![Wetnwildcover](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Wetnwildcover.JPG)
Wet'n'Wild Gold Coast is a
water park
A water park (or waterpark, water world) is an amusement park that features water play areas such as swimming pools, water slides, splash pads, water playgrounds, and lazy rivers, as well as areas for floating, bathing, swimming, and other baref ...
situated in
Oxenford,
Gold Coast
Gold Coast may refer to:
Places Africa
* Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana:
** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642)
** Dutch G ...
,
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
,
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 ...
, owned and operated by
Village Roadshow Theme Parks
Village Roadshow Theme Parks is a division of Village Roadshow Limited which operates theme parks and attractions in Australia and the United States of America. The Sydney Attractions Group Pty Ltd was formerly part of Village Roadshow Theme Pa ...
.
In 2019, the park received 1,120,000 visitors making it the most visited water park in Australia and the 19th most visited water park in the world. Wet'n'Wild Gold Coast is located adjacent to
Warner Bros. Movie World, a movie-related park also owned by Village Roadshow Theme Parks.
The park remains open all year with all of the pools and slides heated during the winter months.
It is one of seven water parks operating under the
Wet'n'Wild brand globally.
History
The original park, called Cade's County was the brainchild of Colin Herringe. The concept of Cade's County WaterPark was conceived after years of researching hundreds of other waterparks around the world. Many of the original pools and slides were improvements on similar popular rides found in parks such as Wet'n'Wild Orlando, White Waters Garland TX, and NaraWorld Japan. Construction began in 1982 and at time of construction was the largest WaterPark in the Southern Hemisphere. The original name Cade's County Waterpark was named after Herringe's son Cade.
Under ownership of Village Roadshow Theme Parks, the park changed its name to Wet'n'Wild Water World to match the related
Sea World and Warner Bros. Movie World theme parks. In 2013, to distinguish the park from
Wet'n'Wild Sydney
Raging Waters Sydney, formerly Wet'n'Wild Sydney, is a water park in the greater western Sydney suburb of Prospect, New South Wales, Australia, that opened on 12 December 2013. The park was announced on 11 September 2010 and was the third Wet ...
, the park's name was changed to Wet'n'Wild Gold Coast.
Scenes set at a water park (fictionally called "Splash Planet") in ''
The Inbetweeners 2
''The Inbetweeners 2'', is a 2014 teen coming of age adventure sex comedy film and sequel to ''The Inbetweeners Movie'' (2011), which is based on the E4 sitcom ''The Inbetweeners''. It was written and directed by series creators Damon Beesley ...
'', a 2014 British comedy film, were filmed at the park.
Attraction history
Attractions
![Wet'n'Wild Water World Australia Blackhole](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Wet%27n%27Wild_Water_World_Australia_Blackhole.jpg)
In selected peak seasons (such as the 2012–2013 summer season) Wet'n'Wild Gold Coast offers Fast Track, a system where guests could get to the front of a ride's line in exchange for a set fee. A
similar system is in operation at Warner Bros. Movie World.
Extreme H2O Zone
The Extreme H
2O Zone first opened at the back of the park for during 2006 with three rides with staggered openings. It features the latest cutting-edge attractions including a funnel slide, enclosed and open tube slides and a large body slide complex.
* Kamikaze is a unique wet and dry attraction and the first of its kind in the
Southern Hemisphere. The Kamikaze is two U-shaped half pipe slides which are wet through a water channel to reduce friction. Riders are seated in two-person, inwards facing tubes and are launched down a steep slope before coming back up the other side, and so continue in a boomerang-like fashion until they run out of speed and momentum. The Kamikaze opened in late September 2008. The ride is a Water fun Products Sidewinder.
* Tornado is a four-person clover-leaf
funnel
A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening.
Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its construct ...
slide. The Tornado dips down and then goes into a turn before speeding down a steep drop into the funnel below, reaching speeds of up to 40 km/h. The Tornado was designed and built by a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
waterslide manufacturer,
ProSlide
ProSlide Technology, Inc. is a Canadian designer and manufacturer of water rides and water park resorts. They design and manufacture both traditional slides and innovative rides such as water coasters, funnel-shaped Tornado slides, and Bowl slid ...
and opened at the park as the third attraction in the Extreme H
2O Zone in 2006.
* Blackhole is two enclosed tube slides twisting and turning around each other. Riders are immersed in complete darkness as they traverse down the slide reaching high speeds. The Blackhole was acquired second hand from a defunct waterpark in
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
and opened at the park as the second attraction in the Extreme H
2O Zone in 2006.
Other rides
![Wetnwildaqualoopcarpark](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Wetnwildaqualoopcarpark.JPG)
*
AquaLoop
An AquaLoop is a type of water slide, body water slide where single riders are dropped down a near vertical slide and into an Roller coaster elements#Inclined loop, inclined loop. They are usually located in water parks.
History
Austrians, Austr ...
is a collection of four looping body slides featuring a trap door release with 2.5G acceleration. Riders reach a top speed of . The AquaLoop is the first ride of its type in Australia.
[New Attraction Name Announced. Retrieved 27.06.10 fro]
Official Site
* Calypso Beach is a large
lazy river
A lazy river is a water ride found in water parks, hotels, resorts, and recreation centers, which usually consists of a shallow () pool that flows similarly to a river.
There is generally a slow current, usually just enough to allow guests to g ...
attraction. Riders sit in one person tubes as the gentle current pulls them along the course. Calypso Beach was installed at the park in 1997.
* Constrictor is a 3-person water slide that stands high, is long and has a top speed of . It features a trio of corkscrew turns throughout the enclosed slide.
It replaced the Terror Canyon slides.
* Flowrider is a
Wave Loch
Wave Loch Inc. is a surf ride manufacturing company responsible for such water rides as the FlowBarrel, Flying Reef, SurfPool, Wave House franchises, and, formerly, FlowRider.
History
During the 1980s, Tom Lochtefeld was a partner in the dev ...
FlowRider located next to the ''Giant Wave Pool''.
[Promotional Cover for the Gold Coast Bulletin by Warner Village Theme Parks. Retrieved 26.06.10 from Gold Coast Bulletin.]
* Giant Wave Pool is a three million litre
wave pool
A wave pool is a swimming pool in which there are artificially generated, large waves, similar to those of the ocean. Wave pools are often a major feature of water parks, both indoors and outdoors, as well as some leisure centres.
History
T ...
attraction with a consistent one-metre swell. The Giant Wave Pool is one of the park's first attractions and opened in 1984 along with the rest of the park.
The Giant Wave Pool featured 'Dive-in Movies' every Saturday night during the summer season, where guests could view movies from a tube dinghy in the water or deck chair on the shore. However this was discontinued following the 2011-2012 summer season.
* Mammoth Falls opened in 2000 and are two six person raft slides built by Australian Waterslides and Leisure. The tower featured two different slides – one featured a series of inline drops to the finish (known as Mammoth Plunge) while the other featured several corners (known as Mammoth River).
In 2005 the
Mammoth Plunge slide was moved to
Sea World and changed its name to The Plunge. After the Mammoth Plunge slide was moved, the Mammoth River attraction was mirrored. Mammoth Falls now features two slides with identical
layouts.
The original two slides cost
AU$
The Australian dollar (sign: $; code: AUD) is the currency of Australia, including its external territories: Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Norfolk Island. It is officially used as currency by three independent Pacific Island s ...
2.25 million to build.
* River Rapids are four high speed body slides which opened in 2007 and are located on Whitewater Mountain. Whitewater Mountain originally housed the Whitewater Flumes which slowly deteriorated since 1984 when the park opened. The River Rapids are two fully enclosed water slides and two open air flumes.
*
Skycoaster is an upcharge located near the front of the park by Mammoth Falls.
