In short: Luna Park has grinned across the harbour at Milsons Point since 4 October 1935. It was built on the old Dorman Long yard where the steel for the Harbour Bridge was made, and its rides came by ship and rail from a failed Luna Park at Glenelg in Adelaide. It was packed through the war years and loved by generations of Sydney kids. Then on the night of 9 June 1979 the Ghost Train caught fire and seven people died, six of them children. After that came a long run of closures, rebuilds, fights with the neighbours and battles with developers. The park finally reopened for good in April 2004, and in 2010 it went onto the NSW State Heritage Register.
Before the Fun: Ferries, Trains and Bridge Steel
Long before anyone thought of a fun park, this was Cammeraygal country. The Cammeraygal people are the traditional owners of the North Sydney area and have lived there for at least 5,000 years.
After 1788 the land between Lavender Bay and Careening Cove was granted to a private soldier, Robert Ryan. It passed through surveyor-general Charles Grimes to Robert Campbell by 1805, and James Milson settled there in the 1820s. That's where the name Milsons Point comes from. Billy Blue, the Jamaican ex-convict, started the first ferry across the harbour in 1830. By 1837 there was a regular wharf and waterman's service at the point. A vehicle ferry was running by 1860, a tram line ran up to North Sydney from 1886, and the North Shore railway was pushed down to Milsons Point in 1893.
From 1924 the foreshore became Dorman Long's workshops, where the steel for the Sydney Harbour Bridge was fabricated and assembled. Once the bridge opened in 1932 the yard wasn't needed any more, and North Sydney Council called for tenders to develop the site.
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From St Kilda to Glenelg to Milsons Point
The first Luna Park opened at Coney Island in New York in 1903. Australia's first opened at St Kilda in Melbourne on 13 December 1912. It was built by the American showman J.D. Williams with the Phillips brothers, Harold, Leon and Herman, and Melbourne's park still has its famous mouth entrance.
The Phillips connection is the key to Sydney's story. In October 1929 David Atkins was granted a lease to build a scenic railway (the Big Dipper) on Colley Reserve at Glenelg, the Adelaide beachside town. In 1930 the lease was widened to take in a Ferris wheel, a Noah's Ark, the River Caves and a Goofy House. Atkins and Herman Phillips set up Luna Park Glenelg Ltd, and the park opened on 8 October 1930.
Glenelg never really worked. Crowds fell away, the council wouldn't cut the rent, and it unanimously refused requests to open rides on Sundays. Locals also complained that the park drew undesirable types. Atkins went looking elsewhere and in 1934 found the old Harbour Bridge construction site on Lavender Bay. The Glenelg company went into voluntary liquidation late in 1934. When its assets were auctioned on 8 April 1935, Atkins and Phillips bought the lot.
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Phillips and his associates won the North Sydney tender and formed Luna Park (NSW) Limited, on a 20-year lease that Wikipedia dates from 11 September 1935. Over three months the Glenelg rides were pulled down and carted to Sydney. Stuart Brothers did the job under David Atkins, Ted Hopkins and Arthur Barton. Wikipedia says the build employed almost 1,000 engineers, structural workers, fitters and artists. The original plans and drawings are held at the State Library of NSW.
Not everyone wanted it, and the complaining started early. As far back as April 1935 there were protests from North Shore residents. Members of the "Parks and Playgrounds Movement" called it the result of "a deplorable lack of aesthetic taste" and likened it to "Coney Island under the Tower of London". Those sorts of complaints have followed the park ever since.
Opening Night, 4 October 1935
Luna Park opened on 4 October 1935 and was a hit from the first night. The big drawcard was the Big Dipper, the wooden coaster brought over from Glenelg. Built in 1930, it was a copy of Melbourne's Big Dipper designed by Miller & Baker. It was 800 metres long, ran for three minutes, could reach 84 km/h and, with all three trains running, carried 72 people.
After that first season the park shut for the winter so the rides could be overhauled and repainted and new ones added, and that winter break stayed part of the routine until 1969. The North Sydney Olympic Pool opened next door in 1936.
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The Face
You can't think of Luna Park without the face. The original idea came from Melbourne's entrance and from the "face" mascot of Steeplechase Park at Coney Island. The first Sydney face was made for the 1935 opening by the Melbourne scenic artist Rupert Browne. It was modelled on the Man in the Moon and called Mr Moon. It sat between two 26-metre Art Deco towers whose scalloped spires copied the top of New York's Chrysler Building. The whole entrance was lit by what was then the largest neon display in Australia, and Mr Moon's eyes lit up and moved from side to side.
