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On Friday October 4, 89 years ago today at 8pm a special event happened in Sydney. It was the start of a long weekend - Labor Day then known as Eight Hour Day. Sydneysiders were excited. The queue to get in snaked along beneath the northern pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
“Luna Park, a new amusement ground situated in Lavender Bay near the northern end of the Harbour Bridge, was opened yesterday,” The Sydney Morning Herald reported the morning after.
“It covers about five acres on which are all kinds of entertainment apparatus housed in buildings or frameworks, the principal of which is a big undulating railway known as 'The Dipper', on which passengers are carried around twice by gravitation with steep runs at intervals down which the cars shoot with breath-taking velocity. Other thrill-giving mechanical contrivances are in various places about the front, and on the bay side, all embellished with fantastic designs or grotesqueries in vivid colours. The entrance is through the mouth of a monster face near the landing wharf.”
It was formally opened by the NSW Chief Secretary Frank Chaffey, who declared it “a clean, bright, healthy playground.” As well as the Big Dipper, the crowds flocked to the River Caves, Funny Land, the Dodgems, the Tumble Bug and the Whirler.
While the rides may have changed – the excitement of going to Luna Park in 2024 has not.
By the Monday after the opening, the ad in the same newspaper kept the crowds coming by ferry from Circular Quay.
“Step aboard the great White Showboats, S.S. Koompartoo and S.B. Kuttabul, for a. short, thrilling trip across the Harbour to glamorous Luna Park, Sydney's newest novelty,” it read.
A month after opening it was described as “Sydney's newest, most romantic, most thrilling Amusement Centre.”
This post is a part of a series of historical recounts to highlight our heritage and prepare for our 90th anniversary next year, celebrating best of old and best of new! We have also welcomed former Sydney Morning Herald journalist Helen Pitt, who is now working at the Park, writing a book that will be published by Allen and Unwin, for next year’s 90th anniversary celebrations. The Walkley Award winning author of The House, the extraordinary story of the Sydney Opera House, is now turning her forensic gaze across the harbour to tell the story of Sydney’s favourite amusement park. Just for Fun - Just Forever.