Riders are raised to a height of before plunging at and swinging out across the Giant Wave Pool. The ride was manufactured by
Skycoaster, Inc., a wholly owned division of
Ride Entertainment Group
Ride Entertainment is a firm based in the United States specializing in the construction, sales, service, and operation of amusement rides and attractions.
Divisions
Sales
Responsible for the sale of amusement rides, attractions and related pro ...
, who installed the ride.
* Super 8 Aqua Racer, as the name suggests, is an eight lane timed mat racer slide. Riders reach speeds of up to 40 km/h as they race headfirst down an 86-metre long track. With the help of sensors at the finish line, each slider receives their placing to an accuracy of 1/1000 of a second.
*
Surfrider
Surfrider is a steel shuttle roller coaster at Wet'n'Wild Gold Coast located at Oxenford, Gold Coast, Australia. The ride is an Intamin Half Pipe roller coaster that opened in September 2007. It has stood but not operated since 2020.
Hi ...
– is an
Intamin
Intamin Amusement Rides is a design and manufacturing company in Schaan, Liechtenstein. It is best known for creating thrill rides and roller coasters worldwide. The Intamin brand name is a syllabic abbreviation for "international amusement ins ...
designed "Half-Pipe" roller coaster. The car is in the shape of a surfboard and is launched to either side of the half-pipe using an LIM-powered mechanism. Several water features are included to simulate riding a wave. The ride opened in September 2007.
* Wet'n'Wild Junior is a new area featuring versions of many of Wet'n'Wild's slides designed for young children.
* Whirlpool Hot Springs. During the winter months the upper level of the original Whirlpool attraction has the water drained and covers removed to expose 10 x 20 person hot spas heated at 36 degrees Celsius. In the 2009/2010 summer season, it appears the attraction remained as the Whirlpool Hot Springs. It is unknown whether the original summer attraction, Whirlpool, will return.
Previous rides
![Wet'n'Wild Water World Australia White Water Mountain](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Wet%27n%27Wild_Water_World_Australia_White_Water_Mountain.jpg)
* Buccaneer Bay was a
pirate
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...
themed children's play area. The area is divided into two sections. One section is an Aqua Play structure featuring water sides and activities while the other is a series of shallow pools.
The original Buccaneer Bay featured shallow pools, small climbing structures and water guns. It closed mid Autumn 2005. During construction a smaller, temporary children's area (named Kokomo Cove) opened instead of Whirlpool Hot Springs for the Winter season. The current Buccaneer Bay opened in September 2005.
* Mach 5 was a large water slide complex, divided up amongst five different slides. The ''Sidewinders'' are two open flume slides which twist down to the bottom around the outside of the complex. The ''Jetstreams'' are three high speed body slides. The central slide is a freefall to the splashdown area below, similar to the Summit Plummet at
Disney's Blizzard Beach
Disney's Blizzard Beach is a water theme park located at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida near Orlando. All water areas are heated (at approximately ), with the exception of the melting snow in the ice cave of Cross Country Cre ...
. The outer two are similar, but traverse down the slope in a snake-like fashion. The Mach 5 was acquired second hand from a defunct waterpark in Brazil and opened at the park the first attraction in the Extreme H
2O Zone in 2006. Following unsuccessful maintenance in December 2018, Mach 5 is now closed permanently.
Mach 5 has been replaced by a new slide grouping consisting of Kaboom!, Double Barrel and Super Ripper.
* Double Screamer was originally named Rampage, the Double Screamer was the first all fibreglass slide in the world. It was closed and removed in 2005 due to safety concerns on similar rides overseas where riders suffered serious injuries. It was also removed to make way for an expanded Buccaneer Bay which now stands in its place.
* Mammoth Plunge was built in 2000, the Mammoth Plunge Slide was donated to Sea World in 2005 where it now operates. It was replaced with a mirror of the adjacent Mammoth River slide.
* Speedcoaster saw guests plummet down an enclosed snake-like drop before a steep freefall to the splashdown zone. Originally named 'Speed Slide' when the park first opened, the attraction has since been refurbished and modified. This ride was closed to make way for the addition of AquaLoop in 2010. This ride was moved to
Big Splash in
Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
.
