It looks like Sydney is being rewarded for doing absolutely nothing, with the most generous of gifts to be bestowed on its very doorstep backyard, Western Sydney, in the form of a Wonderland reincarnation.
Thank you, theme park-based gods. THANK YOU.
Wonderland Sydney was the theme park Sydney-siders loved to have as a reassuring back up: sure, hardly anybody actually went there, but it was comforting to have the option to travel out West, spend hundreds in a day and be conned by carnies at sideshows. Bliss. But It turned out that a long-distance love affair with a theme park that was appreciated for its lacklustre vibes didn’t actually translate to revenue, and the park closed its doors in 2004.
But lo, prepare to rejoice in the near decade-long starvation of amusement park glee: plans for a resurrection of Wonderland have been announced, and its kind of a roller coaster of emotions, if you know what I mean—a Mt Druitt property developer, Ammar Khan has a plan to quench our dreams rejuvenate Wonderland with a $150 million plan in the works. According to the Daily Telegraph, Khan confirmed that the project “Wouldn’t happen overnight” (but I want it now?) and added a sentiment of sydney-siders-are-clinically-depressed-amusement-less-souls: “It’s time to bring back the fun in our lives and provide a vibrant place where people can enjoy themselves again,” because Sydney has experienced a dark, soulless void in the past nine years without Wonderland to give residents a reason to live out this wretched life.
Khan is looking for investors to make his wonderland dream a reality, and is scouting locations in Western Sydney—potentially Marsden Park and Riverstone—to construct the state’s largest velocity-induced vomit catchment.
The news comes close to the announcement and development of Wet N Wild Sydney, due to open in Western Sydney in Summer this year. From zero theme parks to potentially two theme parks in a matter of months? This is all a bit too much.
