Dreamworld's 30th Birthday was celebrated throughout 2011 at the Dreamworld

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on the

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Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Overview

In August 2010, the owners of Dreamworld, Ardent Leisure, approved a capital expenditure plan in both Dreamworld and

WhiteWater World WhiteWater World is a seasonal water park situated in the suburb of Coomera on the Gold Coast, Australia. It is owned and operated by Ardent Leisure and is the sister park to Dreamworld. After years of planning and a year of construction, Wh ...

to "strengthen ride inventory and consumer appeal". This coincides directly with their 30th birthday.

2010

T-shirt competition

In late 2010, Dreamworld held a T-shirt designing competition on its

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page with the aim of creating a 30th Birthday promotional T-shirt to be sold in the park in 2011. 1st prize went to Stephen Poleweski with his entry '30 Years of Fun'.

Main Street upgrade

Main Street was extensively upgraded in late 2010. A roof was constructed over a small portion of Main Street near the entrances for Nickelodeon Central and Ocean Parade. The IMAX Theatre was renovated to become a fully functioning

movie theatre A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall (Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...

named the

Dreamworld Cinema The Dreamworld Cinema is a movie theatre located inside the Dreamworld (Australia), Dreamworld amusement park on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. History IMAX Theatre The ''IMAX Theatre'' was a movie theatre whi ...

. The Marketplace was renovated to include two additional entry points for guests.

Summer Funomenon

To kick off the celebrations of its 30th birthday, Dreamworld hosted the ''Summer Funomenon'' from 27 December 2010 through to 21 January 2011. The Summer Funomenon featured ten new shows just for the summer school holiday period. Dreamworld were originally planning on showing ''

SpongeBob SquarePants 4-D SpongeBob SquarePants 4-D (also known as SpongeBob SquarePants 4-D Ride, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Ride or SpongeBob SquarePants 3-D) was a 2003 cel-shaded 4-D film simulator ride based upon the animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePant ...

'' in their newly renovated theatre, however, at the last minute they changed the film to ''The Curse of Skull Rock 3D''.

2011

On 16 February 2011, Ardent Leisure released the financial results for the six months ending December 2010 as well as an outlook for 2011. This outlook announced the plans to have an Easter promotion, the addition of two new rides, and a further "new product" during the course of 2011. On 7 April 2011, further details were announced about the two rides. The first would be a family thrill ride set to open in June with the second being a major thrill ride set to open in September.

The Lair

Beginning in April, Dreamworld ran a promotion where

white lion The white lion is a rare color mutation of the lion, specifically the Southern African lion. White lions in the area of Timbavati are thought to have been indigenous to the Timbavati region of South Africa for centuries, although the earliest r ...

s were on temporary exhibition from

National Zoo & Aquarium The National Zoo and Aquarium is a privately owned zoo and aquarium in the Australian capital city of Canberra. It is located in Yarralumla at the western end of Lake Burley Griffin, next to Scrivener Dam. It recently had a major expansion, wi ...

who were renovating their facilities. In March 2011, Dreamworld officially announced that "''

The Lair ''The Lair'' is an American gay-themed vampire television series produced by here! in 2007. The first season consisted of six episodes and wrapped production in January 2007. The first two episodes premiered on June 1, 2007. Season 2 consisted of ...

''" would be themed to the

Timbavati The Timbavati Private Nature Reserve is located at the border line between Hoedspruit (in Limpopo) and Acornhoek (in Mpumalanga), north of the Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve on the western edge of Kruger National Park. Geographically and poli ...

region in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. The interactive exhibit features triple laminated glass panels which allow guests to view the inhabitants up close. On 30 March 2011, two lions, Jake and Mischka, were introduced into the exhibit. The exhibit housed these two lions on public show from 9 April through to 30 April. A second pair of lions, Achilles and Agamemnon, were featured in the exhibit from 16 May until 7 August 2011. The Lair is now being used for tiger feeding sessions.