* Speed Slide was a pair of high speed body slides that existed where the Speedcoaster once stood, and where the AquaLoop now stands. The slides were also home to a stunt show which saw performers ride the slide standing up and on boards.
* Terror Canyon 1 & 2 was closed down in 2008 pending demolition, extended maintenance or re-development.
In 2009, the park confirmed that the Terror Canyon location could be used for future attractions. In 2010, the rides were removed from the park map with the queue and station being used for the zip lines.
* Twister was an attraction featuring two body slides. These slides wrap around each other forming a twisted pattern from the outside. This ride was closed to make way for the addition of AquaLoop in 2010. This ride was moved to
Big Splash in
Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
.
* Wet'n'Wild Buggy was a "tomcar" buggy car attraction where guests can drive over a course through the bush featuring log obstacles, tyre grids, jumps, water splashes, walls, and a tunnel.
* Whirlpool was located at the same location of Whirlpool Hot Springs. The attraction was only open in the summer months as a gentle one person per tube ride revolving in a circular pattern. In the 2009/2010 summer season, it appears the attraction remained as the Whirlpool Hot Springs. It is unknown whether Whirlpool will return.
* WhiteWater Mountain were 4 body flume slides opened with the park in 1984, refurbished in the 1990s, and removed in 2007. It featured slides named ''Cascade'', ''Bombora'', ''Riptide'' and ''Pipeline''.
* Zip Lines was a series of 3
zip line
A zip-line, zip line, zip-wire, flying fox, or death slide is a pulley suspended on a cable, usually made of stainless steel, mounted on a slope. It is designed to enable cargo or a person propelled by gravity to travel from the top to the bott ...
s travelling from the top of ''White Water Mountain'' to the ''Giant Wave Pool'', travelling over .
Food, beverage and merchandise
![Aerial panorama of Wet and Wild in the Gold Coast](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Aerial_panorama_of_Wet_and_Wild_in_the_Gold_Coast.jpg)
There are several food outlets placed throughout the park, each one specialising in different styles of fast food:
*''Bombora Burger Bar''
*''Snack Shack''
*''Oasis Ice Cream Parlour''
*''Go Frozen" Frozen Coke Bar''
*''Wraps 'n' Rolls''
*''Natural Selections''
*''Clocktower Coffee''
*''Calypso Bar''
*''Dominos 2 Go'' (Opened as a franchise on 12 September 2009)
There are two merchandise stores placed towards the front of the park.
* ''Surf Store''
* ''Quiksilver''
See also
*
Village Roadshow Theme Parks
Village Roadshow Theme Parks is a division of Village Roadshow Limited which operates theme parks and attractions in Australia and the United States of America. The Sydney Attractions Group Pty Ltd was formerly part of Village Roadshow Theme Pa ...
*
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 ...
*
Wet'n'Wild Sydney
Raging Waters Sydney, formerly Wet'n'Wild Sydney, is a water park in the greater western Sydney suburb of Prospect, New South Wales, Australia, that opened on 12 December 2013. The park was announced on 11 September 2010 and was the third Wet ...
*
Wet'n'Wild Hawaii
Wet'n'Wild Hawaii (formerly Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park) is a Hawaiian water park, located in Kapolei in the City and County of Honolulu on Oahu. The park occupies of land and has more than 25 rides and attractions. It is currently the only w ...
*
Wet'n'Wild Phoenix
*
Wet'n'Wild Las Vegas
Wet'n'Wild Las Vegas was a water park in Spring Valley, Nevada. The park was part of Village Roadshow Theme Parks' Wet'n'Wild chain of water parks located across the world. The park opened in May 2013 and is located at 7055 S. Fort Apache Ro ...
References
External links
*
*
{{Australian Theme Parks
1984 establishments in Australia
Water parks in Queensland
Tourist attractions on the Gold Coast, Queensland
Amusement parks opened in 2009