What was it about New South Wales that made it a breeding ground for quirky theme parks in the late 20th century? Headed by Luna Park, the queen of retro charm, this list of NSW amusement parks takes you on a head-spinning ride through dinosaurs, dancing horses, roller coasters, replicas and tiny towns. Buckle up for some fun at the fairground – and some nostalgia as we take you hurtling back through history to these long-lost lands.
The stunning survivor
From the balconies of the Sydney Opera House, you can see the glittering lights of Luna Park across the water. Its enviable perch on the edge of the harbour adds to its glamour, as do the neon pillars, fashioned after New York’s Chrysler Building, that frame the famous moon face. Within lies what artist Martin Sharp described as ‘an artwork in itself, a city state of illusion, a brilliant feat of engineering with imagination’.
Luna Park teetered on the edge of survival for years in the ’80s and ’90s, under attack from developers, noise-sensitive residents and new media. Most of its buildings and rides were sold off or destroyed. But after a renaissance in 2004, much of its interior landscape was recreated, and the lights are still on.
This cinema ad from 1976 takes you to Luna Park at night, making the most of its photogenic neon glow, and effectively selling it as a fun and exciting destination for older teens. A group of friends laugh their way from ride to ride and through a fairy-floss fight, their exuberance enhanced by jump cuts and groovy music. The nighttime setting banishes parents and younger kids from the scene so the main focus of the ad can be on the fine time one young couple is having. The message is clear: Luna Park is for romance as well as for fun.
The park is in its heyday here, and the ad preserves on film glimpses of popular rides including the Wild Cat, the Big Dipper and the Rotor (which pinned its passengers to the walls using centrifugal force), as well as the park’s Moulin-Rouge-styled windmill.
Luna Park cinema advertisement, 1976. NFSA title: 65928
Dinosaurs on the highway
It started off mini, it ended up huge. When Peter Zorgdrager began Miniland in a gravel pit in Western New South Wales, his first intention was to build a world in miniature, but he ran into problems when his pet peacocks started eating his creations. The peacocks didn’t have a chance with his next efforts: giant animatronic dinosaurs made on chicken-wire frames. Even though the scale of his brainchild had ballooned, Zorgdrager kept the name.
The park opened in 1969; this TV ad from 1989 shows why it became a favourite stop for road-tripping families. Miniland had clearly developed over the two decades: it now boasted a museum, a castle, electronic cars, BBQs, rowboats and a long metal slide (whose lack of safety barriers might give parents pause these days). The ad has a home-made feel that matches the adorable DIY vibe of the not-so-fearsome dinosaurs. The Brontosaurus dribbled real water into its pond; the Tyrannosaurus’ fearsome roar was based on a recording of a plastic lawnmower.
Miniland survived into the ’90s. After its closure the dinosaurs rusted in place until the whole site was razed by a bushfire in 2013. It’s remembered fondly by generations of children who begged their parents to stop there.
Miniland Coonabarabran, 30-second TV advertisement, 1989. NFSA title: 48798
Stallions and senoritas
In the 1970s and ’80s, your hotel stay or theme-park visit could be given a magical touch with the addition of dancing white horses. El Caballo Blanco (The White Horse) was born when Perth businessman Ray Williams established an Andalusian stud. A Perth resort and a Sydney theme park followed: they were so successful that Williams briefly went international, running an El Caballo Blanco site in Disneyland.
Both the Perth and the Sydney sites played heavily on the Spanish theme. In this 1985 TV ad for the theme park, we see its terracotta roofs, cream balustrades and palm trees – even the train has Ottoman arches. The ad's quick edits are cut to the lilting song (which has more than a passing nod to mid-70s earworm 'Una Paloma Blanca') and convincingly sell the park as a flamboyant alternative to traditional kids entertainments.
El Caballo Blanco offered a go-kart track, a pet’s corner with kangaroos and peacocks, roller-skating, water slides and an antique carriage museum. But the main attraction was the daily equestrian shows. Modelled on Vienna’s Spanish Riding School, they featured Andalusians performing intricate dressage steps and spectacular standing leaps. However, unlike the Spanish Riding School with its almost monastic simplicity, the El Caballo Blanco riders and their steeds were decked out in a cabaret-style profusion of ruffles, plumes and sequins, like the shining golden rider in the ad. In the same clip, you can also see the richly bedecked senoritas who rode behind the saddle in parades.
Like so many theme parks, the Sydney site ended its life in flames after a long period of abandonment. The Perth resort briefly revived its shows in the mid-2000s, but these days The White Horse dances no longer.
