Dreamworld Gold Coast, Australia

Dreamworld is a large theme park situated on the Gold Coast in Queensland. It is Australia's largest theme park with over 40 rides and attractions including five roller coasters.
The park is made up of several themed lands: Ocean Parade, DreamWorks Experience, Wiggles World, Gold Rush Country, Rocky Hollow, Tiger Island and the Dreamworld Corroboree. These lands have a collection of rides, animal exhibits, shows, food outlets and merchandise shops
Dreamworld is well known as the location of the Australian Big Brother house since the program began in Australia in 2001. In December 2006, Dreamworld expanded its offerings by opening WhiteWater World next door.On several occasions during the year, Dreamworld remains open after dark. This event, known as Screamworld, includes all of the thrill rides and a selection of children's rides.

Construction and opening

Possibly the original Dreamworld logo with a generic log ride hut, paddle steamer, single loop coaster, main entrance building, wooden style coaster and train pictured. Some of the attractions depicted in this logo never existed at the park.

In 1974, John Longhurst, the father of the future Australian water-ski champion and two time Bathurst 1000 winner Tony Longhurst, put his dream of building a theme park into practice and purchased 85 hectares (210 acres) of land beside the Pacific Motorway in Coomera. Longhurst spent two years, working 12-hour days, to excavate what is now known as the Murrissipi River. No expense was spared when Longhurst employed some designers who worked on Disneyland and Walt Disney World to design the park. It was up to a collection of Australian architects to mimic Australian pioneer buildings during construction.

With attractions, Longhurst aimed to satisfy all age groups. Opening day attractions included the IMAX Theatre, a Baldwin Locomotive (now known as the Dreamworld Express), Model T Fords (now known as Vintage Cars), Rocky Hollow Log Ride, Australian Koala Theatre and the Captain Sturt Paddle-wheeler.The theme park was officially opened on 15 December 1981 by the Premier of Queensland of the time, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

1980s

Since then Dreamworld has constantly evolved adding new rides, themed lands and characters.One year after opening in 1982, the Thunderbolt opened as the world's longest steel double loop roller coaster. A new themed area known as Gum Tree Gully also opened. In 1983, Blue Lagoon water park opened and Dreamworld introduced Belinda Brown as the park's third mascot In 1984 the park began seven-day trading after two years of only being open Tuesday through to Thursday. In 1986, Gold Rush Country (now the Town of Gold Rush) opened featuring Eureka Mountain Mine Ride and Thunder River Rapids Ride.^[10] In 1987, Koala Country opened and in 1989 the Skylink Chairlift opened.^[2][11]

1990s

In 1991, to promote the Australian premiere of The Simpsons on Network Ten from 10 February, Dreamworld welcomed the characters of the American TV series. Guests could meet and greet with them as well as see them in the live stage show The Simpsons: Live on Stage, but the characters only appeared twice daily until 30 June.
In 1993, the Wipeout ride opened as part of the new Ocean Parade themed area. In 1995 Tiger Island opened with the Riverwalk Restaurant (now known as the Billabong BBQ and Buffet) opened. In 1997, the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster Tower of Terror opened. One year later the Giant Drop, the world's tallest freefall ride, was added to the Dreamworld Tower. Also in 1998, four Bengal Tiger cubs were born: Rama, Taj, Sultan and Sita. In December 1999, Dreamworld added a variety of kids rides in a new themed area called Kennyland.

2000s

The Cyclone roller coaster which was installed in 2001.

