this seems to have escaped notice (I think). Merlin is the company that owns the Sealife Centres in the UK etc. Merlin to Acquire Village Roadshow Assets for A$115 Million - Bloomberg
This is not exactly welcome news. I'd hate to think that Australia's premier aquarium might devolve into one of those bland, cookie-cutter SeaLife Centres. If I recall it wasn't that long ago that Village Roadshow acquired the Sydney Attractions Group. I wonder why the quick turnover, with a loss on the transaction. Must have been a very weak 12 months or so for the business.
The Gold Coast properties are a separate (and profitable) division of Village Roadshow Ltd. They are not included in the sale.
Merlin also own Chessington World of Adventures, which includes quite a large zoo. In fact it wa origionally just Chessington Zoo. According to some sites they also own the National Seal Sanctuary, but when I went to that property's web site it appears to be owned by a charity. A bit confusing.
I'll have to correct myself. Have just been to the Chessington web site and the zoo angle seems to be quite minor now.
It's quite a bit bigger now than it was just a few years ago, with a new small mammals area and an antelope/zebra paddock having opened. They also have a number of bigs cats, gorillas, sea lions, monkeys, birds, a reptile house, otters etc. It's nothing like the scale it was in the past, but it's not a tiny place. But yes, for promotional purposes it's a theme park with a zoo attached, not an equal enterprise!
"This is not exactly welcome news. I'd hate to think that Australia's premier aquarium might devolve into one of those bland, cookie-cutter SeaLife Centres." Gotta be better than Village Roadshow. Bland, cookie-cutter seems better than irrelevant, tacky, noisy, insulting
I understand that Sydney Wildlife World will be reduced by approx. 50% to accomodate the Madame Tussauds attraction. Hix
What is "Madame Tussad"? This is not good news since SWW has been improving over the years with exhibits such as "Kakadu Gorge".
Madame Tussauds is a waxworks museum - the 'original' is in London but it has offspring in various other places (as well as wax museums started by members of the family, such as Louis Tussauds in Blackpool).
Madame Tussauds is a museum displaying life-size wax models of famous people. You wander round and look at the models and get your photo taken next to them if desired. They are found all over the world now. EDIT: Maguari beat me to it. It is a great shame to do this to SWW. I'd personally much rather look at bulldog ants and goliath stick insects than a waxwork Paul Hogan!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Is there something we can sign to stop this??? Can't they put the museum in the boring old tower instead, currently the most disappointing attraction in Sydney???
perhaps you should keep some anguish in reserve for whatever they have planned for Kelly Tarlton's -- after all, there's no Madame Tussauds in New Zealand yet....!
Well they're hardly going to put a Madame Tussads in a cramped old drain with no parking are they? Are they?????
Not quite 50% Hix. The bottom floor critters will be moved up to the other floors. The infuriating thing about it is the plan to halve the butterfly exhibit. Why they can't leave that as a link between the floors/attractions and a lovely and unique entrance is beyond me. The exhibits at SWW are by and large great (IMO), but not enough mullah coming in so Kylie and Hoges it is. On the upside, the grey nurse shark oceanarium is in for a big overhaul. 'Bout time too. Crabs anyone? Hopefully that is all they have planned for now, but methinks not.
Why not just skip the Madame Tussads idea and keep Sydney Wildlife World how it was built? It really has no faults and attracts alot of tourists every year so I see no reason to halve it at all. What would you rather go to (as a tourist): A 'zoo' with iconic Aussie animals eg. cuddly koalas or kangaroos OR a typical wax museum that they have been to many times and now find boring.
