The sale of Sydney and NSW’s legendary theme parks and what became of them
As another old theme park comes up for sale, we take a walk down memory lane.
It’s the end of an era when a theme park closes and the site of many childhood memories is sold off.
NSW has had its fair share of beloved park closures from Wonderland Sydney to Old Sydney Town.
The latest theme park to hit the market is the former Fantasy Glades in Port Macquarie.
The former fantasy-themed park on Parklands Cl, which closed in 2002 after 35 years, features parklike acres, rustic bridges, restored castles and a church.
Fantasy Glades is up for sale in Port Macquarie.
The current owner has restored the site to resemble the theme park that ran for 35 years.
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McGrath agent David Geary said the site was attracting huge interest and was the most viewed property in NSW in early June.
“It’s popular for many reasons, more than 3 million people visited it over its lifetime so there are a lot of memories,” he said.
He said the current owner had spent years restoring the site including the castle and old Snow White’s house however had decided to move on.
“There’s opportunities for a few different uses, whether or not there’s scope for a theme park again with all the new rules and regulations,” he said.
“There’s a lot of people in Port Macquarie keen to see it back to its former glory. There’s DA approval for cabins. It’s going to be a specific buyer that wants to work with it.”
Mr Geary said builders as well as schools had inspected the site which is the one of the last vacant pieces of land in the area of this size and scope.
Interest has come from builders and schools.
Colliers state chief executive Queensland Simon Beirne was involved in the sale of major theme parks Warner Bros Movie World and Wet’n’Wild Gold Coast in 2017.
Mr Beirne described theme parks as a “very specific and niche asset class”, however noted that the continued success depended on the strength of the business.
“It’s considerably more reliant on the strength of the operating business than the actual real estate,” he said.
The iconic entrance to Wonderland Sydney.
The Bush Beast was a favourite ride at Wonderland Sydney. Picture: Danny Aarons
“With transactions being so limited, it’s tough to get a read on current demand, but with international travel and domestic tourism continuing to rebound on top of strong market fundamentals throughout the major cities where many of these parks are located, there would certainly be interest for assets of that nature.”
Closed down theme parks don’t have the same appeal and some of NSW’s most beloved theme parks have been sold over the years, with community hopes of restoration dashed.
The Eastern Creek icon Wonderland Sydney was open for 18 years before officially closing in 2004.
Old Botany Bay at Wonderland Sydney.
The Demon rollercoaster on one of the last days the park was open in 2004.
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It sold for just over $50m in 1997 to the Malaysian-based Sunway Group which blamed the eventual collapse on everything from international terrorist attacks to the heath pandemics of SARS and bird flu.
What once housed the much loved Demon, Bush Beast and Hanna-Barbera Land now operates as a business park with plans for a new “Wonderland” never getting off the ground.
Another theme park bringing back childhood nostalgia from the 1980s was Old Sydney Town.
The colonial themed Somersby park sold in May 2018 for between $15 and $20m.
The owners are World Cultural Tourism Village (WCTV) which submitted plans to Central Coast Council to convert the iconic site into Australia’s first multicultural tourism resort.
The convicts and redcoats of Old Sydney Town. Picture: Amusement Centre Travel
However in June 2022, plans hit a hurdle and were returned to WCTV for further studies with the remains of the site continuing to decay.
Locals had previously been campaigning for eight years for Old Sydney Town to be restored back to its former glory with a petition attracting more than 11,000 signatures in 2016.
The NSW south coast attraction, known as the Gold Rush Colony, also met a tragic end, selling in 2019 before burning down when fire ripped through the town of Mogo.
The Gold Rush Colony theme park in Mogo in the Batemans Bay area was up for sale for $3.4 million.
The town, built atop an abandoned mine shaft from the 1850s, was a popular themed attraction where visitors could pan for nuggets, along with historic buildings like a blacksmith and butchery.
Victorian age mining equipment and digging tools are also on site, plus a bushranger jail, digging tunnel, bush chapel and town drinking hole known as the Diggers Rest Tavern.
One park that did manage to survive sales over the years was The Big Buzz Fun Park in Rainbow Flat north of Newcastle.
The Big Buzz Fun Park has survived sales over the years and continues to operate.
The 30 acre property at 1733 The Lakes Way has been a tourist attraction for almost four decades with a including laser tag, water slides, putt putt course, go karting and a toboggan run.
It last sold in February 2022 for $1.6m and continues to operate.