Shockwave

Construction began in April 2011 in a location between Ocean Parade and

Kid's World DreamWorks Experience is a themed land at the Dreamworld theme park on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. Themed after DreamWorks Animation and its franchises including ''Shrek'', ''Madagascar'' and ''Kung Fu Panda'', it replaced the exis ...

(previously Nickelodeon Central) for the family thrill ride announced just days prior. On 18 May 2011, Dreamworld officially announced that they would be adding a

Zamperla Antonio Zamperla S.p.A. is an Italian design and manufacturing company founded in 1966. It is best known for creating family rides, thrill rides and roller coasters worldwide. The company also makes smaller coin-operated rides commonly found in ...

Disk'O The Disk'O (also known as Skater or Surf's Up) is a type of flat ride manufactured by Zamperla of Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the ...

called ''

Shockwave In physics, a shock wave (also spelled shockwave), or shock, is a type of propagating disturbance that moves faster than the local speed of sound in the medium. Like an ordinary wave, a shock wave carries energy and can propagate through a me ...

'' to Ocean Parade. The ride opened on 25 June 2011.

Winter holidays

Following the success of the Summer Funomenon, several of the shows returned for the winter holiday period. Illuminate was also run. Both The Goldie Show and The Kenny Koala show are expected to continue in the Dreambowl after the conclusion of the winter holiday period.

BuzzSaw

BuzzSaw A circular saw is a power-saw using a toothed or abrasive disc or blade to cut different materials using a rotary motion spinning around an arbor. A hole saw and ring saw also use a rotary motion but are different from a circular saw. ''Cir ...

'' is a

Maurer Söhne Maurer AG, formerly known as Maurer Söhne GmbH & Co. KG, is a steel construction company and roller coaster manufacturer. Founded in 1876 in Munich, Germany, the company has built many styles of steel buildings, ranging from bridges, industrial ...

SkyLoop SkyLoop is a type of steel roller coaster manufactured by Maurer Söhne. There are currently 10 SkyLoops operating worldwide, nine of which are identical XT 150 models, and one of which is an extended XT 450 model. The first SkyLoop to open was ...

roller coaster A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are o ...

that opened in the

Gold Rush Country The Gold Rush Country (a.k.a. Town of Gold Rush or simply Gold Rush) is a themed land at the Dreamworld (Australia), Dreamworld theme park on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. History The Gold Rush Country opened o ...

section of Dreamworld on 17 September 2011. The opening of BuzzSaw was coupled with the renovation and repainting of all buildings in Gold Rush Country.

DreamWorks Animation

On 10 November 2011, Dreamworld announced a three-stage plan to incorporate

DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios and simply known as DreamWorks) is an American animation studio that produces animated films and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division ...

films and characters into its theme park. The first phase, set to open 19 December 2011, will include the ''DreamWorks Holiday Shrektacular Show'' featuring 8 DreamWorks Animation characters live on stage. The second phase will include the retheming of Dreamworld's kids area,

, into a DreamWorks Experience precinct. This phase opened Easter 2012. The final phase will be the development of an eating and meet-and-greet area called Kung Fu garden. The three phases are expected to cost $10 million to complete.

Marketing

To market their 30th birthday, Dreamworld teamed up with Blame Ringo to make Dreamworld Holiday – a remake of an old theme song called Take a Trip Away. The theme song was first used on the Summer Funomenon commercial which was shown from November through to January. Furthermore, helicopter banner advertising was employed during the Summer Funomenon which ran along the Gold Coast beaches.

Performance

On 16 February 2011, Ardent Leisure released the financial results for the six months ending December 2010. These results showed a 6.7% increase in revenue accompanied with a 41.3% increase in attendance to almost 1.5 million people. Ardent Leisure cite the Summer Funomenon promotion to be a reason behind these increases despite unprecedented weather conditions.

References

External links

Dreamworld Memories
* * {{Dreamworld 30th Birthday