The face is about 9 metres high. The early ones were only chicken wire, plaster and paint, and the weather wore them down, so every repair job changed the expression a bit. In broad strokes, here are the versions Wikipedia lists:
- 1935: Rupert Browne's Mr Moon.
- 1938: the first facelift, again designed by Browne.
- 1947: another facelift after faulty neon caused a fire that damaged the left spire. The neon was replaced with incandescent globes.
- 1950s–1960: by the late fifties the face had sagged and distorted so badly it looked grotesque. Arthur Barton, the park's artist, redesigned it as the first "happy" face, inspired by Old King Cole. Every face since has followed it.
- 1973: pop artist Martin Sharp, working with Peter Kingston, repainted it with a new expression, a clown-like mask and strong primary colours.
- 1979: the spires were taken off because the structure had deteriorated.
- 1982: a new fibreglass face, modelled on the 1973 one. After the 1988 closure the whole entrance came down, and the 1982 face was given to the Powerhouse Museum in May 1994.
- 1993–1995: a new fibreglass face by Natureworks, based on Barton's 1960 design. The towers were rebuilt in the style of the 1935 originals, and that's the entrance you walk through today.
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The War Years and the Atkins & Hopkins Era
During the Second World War Luna Park was a magnet for servicemen out with their girlfriends or looking to meet someone. That brought sex workers to the area too, and big brawls were common, usually between Australian home defence troops and American sailors on leave. Because non-essential electricity was cut back, the neon was switched off and the ride fronts were dimmed. The outside lights were also browned out in case of a Japanese sneak attack.
In 1950 Atkins and Hopkins bought out the Phillips brothers. The two travelled the world looking at parks in the Netherlands, the United States, Germany and Britain, and brought ideas home. One was the Rotor, the spinning drum that pins you to the wall, which was first installed in 1951. Atkins died in 1957 and Hopkins took over as manager. Through the 1960s television and the car took people elsewhere, and the park fought back with new attractions. The best known was the Wild Mouse coaster, first opened in 1963.
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The Rides People Remember
The Big Dipper
The old wooden Big Dipper ran at Milsons Point from 1935 to 1979. On 26 April 1946 a 33-year-old man from New Caledonia was killed after sitting on the edge of a car against instructions and being thrown into a support pole on a corner. On 16 April 1979 a steel runner came loose and stopped one train, and the next train ran into it. Thirteen people were hurt and the Dipper never reopened. It was knocked down and burnt with most of the old park in 1981. Two of its cars were bought at auction: one is on show at Luna Park and the other is in the Powerhouse Museum collection.
The River Caves
The River Caves was an Old Mill-style boat dark ride. It had been part of the Glenelg lease, came to Sydney with the rest, and was demolished in 1981. Its "Toyland" section was caught by the Ghost Train fire in 1979.
Coney Island
Coney Island, also called Funnyland, dates from 1935. Wikipedia describes it as the only operating 1930s funhouse left in the world. It has giant wooden slides, a joy wheel, revolving barrels, moving walkways and obstacle courses, and its layout is almost the same as on opening day. Arthur Barton's restored murals hang inside. In 1981 the Friends of Luna Park bought the amusements for $9,200, on condition they stayed in the building, and that saved them from demolition.
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The Wild Mouse
The Wild Mouse first opened in 1963. It has been pulled down and moved off the site several times, but it has stayed put since 1995. Wikipedia says it is one of only three wooden Wild Mouse coasters left in the world. It shut in August 2022 for a big rebuild and reopened in March 2025.
The Ferris Wheel
There was a Ferris wheel at Glenelg, but the 35-metre, 24-gondola wheel at Milsons Point today came in with the 1982 Harbourside rebuild.
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The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace began in 1935 as a dodgem hall and offices. It has since been a dance hall, a BMX track, a games arcade, and a restaurant and bar, and now it holds function rooms.
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1969 to 1979: New Owners, Martin Sharp and the Slide
Hopkins retired in 1969 and sold the last six years of the lease to World Trade Centre Pty Ltd. Barton retired in 1970, the last of the original showmen. The new owners dropped the winter closures, so there was no longer a regular break to maintain the rides. They also applied to put a $50 million trade centre on the site, with seven high-rise buildings and a heliport, but the State Government rejected it. Old rides were scrapped for American thrill rides. For a while the slogan changed from "Just for Fun" to "The Place Where Happiness Is", and there was a short-lived mascot, "Luna Bear – the Space Age Koala".
From 1973 Martin Sharp and Peter Kingston, and later Richard Liney and Garry Shead, did major artwork throughout the park. Sharp said: "It took us a while to realise that Luna Park was an artwork in itself, a city state of illusion, a brilliant feat of engineering with imagination, created and maintained by men." The lease ran out in 1975 and the park kept going on a week-to-week basis. Wikipedia's fire article says the lessees by then were the developers Leon Fink and Nathan Spatt. Talks over a new lease went nowhere after Neville Wran became Premier in 1976.
