Last meeting's speaker: Chris Thurtell - So you want to develop a Theme Park?
Posted by Franz Huber
on May 09, 2016
Chris stood in at short notice for Tacha, the Polar Bear trainer at Seaworld. There was a requirement to do some urgent maintenance work at the bear pit. Tacha is not only the trainer, but also – on the very unlikely chance of the maintenance workers being attacked, the shooter…So Chris, who has been with Village Road Show (the owners of Seaworld, Movie World and a swag of other Theme Parks) for decades, gave us a detailed presentation of what is really involved if you want to design a Theme Park. Chris, by training is an Architect. By long term experience, he is involved in the entire sequence from planning to design to conclusion of a project. And when it is completed, the cycle of coming up with new attractions begins. “In order to get the people to come back, one needs to have a new major attraction approximately every three years” Chris outlined.
By now, Theme Parks are firmly woven into the fabric of the Gold Coast. A long way back, Seaworld, being the first one on the Gold Coast, was not much more than a lake. Chris became involved when the concept of Movie World emerged. The Di Laurentis Studios were up for sale. A representative of Warner Bros by the name of CD Wood came over to have a look at it. It was by no means certain that the deal would proceed, but then they took him to the Oxenford Tavern for a bite to eat (and probably a couple of beers). CD Woods declared that he had just been served “the best Cheeseburger ever”… and bought it (the Studios, not the pub), together with the surrounding land. A master plan was created in partnership with Peter Lawrence (then owner of Seaworld). The first meeting occurred way back in 1988.
There is an awful lot of thinking to be done. Theme Parks were not in the Australian culture; it was all in the US. Why would you want to have one? “It has to be fun!” What theme do you want to use? Well, with Warner Bros behind it, Movies would come to mind.
Who would come? How much do we need to spend? In 1989, $AU 10 Million was committed. A concept plan was designed. It was a Joint Venture between Warner Bros and ??? Leisure. It is not just a question of building it, somebody needs to run it afterwards. How much will you want to charge the public?
Then we get to the design detail: How are people going to get there? There was no Public Transport worth mentioning on the Gold Coast [not much has changed since… Ed.] So people will come by car. How will overseas visitors get to the park? By bus. So, 40% of the parking area is for buses. How much power do we need, how much water? What are we going to do about sewerage, fire services, rubbish? How do we get people to come back again? What balance do we need for young and old, so grandparents, parents and children are equally catered for? How do we keep them occupied? (The park will be open for 7 ½ hours, of which at least 4 hours need to be “experience”. We’ll need souvenirs, T-Shirts… We’ll need food and drinks. (By the way: Chris iterated that food accounts for the biggest money maker in the group). How do we cater for foreign language guests? What will be our opening times (not too hard: planning laws prohibit opening at night).
What approvals are needed? Planning approval. Building and Height restrictions, Safety. (Queensland Fire Services were heavily involved in assisting in the design of the facilities to keep people safe, in relation to evacuation plans etc).
And then comes the ‘Budget Check’: It is always over [Governments don’t seem to have these… Ed.] Then you scour the world for specialist personnel and manufacturers. Who can build all the gear that go with Special Effects? There are constantly the two opposing forces of Conventional Construction and Special Effects. What happens if it burns? The materials may be very difficult to inflame, but if they do, they might become highly toxic. The manufacturers come from all over the world: Italy, China, the US. Then come the Safety Tests: for example, if just a single seat belt is not fastened, the Roller Coaster simply won’t even start. And to be approved, it needs to have a minimum of 800 trouble free runs in a row. Something goes wrong on the 799th, start counting from 1!
Then there is staff hiring, training, emergency procedures, Public Relations. What? No, there is much more to be done before we can open up…