Aussie World is a family amusement park located behind the Ettamogah Pub in the Australian state of Queensland on the Bruce Highway, Sunshine Coast. It is set in native Australian gardens and trees and themed like an Australian fairground of old.
The original creator of the Ettamogah Pub was Ken Maynard, who started drawing the Pub in 1959. It was made famous through his regular cartoons in The Australasian Post.
The Aussie World “Ettamogah Pub” was built in 1989 and the word “Ettamogah” is Aboriginal for ‘place of good drink!’ Now one of Queensland’s leading tourist attractions, it stands an impressive 18 m in height. It was opened on 24 November 1989, with most of the furniture inside the pub built from trees cleared from the actual site.
Why is there a truck on top of the pub? In the cartoon the theory is the truck was washed up there in the floods of 1946 and none of the regulars could be bothered to get it down. The car is a 1927 Chevy which originally was a four-door sedan and was converted into a utility in 1947.
In 2005 the rides were updated to their current state including the Wild Mouse Roller Coaster, the Giant Octopus and the Rock n Roll Rebel Dark Ride.
2007 saw renovations to the park begin; these included a complete front entrance upgrade and the erection of two 15½-metre brightly coloured barber poles and a twin-peaked blue and yellow shade entrance.
In May 2008, the owners of the popular Australian Wet n Wild theme park chain, Village Roadshow, entered a conditional agreement. This agreement gave Village Roadshow the "option to acquire the land and business of Aussie World". The company planed to build a new Wet 'n' Wild Water Park on the Aussie World site named Wet'n'Wild Aussie World. This was followed three months later with a development application being submitted to the Caloundra City Council.
On September 23, 2009, Village Roadshow Limited (VRL) announced "after extensive research, review and planning, VRL considers that when compared with other opportunities available, the potential returns do not justify the level of investment for the world class water park which would be required to deliver a significant destination site."
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