Melbourne needs a world class theme park, writes Rita Panahi
MELBOURNE needs a world class theme park and it would be the perfect thing to transform the soulless ghost town that is Docklands, writes Rita Panahi.
Rita Panahi
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YOU know Victorians are desperate for decent family destinations when there’s widespread jubilation about the refurbishment of Gumbuya Park, 65km from Melbourne.
It’s great that the daggy amusement park, famous for its toboggan slide and giant Golden Pheasant statue, is getting a facelift, but we mustn’t stop there.
Melbourne needs a world-class amusement park much closer to the city and with easy access to public transport.
A city of more than four and half million people and a state with close to six million can sustain a substantial amusement park — and then there are the millions of international and interstate visitors who would also be drawn to it. There’s no reason Victorian families should have to travel to Queensland so their children can enjoy first-rate theme parks such as Movie World, Sea World, Wet’n’Wild, Dreamworld and WhiteWater World.
Sydney has a $120 million Wet’n’Wild in Prospect, about 32km west of the city, that’s open in the warmer months. Despite the limited season, annual passes tend to sell out meaning most visitors pay $70 for a daypass to the waterpark.
The new and improved Gumbuya Park will also have a water park, though how many will brave the country’s tallest waterslide in the Tynong chill in June remains to be seen.
Melbourne must aim higher, much higher than our Harbourside cousins. Why can’t we have Australia’s Disneyland here in Melbourne? All that is needed is a site of sufficient size somewhere near the city, perhaps to the west of the Docklands.
Let’s be honest, the Docklands experiment hasn’t worked. The place is a soulless ghost town of half empty apartment blocks and windswept walkways where few Melburnians venture.
The area desperately needs a real attraction, something far more compelling than the overpriced Melbourne Star Observation Wheel, which costs between $36 and $46 per adult. That seems to me a rather steep price to look at factory rooftops.
If the Docklands is not viable due to the cost or lack of suitable land, then there are plenty of other options within a 30km radius of Melbourne.
In addition to the US Disney properties, there are Disneyland or Disney resorts in Hong Kong, France, China and Japan.
The Disney facilities all share certain characteristics that are irresistible to children and adults alike. From the fairytale castles to the many themed lands and of course the most crucial element for any successful theme park: epic rides.
Melburnian kids have had to settle for a few quaint — my son calls them “lame” — rides at Luna Park in the absence of a modern theme park.
In the school holidays there are lines out of the giant mouth entrance to the St Kilda landmark, showing that the demand for amusement parks is strong. But most local kids have to go interstate for their fix of thrill rides.
LUNA Park has plenty of kitsch value but it simply does not compare with what’s on offer in Queensland and even NSW. The entire works to Gumbuya Park will cost about $50 million and will feature a dinosaur attraction, aviary, a meerkat exhibit, family zone, a water zone and a bush resort.
It will be fantastic for increasing tourism to Cardinia Shire and will provide employment to 500 locals.
Once completed, it would complement a major theme park in Melbourne, but it is by no means a replacement for a real theme park.
As far as the tourism sector goes, Melbourne has two major and obvious deficiencies: no rail link from the airport to the city and lack of a bona fide amusement park. Tourism and Transport Forum Australia chief executive Margy Osmond believes theme parks are vitally important in attracting tourists.
“They are significant drawcards to visit a city or a region and are usually located high up on the ‘must-do’ list of domestic and international visitors,” she has said.
“The Gold Coast is one of the best Australian examples of theme parks as tourist magnets. Australians and international visitors flock to the Gold Coast to visit the many theme parks located there.”
Melbourne needs more world-class attractions with broad appeal to lure tourists and to satisfy local demand.
It’s all well and good to have funky laneways, a vibrant music scene and the mantle as the world’s sporting capital but kids aren’t interested in exploring cafes with superior single origin coffee or the latest avant-garde graffiti art.
They’d rather be scared silly on roller coasters and regaled by characters from their favourite fairytales and animations.
We have great zoos that rival anything offered interstate, including Melbourne, Werribee and Healesville Sanctuary, but there is nowhere for thrillseeking kids and young-at-heart adults to go for a day of rides, parades and family fun.
It doesn’t have to be a Disney property, any major theme park will do.
It’s time the world’s most liveable city became even more liveable.
A LOOK BACK AT 100 YEARS OF LUNA PARK
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist
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