El Caballo Blanco TV advertisement, 1985. NFSA title: 1572387
Riding the beast
Originally intended to fill the gap left by the frequent closures of Luna Park, Wonderland opened in 1985 in Sydney’s West. With plenty of room to stretch out, it quickly developed themed areas including Medieval Faire, Goldrush and a water park called The Beach, as well as acquiring whizz-bang rides like the Demon, Wizard’s Fury and the Bounty’s Revenge. It even had its own tall ship where pirate battles were staged using acrobats who would plunge from the masts onto the deck. But its premiere attraction was the Bush Beast, a towering wooden rollercoaster set in the trees.
In this clip from a 1989 Scott Ross camerawork compilation, we get a visceral impression of what it was like to ride the front carriage of the largest wooden rollercoaster in the Southern Hemisphere. The passengers’ faces as they jolt around in their seats alternate between joy and horror (the man in the pink shirt looks distinctly uncomfortable throughout). At its highest point, the ‘double out and back figure eight’ track stood at nearly 28 metres – quite the plummet. We also get a taste of what it must have been like to be strapped into The Bounty's Revenge as it looped through the air in a complete 360-degree circuit, hanging its passengers upside down.
The park’s fortunes faded in the early 2000s, and after it was sold to a parent company in Malaysia, it declined further. Eventually all its rides were broken up or sold. The Bush Beast’s track was bulldozed, but a few of its carriages were rescued from the defunct park and went to live at Bathurst’s Artisans Park.
Footage from Australia's Wonderland theme park. Scott Ross Camerawork Compilation, 1989. NFSA title: 328392
A red elephant
If you weren’t able to travel all over the countryside, the Leyland brothers would bring it to you – not only through their travel films and the popular TV series Ask the Leylands, but, for two short years, in the theme park they designed and helped build. Soon after the opening in 1990, on their TV special A Look at Mike and Mal's World, they took their viewers on a tour of Leyland Brothers World.
This excerpt gives a good snapshot of what the brothers’ creation offered visitors as we follow a sugar-cane train around a circuit of the park to take in the sights. The most notable feature was a 1:40 scale replica of Uluru (Ayers Rock), which housed a replica of an outback town with food outlets (and merchandise chosen by Margie and Laraine, the brothers’ wives). Mike and Mal also proudly show off a 1:40 replica of Sydney Harbour Bridge, positioned near the rock so you could see their relative sizes. Queensland is represented by the cane train, and Victoria by a replica Allosaurus bought from the travelling Bicentennial Roadshow.
We can also see the endearingly lo-fi pedal-powered playground and the lake, which began as a dam but was swelled by heavy rains during the park’s construction.
The expense of building in those rains, as well as soaring interest rates, brought the receivers in. Under the stress of losing their investment and declaring themselves bankrupt, the brothers’ relationship, after 29 years of building their careers together, broke down. ‘In hindsight, Leyland Brothers World was a huge mistake, the biggest mistake we ever made,’ Mal later told the ABC’s Australian Story. This excerpt stands as a poignant testimony to the joy they felt in its opening days.
The Uluru replica survived as The Rock Roadhouse until its destruction in 2018 by, you guessed it, a fire.
Tour of Leyland Brothers World. A Look at Mike and Mal's World, 1990. NFSA title: 1589340
A trip back in time
We see happier Leyland times in this visit to Timber Town on their travel-by-request TV series Ask the Leyland Brothers. Part of the appeal of the show was that each trip was chosen in response to a viewer’s letter asking to see a certain destination.
In this episode from 1977, Robert from South Wallsend wanted to see not the rugged outback locations that were the brothers’ hallmark, but a quaint little replica of an 1880s timber-cutting town in Wauchope, which had opened the year before.
To the accompaniment of a cheery banjo soundtrack, Mike Leyland jumps aboard the Green Hornet, a restored steam engine, for a trip through Timber Town’s thickly treed 87-acre site. Most of the red cedar trees consumed by the Gold Rush-era timber-cutting industry are now gone, their places taken by tallowwoods and blackbutts.
Timber Town features two original churches and a number of replica buildings, including a smithy and a general store. You can also pan for gold and visit the Clydesdale horses who used to take children on cart rides (they were retired from active service in 2025, and replaced by a tractor). Ask the Leyland Brothers also shows us a rare and fascinating sighting of a traditional bullocky, whose team now draws schoolkids instead of logs.
The clip is notable for preserving a detailed snapshot of Timber Town when it first opened. It also provides an insight into the gentler pace of prime-time TV tourism 50 years ago.
While it’s suffered setbacks and closures over the years, Timber Town, the surprise success story of this list, is still steaming along.
A visit to Timbertown. Ask the Leyland Brothers, episode 51, 1977. NFSA title: 592167
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Main image: Luna Park in Milson's Point, Sydney, iStock. Credit: Jake Morrison, 2018
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