Old Sydney Town owner Richard Chiu says park could be rebuilt
THE millionaire owner of former Old Sydney Town theme park says he is willing to rebuild it bigger and better than ever — but there’s one condition. POLL VOTE
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THE millionaire owner of the former Old Sydney Town theme park says he is willing to rebuild it even better than before — on one condition.
International hotel entrepreneur Richard Chiu gave an exclusive interview to the Central Coast Express Advocate from his Paris head office this week.
He said he was ready to seriously look at a revamped Old Sydney Town — but only if Central Coast Council rezoned 30 per cent of his surrounding landholding for residential or commercial development.
Mr Chiu said Old Sydney Town occupied only ten per cent of his Somersby land — and rezoning some of this would make it feasible for his company to take the financial risk of resurrecting the theme park.
The land is currently covered by a rural zoning.
He said his company had put this proposal to the then Gosford Council many times over the years but it had always been refused.
“If the council was willing to give in principal support to rezoning a third of the land for residential purposes then we would redevelop Old Sydney Town at our own cost,” Mr Chiu said.
“I fully believe that some kind of park could work — not a museum like it was — but we can make it a heritage theme park.
“I would be happy to talk to anyone directly — we have operations in the Pacific and I come to Sydney once a year. They can call me here.”
Mr Chiu said there was strong community support for the venture — and a lot of nostalgia.
“I think it is feasible — economic conditions have changed and I think people will be willing to put more money into it than in the past,” he said.
Mr Chiu said if “no resolution could be found” eventually he would have to sell the land.
“That would really be unpleasant for me personally to sell it because it’s been with us all these years,” he said.
“But what can you do — we are in business and you can’t sit on something for ever.”
ROAD TO NOWHERE
Richard Chiu has been associated with Old Sydney Town since the 1980s when his company Warwick Amusements began leasing the site from the NSW Government about 5 years after the park opened.
He said at that time the NSW Government gave him a verbal undertaking to do a major widening of the Pacific Highway from the Sydney Harbour Bridge to the M1 entrance.
Mr Chiu said research at that time indicated that the notoriously congested Pacific Hwy was a barrier to northern Sydney tourists travelling to the park.
“We based our decision to lease OST on that — unfortunately that road work never happened,” Mr Chiu said.
Under the terms of the lease, Warwick Amusements eventually bought the site — but it never made money either for the State Government which initially owned it, or for Warwick Amusements.
“Over the years we invested quite a lot of money into the park but unfortunately the visitor frequency was not there to justify it financially,” he said.
“We lost a lot of money — operating losses of over $15m over the years — so we decided to close it.”
“The road problem still exists — 30 years later we are still talking about the same thing — I was a young man when all this started, now I’m an old man and we’re still stuck with the same road — but that’s politics for you.”
FOND MEMORIES
Mr Chiu is among the many people who have fond memories of Old Sydney Town.
“Before I bought it I visited it many times. I bought my children there — they were young in those days. There was a farm with kangaroos and goats and my children used to feed the animals,” he said.
“I used to take them to the wool shed dance — we loved to go to — it was such fun.
“I still have a bottle of rum from Old Sydney Town in my office — I dare not open it — it’s still sealed.
Mr Chiu is president and founder of Warwick International Hotels — a global hospitality property based in New York with about 60 hotels in 30 countries. Chiu founded the company in May 1980 with the purchase of the historic 426 room Warwick Hotel in New York — around the same time as he became involved with Old Sydney Town.
“OST was one of my earliest projects when I was a young man and I was very convinced of it then and I still am.”
TIMELINE:
■ The park was opened in 1975 by Gough Whitlam. It was developed by architect Frank Fox with the help of the Federal Government and the Bank of NSW.
■ The project faithfully recreated the pre-Governor Macquarie period with buildings constructed using traditional methods and featuring authentic costumes, furnishings, foods and activities from that period. Its overall control was initially in the hands of Mr Fox and the Bank of NSW.
■ Old Sydney Town was officially opened on Australia Day 1975, by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.
■ The Wran state government took over the federal investment shortly after the Fraser government took power at the end of 1975.
■ The Park was leased to private company, Warwick Amusements, who under the terms of the lease eventually purchased it from the State Government and later took a decision to close in 2003.
■ During its lifetime, the park had 6 million visitors.
■ In the early hours of 20 February 2014, fire claimed Heritage Hall the entrance and reception complex — and a significant part of the artefacts and documentation stored there were lost.