In January 2001, the Australian Wildlife Experience opened after the refurbishment and expansion of Koala Country. Later that year in April, Big Brother Australia commenced broadcasting following the redevelopment of Dreamworld's Amphitheatre. In December 2001, the Cyclone opened after its relocation from Luna Park Sydney where it was known as "The Big Dipper".^[12] Also in 2001, two new Bengal tigers, Kato and Kaasha, were born in Tiger Island. In 2002, Nick Central replaced Kennyland and Village Oval to include a wide variety of new and refurbished children's rides.
In 2003, Dreamworld further expanded its wildlife offerings by running after hours "Sunset Safaris".In August 2003, the Thunderbolt was closed.After over 7 months standing but not operating, the Thunderbolt was demolished and sold for scrap metal in March 2004. Dreamworld has retained a section of track and at least one train in the park's back-of-house areas. Later that year in September 2004, The Claw opened in Ocean Parade.On 15 March 2005, the Skylink Chairlift, which provided a link between Gold Rush Country and the Australian Wildlife Experience, closed. It remained standing for several months before the wires were removed. The support poles remain standing to this day. Gum Tree Gully closed to make way for the world's first Wiggles World which opened on 10 September 2005.
In 2006, Ardent Leisure shifted its focus to improving its offerings of water attractions. In April, Blue Lagoon was closed due to its planned replacement by WhiteWater World as a separate gated complex. On 24 June, the FlowRider opened in Ocean Parade.^[16] On 7 November, the Eureka Mountain Mine Ride closed and has remained standing but not operating to this day.^[9][17] In 2007, two Sumatran Tiger cubs, Indah and Rahni, were born at Tiger Island. Later that year in September, Mick Doohan's Motocoaster opened^[18][19] after the relocation of the Avis Vintage Cars.^[20]
On 20 June 2008, SpongeBob FlyPants opened as part of Nick Central.^[21] On 9 June, Tiger Island welcomed the birth of three Sumatran Tiger cubs: Ndari, Jaya and Shanti.
In the middle of 2008, the final series of Australian Big Brother for the Channel 10 Network was produced leaving the house and studios standing upon completion.^[2] In Ocean Parade, V8 Supercars RedLine opened on 26 December near the FlowRider and Cyclone entrance.^[22] A few months later, the Vortex was closed and removed to make way for AVPX which opened on 10 April 2009.^[23] Almost exactly one year later in April 2010, the Illuminate Light & Laser Spectacular began seasonal operation in Main Street.^[24] In September, the Tower of Terror relaunched as the Tower of Terror II featuring a new, reversed car.^[25]

2010s

An aerial view of Dreamworld and WhiteWater World in July 2011.

See also: Dreamworld's 30th Birthday

In late 2010, Dreamworld announced that they would begin celebrating their 30th birthday by holding the Summer Funomenon over the summer school holidays. The IMAX Theatre was renovated to become the Dreamworld Cinema. A roof was constructed over Main Street between the entrances for Ocean Parade and Nickelodeon Central. The Marketplace in Main Street was also upgraded. Also a new tiger cub named Pi (pronounced pie) was born.
On 16 February 2011, Ardent Leisure announced plans to have an Easter promotion where lions would be on temporary exhibition from National Zoo & Aquarium who are renovating their facilities;^[26] this was later revealed by Dreamworld to be "The Lair".^[27] On 7 April 2011, Dreamworld announced that they would be adding a family thrill ride in June and a major thrill ride in September 2011.^[28] On 18 May 2011,^[29] the family thrill ride was officially announced to be a Zamperla Disk'O called Shockwave within Ocean Parade.^[30] The ride opened on 25 June 2011.^[31] By the start of the winter holidays on 25 June 2011, all of the rides in Nickelodeon Central were renamed to a generic kids theme: Kid's World.^[32] On 17 September 2011, Dreamworld opened BuzzSaw – a Maurer Söhne SkyLoop roller coaster.^[33] The opening of the ride was timed with the renaming of Gold Rush Country to the Town of Gold Rush.
On 10 November 2011, Dreamworld announced a three-stage plan to incorporate DreamWorks Animation films and characters into its theme park at a cost of $10 million.^[34][35] The first phase was the temporary summer show, the DreamWorks Holiday Shrektacular.^[34] The second phase was the DreamWorks Experience precinct (the retheming of the existing Kid's World area) which opened on 31 March 2012. The final phase was the development of Kung Fu Panda: Land of Awesomeness. This area opened on 21 December 2012 with the park's eighth thrill ride, Pandamonium. In 2012, Dreamworld also saw the return of Big Brother^[36] as well as the addition of the Big Red Boat Ride to Wiggles World.
AVPX closed on 31 March 2013.^[37][38] It was replaced with Zombie Evilution on 13 September 2013. Zombie Evilution originally ran as a temporary scare maze until 14 October. On 18 October, the attraction reopened as a laser skirmish attraction with the same theme and backstory.
On 28 April 2014, the Reef Diver closed and was subsequently removed. On 20 September, it was replaced by Tailspin, a Gerstlauer Sky Fly. Around the same time, White Water World opened a new slide, the Triple Vortex.