. One of these was "Rail Chase", an indoor "mine car" rollercoaster built by Masago Industrial, with elaborate theming and special effects, with a twist - parts of the ride were in reverse.

 

 

Rail Chase Entrance

 

This ride, themed around the Angkor Wat Temple, started off as an interactive ride, whereby the rollercoaster itself took you on a journey through the forest and into the temple itself. Once inside your "water cannons" on the front of your "mine car" were put to good use to extinguish as many "flames" as possible.

 

Towards the end, the theme of the ride changed, along with the story it portrayed to a non-interactive ride with a time-travel story behind it.

 

 

The other rides that were here were:

 

 

 

Ghost Hunters: An interactive "ghost train" where shooting as many ghosts, ghouls and spooks was the name of the game.

 

 

 

Just one of the many movies that were showing at Magic Motion Theatre, seated in hydraulic chairs that moved in time with the movie being shown on screen. This one being Dino Island.

 

 

 

Ahh Aqua Nova - Sega World's 3D ride.

 

 

 

For racing car enthusiasts Indy 500, which was located directly across from Aqua Nova

 

 

 

 

AS-1 - An interactive space ride.

 

 

 

Mad Bazooka - Dodgem cars with cannons mounted on them, drive over balls laid out over the arena floor and shoot them at the targets on the top of the cars.

 

 

 

I've also included a clip that I found on Youtube that showcases some of the rides that I haven't mentioned in here.

 

 

 

 

If you've got any questions - feel free to post them

[downunder]

I went there once, on a Friday night and it was almost deserted. It wasn't really my thing because I'm not a gamer at all.

 

Unfortunately the coaster wasn't operating, sigh a missed credit, but my interest in coasters at that time was largely dormant primarily due to lack of coasters to ride locally. I wonder what happened to that coaster, there are no pointers in rcdb?

[AuSSiETiG3R]

I went there once, on a Friday night and it was almost deserted. It wasn't really my thing because I'm not a gamer at all.

 

Unfortunately the coaster wasn't operating, sigh a missed credit, but my interest in coasters at that time was largely dormant primarily due to lack of coasters to ride locally. I wonder what happened to that coaster, there are no pointers in rcdb?

 

 

Not 100% sure but I think I saw an article that said that there were a few parks from overseas looking to buy it. Even RCDB doesn't have an update as to what happened with it so its whereabouts at present are unknown.

[cfc]

I went there once, on a Friday night and it was almost deserted. It wasn't really my thing because I'm not a gamer at all.

 

I think this sums up the problem with these theme park/arcade combos in general. Most people just think of them as big arcades that charge an entrance fee. Sega Joypolis in Tokyo is fun, and I've enjoyed Disney Quest in Orlando.

[downunder]

It wouldn't surprise me if they just scrapped the coaster if they didn't sell it straight away, it would cost a fortune to store it somewhere in Sydney once the site was vacated. Maybe the guy who allegedly brought the Dazzleland coaster for his backyard grabbed that one as well.

 

The funny thing is next year I'll probably be working in the building that went up on the Sega site.