Luna Park, Melbourne

Melbourne's Luna Park

File:Melbourne's Luna Park Logo.PNG
Location	St. Kilda, Melbourne, Australia
Coordinates	37.868036°S 144.976369°E / -37.868036; 144.976369
Opened	1912
Owner	Linfox, Virtual Communities and Liberty Petrol
Slogan	Just For Fun
Operating season	All year round
Attractions
Total	16
Roller coasters	3
Website	www.lunapark.com.au

For other amusement parks of the same name, see Luna Park; for other uses of the phrase, see Luna Park (disambiguation)

Melbourne's Luna Park is a historic amusement park located on the foreshore of Port Phillip Bay in St Kilda, Victoria, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Australia. It opened on 13 December 1912 and has been operating almost continuously ever since.

History

This was the first of the four Luna Parks that were built in Australia, of which only Melbourne and Sydney Luna Park are still operating. The other two, now defunct, Luna Parks were at Glenelg in South Australia (1930–1934) and at Redcliffe in Queensland (1944–1966).

The St Kilda park was developed by American showman J D Williams, in company with the three Phillips brothers (reputedly from Seattle), who had all had experience in the amusement and cinema industry in the US. Their Chief Engineer and main designer was Englishman T H Eslick, who, according to the opening day brochure, had worked on numerous parks around the world. Williams returned to the US in 1913 to help found First National Films which subsequently became Warner Brothers. The Phillips brothers stayed on and ran the park until their deaths in the 1950s.

In the years before WWI the park was a great success, with attractions such as the Scenic Railway, Palais de Folies (later Giggle Palace), River Caves of the World, Penny Arcade, a Whitney Bros 'while-u-wait' photo booth, the American Bowl Slide, as well as live performances in the Palace of Illusions and on a permanent high-wire.

Closed for WWI, it did not re-open until an extensive overhaul in 1923 added new and improved attractions, such as the Big Dipper roller coaster, a Water Chute, a Noah's Ark, and a beautiful 4-row Carousel made in 1913 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company.

Between the wars, a number of new attractions were made, including Dodgem cars in 1926-7 and in 1934 a Ghost Train. In the 1950s the park was refurbished, including the addition of The Rotor in 1951. The park remained popular throughout the 1950s, 1960s and into the late 1970s, when finally some of the earlier attractions began to be replaced by modern mechanical rides.

A fire in 1981 destroyed the Giggle Palace, and in the same year the River Caves were declared unsafe, and demolished. In 1989 the Big Dipper was demolished in anticipation of a new large roller coaster which never eventuated.

The main historic features of the park to remain include the iconic "Mr Moon" face entry and flanking towers (1912, restored 1999), the Scenic Railway (1912) which is the oldest continuously-operating roller coaster in the world, and the carousel (1913 restored 2000). Other historic attractions include the Ghost Train (1934), and the fairytale castle-style Dodgem's Building constructed to house the newly patented ride in 1927 (the ride itself was relocated from the first floor of this building to the ground level in the late 1990s).

The park also includes many modern attractions such as the Metropolis roller-coaster, the Spider, a Ferris wheel, and other mechanical thrill-rides. The park remains popular with children and their parents who have fond memories of the park from their youth.

A consortium headed by Melbourne transport magnate Lindsay Fox bought Luna Park in early 2005, pledging to restore it to the glory he remembers from his 1940s youth, spent in nearby Windsor. Since the multi-million dollar purchase, there has been no major overhaul, but the Scenic Railway Station was given a facelift, popular temporary attractions such as the Lara Croft Tomb Raider experience have been presented, and a major section of the Scenic railway itself underwent major repairs between December 2007 and June 2008.

Melbourne Luna Park

The park's triangular beachfront site is on government land, bounded by the O'Donnell Gardens on one side and Cavell Street on the other. Across this street is a larger triangle of foreshore crown land known as the 'Triangle Site', occupied by the grand 1920s Palais Theatre, the 1970s Palace nightclub (burned down in 2007), and carparking. The City of Port Phillip in consultation with the Victorian State Government ran a tender process in 2007 to restore the Palais Theatre and redevelop the remainder of the site. Lindsay Fox was part of a consortium that submitted a proposal which was unsuccessful. Melbourne's Luna Park is said to be more popular in general than Sydney's Luna Park, as Sydney's has no large rollercoaster, and Melbourne's is more authentic.

The park has featured on several occasions in the popular Australian soap opera Neighbours

Luna Park as a whole is listed by the National Trust of Australia, and the main heritage features are listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.

Full list of rides

The Scenic Railway, the world's oldest continually-operating rollercoaster

• Roller coasters
  • Silly Serpent
  • Scenic Railway - built in 1911, the Scenic Railway is the oldest continually-operating roller coaster in the world, and one of only 2 in existence requiring a brakesman to stand in the middle of the train. For these reasons, it is regarded as an ACE Coaster Classic.
  • Metropolis - a Galaxi roller coaster (Mad Mouse)
• Other rides
  • Ferris wheel built 1971
  • Twin Dragon - a Japanese built Pirate ship type ride
  • Red Baron built 2001
  • The Ghost Train - a ghost train which retains its 1936 tracks.
  • G Force built 1983
  • Street Legal Dodgems built 2000 - a Dodgem cars pavilion
  • The Enterprise built 1979 - popular HUSS Enterprise ride
  • Coney Island Top Drop built 2010
  • Arabian Merry
  • Magical Carousel - a heritage Carousel built in 1913 by the renouned Philadelphia Toboggan Company in the United States. This is one of the few examples of their work outside the USA and as with the Scenic Railway of heritage value to the culture of theme parks in the United States as well as in Australia
  • Spider built 1977
  • Pharaoh's Curse - a Japanese made Kamikaze-style double-arm ranger (Scissors)

Past attractions

• Giggle Palace (Palais de Folies) (1912-1981, destroyed by fire)
• River Caves (1912-c.1981, demolished)
• Jack'n'Jill (Water Chute) (1928?-c.1970, demolished)
• Noah's Ark (1923-c.1970, demolished)
• Big Dipper (1923-1989, demolished)
• Whip (1923-c.1981 demolished)
• Rotor (1951-circa 1981)
• Hurricane (1982-1984)
• Gravitron (1984-2001)
• Zipper (1989-1991)
• Scat (1993-2001)
• Here Comes Haley Holloway! (1988-1999)
• Prison Break: Live! (temporary ride)
• Lara Croft - Tomb Raider Anniversary: Live! (temporary ride)
• Shock Drop (2001-2010)

Photo gallery

• 
  The famous entrance.
• 
  Luna Park from a distance showing part of the Scenic Railway
• 
  Inside Luna Park
• 
  The construction of Luna Park in 1912

References

• Luna Park Official History

External links

• Official Luna Park Melbourne website
• Luna Park Melbourne - accessibility
• St Kilda Historical Society article