Flashback: Sea World celebrates 50 years on Gold Coast
As Sea World celebrates 50 years, the Bulletin looks back at how Gold Coast’s first theme park began. PHOTOS AND HISTORY
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THE Gold Coast’s first theme park began with a set of skis.
It was the mid-1950s and self-made millionaire Keith Williams was keen to learn a new skill after moving to what would soon become known as the Gold Coast.
Taught by longtime local Bruce Hope, the businessman was a natural and by 1959 had been named both Queensland’s trick-skating champion and Australia’s top skier.
Quickly seeing the potential for a tourist attraction, Williams created the Surfers Paradise Ski Gardens on the Nerang River at Carrara.
But by 1971, he was dreaming of bigger things.
Enter Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
“Keith wanted to come in closer to Surfers and wanted his attraction to be more than just a ski show,” Williams’ widow Thea told the Bulletin this week.
“He had seen Sea World in America and wanted to incorporate rides with skiing.
“Sir Joh was premier at the time and he was very interested in what Keith was doing.
“He let Keith do whatever he wanted because he knew Keith had good foresight.”
Williams secured 50ha on The Spit from the state government to build Skiland and dredged out an artificial lake.
The doors opened on October 30, 1971 and it proved an immediate hit.
But less than a year later the attraction’s name was changed to Sea World, though the focus remained almost entirely on skiing and the park’s menagerie of marine animals through the 1970s.
Among those who worked with the dolphins in the 1970s was future television star Kerry-Anne Kennerley.
Williams himself moved his family into a house built within the park where they lived for 12 years.
“Our kids were the most popular at school at the time because they could bring their friends around,” Mrs Williams remembered.
“Keith was very proud of it all as it grew rapidly. He was that kind of man who never, ever stopped and was absolutely driven.
“When the rides went in, we always had to go on them and I personally hated The Corkscrew (rollercoaster).”
Joining the team in 1975 was marketing and tourism expert Peter Doggett who went on to spend more than 33 years at Sea World and the city’s later theme parks.
He oversaw the dramatic expansion of the park in the late 1970s and 1980s when the first major rides were installed, including the $350,000 Viking’s Revenge flume rides in 1978 and the Corkscrew in 1982.
“Those were some of the best years for tourism on the Gold Coast and certainly with the development of the overseas market in the mid-1980s, the park expanded quickly,” he said.
“The secret was always to refresh and upgrade the product with new rides or revamped ones.
“This wasn’t just for the domestic market but for the repeat travellers from overseas because it meant when they came back they’d have something new to try.”
Williams finally sold Sea World in 1984 to businessman Peter Laurence.
Mrs Williams said she regretted her husband’s decision to sell the park.
“My memories of Sea World was that those were the best times of my life,” she said.
“I was sorry when Keith sold it but he felt he had done enough and wanted to move on to build Hamilton Island in north Queensland.”
Despite parting ways with Sea World, he kept a close eye on his biggest Gold Coast legacy until his death in 2011.
Mr Laurence decided to publicly list the company and pour millions into building new attractions.
Among them was the Nara Resort, which opened in 1988, and a host of new rides including Australia’s first monorail in 1986, a water park and the Lassiter’s Lost Mine ride.
The park boomed on the back of Brisbane’s Expo 88 and it became a popular landmark for visiting celebrities.
Mr Doggett recalled hosting many big names including ex-Beatle George Harrison, Lauren Bacall, musicians Steptoe and Son, Gerry and the Pacemakers and the King of Tonga.
“In fact, the week I started working at Sea World we had to host the Bay City Rollers,” he said.
“I remember George Harrison meeting a dolphin back in the mid-1980s. I still look back on that today and it is such a strong memory.
“We were lucky to have launched the resort in the Expo year because we had so many tours coming in.”
Outside of its theme park attractions, Sea World also ran a highly successful marine rescue team that continues to assist whales and other creatures in distress today.
Sea World boomed in the 1990s when Village Roadshow bought out Mr Laurence and continued its expansion into the 2000s.
Among the most prominent attractions built during that era was the Bermuda Triangle. It included a giant fire-spewing volcano that could be seen and heard across the Broadwater.
Sea World also hosted several film and television productions including Flipper, Mission Impossible and Neighbours.
But the park faced controversy in September 2002 when an out-of-control jet ski crashed into the crowd, injuring four people.
The incident made headlines across Australia and saw the skis stunt show wound back for several years.
Through the 2000s and 2010s, Sea World gradually retired many of its older attractions, including the Corkscrew, the swinging Pirate Ship, the cable-car, Bermuda Triangle and Viking’s Revenge.
The 21st century also saw an expanded and renewed focus on animal life, with its polar bear enclosure opening in 2000 and was followed by its seal and shark exhibits.
The Sea World of 2021 has grown dramatically beyond Keith Williams’ vision for a tourist attraction, but the park set the mould for all the modern Gold Coast theme parks which followed it.
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Originally published as Flashback: Sea World celebrates 50 years on Gold Coast
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