Remember Old Sydney Town? Now you can buy it

Who remembers Old Sydney Town?

A trip to the popular historic theme park was for years a rite of passage for many children and schools in Sydney and on the Central Coast.

With its recreation of life for Sydney’s early settlers, the park was a living museum for almost 28 years, but closed in 2003 when its owner, millionaire Richard Chiu, deemed the business was no longer viable.

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The attraction has since fallen into disrepair, but was in talks to reopen as recently as October last year, with Chiu saying he was prepared to reopen it if the local council would allow parts of the surrounding property to be redeveloped for residential or commercial purposes.

But the opportunity to rebuild will now be someone else’s, with Chiu putting the venue – and the 120ha megasite on which it sits – on the market.

And Old Sydney Town isn’t the only tourist attraction up for grabs.

Also on the land is the Australian Reptile Park, which has operated since 1996 on the property and continues to bring in tourists.

Many of the buildings at Old Sydney Town are still standing.

The Reptile Park occupies 54,000sqm of the property, while Old Sydney Town has 250,000sqm and an additional 890,000sqm wraps around both sites and is used as a farm.

CBRE’s Peter Vines, Ben Byford, Victor Sheu and Peter Mangraviti are marketing landholding at 945 Old Pacific Highway in Somersby – about 8km from Gosford and 77km north of Sydney.

The theme park is surrounded by huge tracts of farmland.

Vines says that the site is likely going to be a major target for developers.

“Located at the gateway to the Central Coast – the coastal city of Gosford – this site offers an unprecedented landbank opportunity to secure more than one million square metres of premium land,” he says.

“Given its vast size, direct proximity to the Somersby industrial area and future rezone potential, this site could be later developed for a range of outcomes such as rural activities, theme parks, tourism development and residential subdivision.”