The Ghost Train Fire, 9 June 1979
The Ghost Train was one of the 1935 opening-day rides. Its building, between the Big Dipper station and the River Caves, had first been a storeroom for gear arriving from Glenelg. Cars went in through a door marked "Hell's Doorway" and were pulled along about 180 metres of track, mostly in pitch dark, past dancing skeletons, an ape monster, a dragon's head and Dracula in a graveyard. There was also a fake fireplace with paper "flames", and witnesses said that is where the real fire started.
That Saturday night John and Jennifer Godson and their sons Damien and Craig were down from Warren on holiday. The boys had already been on the Ghost Train once and wanted another go. Jennifer went to buy an ice cream and came back to find John and the boys had gone on without her. Five Waverley College boys were on the ride too: Jonathan Billings, Richard Carroll, Michael Johnson, Seamus Rahilly and Jason Holman.
The fire broke out at about 10 pm, with around thirty-five people believed to be on the ride. The fake fireplace confused some riders at first. Once people realised the fire was real, the operators began pulling riders out as the cars came through the doors, and Jason Holman was one of them. The fire brigade was called at 10:14 pm. The crews had to fight their way in on the one road while thousands of people were leaving, then found "no water pressure whatsoever" from the hydrants and hoses that "leaked like sieves". They had to pump water out of the harbour. The ride had no sprinklers and burnt fiercely, spreading into the River Caves' Toyland before it was out at 11:17 pm. At 11:30 pm the bodies of John, Damien and Craig Godson were found, and Jonathan Billings, Richard Carroll, Michael Johnson and Seamus Rahilly were found in another section. Seven were dead, six of them children. Luna Park shut that night.
The Inquest
Police at first put it down to an electrical fault and ruled out arson. The firemen who photographed the scene noticed that the switchboard area was untouched, which, according to Wikipedia's fire article, "wasn't consistent with an electrical fault". The coroner's inquest began on 13 August 1979 and reported in September. The coroner, Anderson, found the cause "cannot conclusively be stated". He thought the most probable cause was litter lit by a cigarette or match from a rider, but said the evidence "does not allow me to say". He found management had failed to bring in proper fire protection, despite warnings from North Sydney Council and the fire brigade eighteen months earlier, and that the owners had failed in their duty of care, though not to the level of criminal negligence. It also came out that a design consultant had advised fitting sprinklers to the Ghost Train in December 1977 and the advice wasn't followed. New laws on fire exits followed.
The Saffron Claims
This is where the story gets murky, and it's best to say who claims what. About a quarter of the 80 witnesses called to the inquest were let go without giving evidence. Decades later several of them said they had seen "bikies" in the park that night and smelt kerosene on the ride, and some said police pressured them to change their stories. Martin Sharp spent more than thirty years arguing that the fire was deliberately lit on the orders of the underworld figure Abe Saffron so he could get hold of the site.
A National Crime Authority inquiry in the mid-1980s found that Harbourside Amusements, the company that took the lease after the fire, employed two of Saffron's cousins and a nephew, but it didn't find him directly linked to owning the park. It couldn't fix a cause either, but said the police investigation and the inquest had been ineffective. Saffron denied any role and died in 2006. In 2007 his niece Anne Buckingham was quoted in the Herald as calling it "a bad accident that was meant to be a warning", then publicly denied the quote. His son Alan called it "a straight-out accident". A 2021 ABC investigation, Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire, concluded that Saffron was responsible and that police covered it up. As Wikipedia puts it, there were court hearings in late 2024 about a possible second inquest, and in 2026 anonymous police sources were quoted as saying one was unlikely. No court has ever found who or what started the fire.
Remembering Them
Waverley College held a memorial service for its four boys at St Mary's Cathedral on 15 June 1979, and another service for the Godsons was held in Warren. A memorial tree and bench went in at the park in 1995 but were lost in the 2003 redevelopment. In 2004 a plaque with the victims' names was put on the outside wall of the Big Top, which stands on the site of the Ghost Train. In August 2007 a memorial designed by Michael Leunig and carved by Peter Kingston was unveiled in Art Barton Park, just behind Luna Park.
