Australian Amusement Fanatics

Hi all,
I have just viewed this footage on Youtube for the first time- its fantastic!!! Whilst being silent, its in full colour and gives a fascinating insight into Luna Park a full year before the tragic 1979 Ghost Train fire. Of particular interest here is the excellent footage of original Big Dipper and of the Schwarzkopf coaster the Wild Cat ( which replaced the Wild Mouse in the early '70's). Have a good look , this is a great find!!! It certainly does make me misty eyed and wistful- it would be a fanatastic thing if the park was in its orignal state today!! This footage now resides in the National Archive of Sound and film, so it is of immnese Austalian cultural importance!! Enjoy!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ1FdM9Y ... re=related

As an addition here is another video of early images of Luna Park and some great images of the Manly Fun Pier. These are also fairly rare - I myslef have never seen some of these images , especially of the ones of The Fun Pier!! Another snapshot into the lost amusement history of Sydney and Australia. Enjoy!!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKnVpwDJ ... re=related

One more blast from the past!! Here is a 1987 TV ad for Luna Park!! I remember these ads quite vividly- and the catchcry "One more time for the Dummies!!!" This gives a quick look at the 1980's LPS incarnation- no shots of the Geronimo roller coaster unfortunately!! Enjoy another trip down memory lane!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42RL3aQu ... re=related

Awesome! A shame for me the vids are silent but I'm sure they're great to look at.

I remember Manly Fun Pier as a kid, my first ride on the Sizzler I think! Didn't get to LPS until the 80's and although many people think of that time as bad for the park, it was halfway decent, much like a carnival rather than a theme park as I recall.

Thanks for sharing!

Yeah this footage is very important Ben...I have never seen its like...and in colour!! There are great shots of The Big Dipper and onride footage as well plus, good shots of the Wild Cat....how I wish this incarnation of the park was still around..if the historical Luna Park ( Both Sydney and Melbourne ) were still in their original form they would definitely be a world famous tourist attraction!! I would love for any future investment to hearken back to these glory days...this would be an excellent way of ushering in the new whilst acknowledging the old. One point of note from the film was that their was vision of a ride that LOOKED like a Polyp. This ride could be the same that survived the 80's incarnation and also in the 95 reopening. It looks like it had been extensively refurbished for the 80's, if it is indeed the same ride. I had no idea that this ride was their as early as the late 70's. This ride survives on the Sunshine Coast at Aussie World -another underrated gem of a park.

The ride you are referring to josh was called the super screw, It was a travelling ride. My family owned it for a few years. Unfortunately it got sold to someone else and was no longer needed so they left it on a showgrounds somewhere and it got sent to scrap. Might add it was an Australian built ride to.
Also in the video is:
Marches wave swinger
Watkins calypso ( break dance looking ride), super jet coaster and pig train.
Youngs hurricane
Castles Zipper
Lauries Cha Cha
Wittingslow was just about everything else

Cheers Ozshowkid

Great video, was that young's Tilt aswell? Park looks so much better there compared to what it does now. All it is now is just an asphalt heat bowl. Great lineup of rides aswell

Thanks for the info OzShowkid but i think you will find that it isnt March's Waveswinger. That ride didnt make it to the park until the early 1980's, well after the Ghost train fire. This chair swing looks like a model similar to the one now operating at Dreamworld. But the footage is awesome, its in colour!!! Brilliant! The current owners would do very well to look at this film as a template into bringing back some of that lost magic!! One question...I was not aware that LPS leased some of these rides.....I thought they were rides that were owned outright by the park. When did this practice begin?? Its very similar to the current situation we have now with holiday rides. Cheers!

That is indeed marches wave swinger that came from Luna park as a park model, marches had it trailerised by hesco engineering in Mildura I think. 100% is marches as it even says so on the rounding board that goes around the base of the ride. Also the other swing ride is the zumer, which there are a few of in Aus so it could be any of them.

Cheers ozshowkid

I remember when Luna Park was such a great amusement park back in 1995 when I was a kid. It's interesting to know what the park was like before I was born, including the first Big Dipper before the Arrow Looper variant now the Cyclone at Dreamworld. Luna Park could do with a bigger coaster to be the next Big Dipper in order to attract more people. Wild Mouse may be a nice fun little coaster and a historical figure, but the park itself lacks a large thrill ride, let alone an actual roller coaster. Those whiny apartment dwellers near the park are all a bunch of buzzkills and either need to learn to live with what's going on at Luna Park or just leave and find quieter places to live.

If there's any suggestions on improving the park is to make another Big Dipper rollercoaster, doesn't have to be as big as its predecessors, but at least be a bit bigger and thrilling than Wild Mouse. If there could be some compromises, Tumble Bug could be relocated at its former spot next to Rotor, since they say it's nearly impossible for a HUSS Troika to be a travelling ride. Moon Ranger and Spider thankfully can resume as travelling rides for Australia's eventful carnivals like the Sydney Royal Easter Show, so that there could a least be some space to provide for a new rollercoaster and some for the kiddy rides at Maloney's Corner including the rest area. And those decorations for some of the rides that they stopped using when they reopened, they could be reused again.

Been awhile since I last logged in. Sorry for the long silence, guys.

It's all about keeping the neighbours happy now!!!

Yeah, which is sad really, because if Luna Park carries on with keeping the neighbours happy, I'm afraid that it might eventually die out, just like what happened to Wonderland.