Closed, Opened, Closed Again
1979–1982: Save Luna Park
The government called for tenders at the end of July 1979. A "Friends of Luna Park" group formed, and a Save Luna Park march went from the Opera House to the face, finishing with a free concert headlined by Mental As Anything. The National Trust classified the face. Australian Amusements Associates won the tender in September 1980 and took over in June 1981. Everything except the face, the Crystal Palace, the Rotor and Coney Island was bulldozed and burnt. The rebuilt park opened on 29 April 1982 as the "Harbourside Amusement Park". A dispute with the previous owners meant it couldn't use the Luna Park name until August that year.
1988–1990: The Lease Fight
In 1988 independent engineers said several rides needed urgent repair and the park closed again. The face was moved inside and the towers came down. The lease passed to Luna Park Investments Pty Ltd, which did little to reopen the park while plans for apartments and hotels on the site kept surfacing. The government gave it a deadline of 1 June 1990 to reopen. When that passed, the lease was terminated and the Luna Park Reserve Trust took over. The Luna Park Site Act 1990, gazetted on 12 October 1990, set the site aside for amusement and public recreation.
1995–1996: The Big Dipper Noise War
After a restoration that began in January 1993, Luna Park reopened in January 1995. Its star ride was a new steel Big Dipper, a 40-metre looping coaster designed by Arrow Dynamics. The Environment Protection Authority approved it only with strict noise limits, soundproofing for affected neighbours and set times when it couldn't run. Neighbours still took legal action over the noise, and Wikipedia says they were backed by business figures whose redevelopment bids had been knocked back. Bad weather kept crowds down, and the new Carr government withdrew its guarantee of a $14 million loan and replaced the Trust's board with an administrator. The park closed on 14 February 1996. The steel Dipper went to Dreamworld in 2001 and runs there as The Gold Coaster.
2004: Open for Good
Metro Edgley won the redevelopment tender in July 1999, and work finally got going in 2003. Over 14 months the rides were restored, the Crystal Palace was turned into function rooms, and the Big Top, a 2,000-seat hall, was built on the old Big Dipper site. Luna Park reopened on 4 April 2004 and has stayed open since. Even then the neighbours went back to court in 2005 and again in 2007, and the Supreme Court dismissed the second case on 6 February 2009.
Heritage Listing
Luna Park went onto the NSW State Heritage Register in 2010, listed as the Luna Park Precinct, entry 01811, at 1 Olympic Drive, Milsons Point. Several of its buildings and rides had also been on the old Register of the National Estate. On top of that, the Luna Park Site Act 1990 means the land is set aside for an amusement park and can't be turned into anything else, which is exactly what the Friends of Luna Park fought for.
The park still changes. A new single-rail Big Dipper opened on 26 December 2021, and in June 2024 Brookfield sold the lease, which runs to 2044, to the Oscars Group.
Melbourne's Luna Park, Briefly
Sydney's park is the younger sibling. Melbourne's Luna Park at St Kilda opened on 13 December 1912 and has run almost continuously ever since. It was built by J.D. Williams and the Phillips brothers, the same Herman Phillips who later helped bring Luna Park to Glenelg and then Sydney. Its Big Dipper was the model for the coaster that crossed from Adelaide to Milsons Point.
Timeline
- 1830: Billy Blue starts the first ferry across the harbour.
- 1893: North Shore railway extended to Milsons Point.
- 1903: The first Luna Park opens at Coney Island, New York.
- 13 December 1912: Luna Park opens at St Kilda, Melbourne.
- 1924: Dorman Long begins using the Milsons Point site to fabricate Harbour Bridge steel.
- 8 October 1930: Luna Park Glenelg opens in Adelaide.
- 1932: The Harbour Bridge opens and the workshop site is freed up.
- Late 1934: The Glenelg company goes into voluntary liquidation.
- 8 April 1935: Atkins and Phillips buy the Glenelg assets at auction.
- 4 October 1935: Luna Park opens at Milsons Point.
- 1936: North Sydney Olympic Pool opens next door.
- 1938: First facelift for the face.
- 1947: Neon fire damages the face and the left spire.
- 1950: Atkins and Hopkins buy out the Phillips brothers.
- 1951: The Rotor is installed.
- 1957: David Atkins dies and Ted Hopkins becomes manager.
- 1960: Arthur Barton's "happy" Old King Cole face.
- 1963: The Wild Mouse first opens.
- 1969: Hopkins retires and sells the lease.
- 1973: Martin Sharp and Peter Kingston repaint the face.
- 16 April 1979: Big Dipper collision, 13 injured.
- 9 June 1979: Ghost Train fire, seven killed, and the park closes.
- September 1979: The inquest finds the cause can't be conclusively stated.
- June 1981: Most of the old park is bulldozed and burnt.
- 29 April 1982: Reopens as Harbourside Amusement Park, and gets the Luna Park name back in August.
- 1988: Closes again after engineers' reports.
- 12 October 1990: Luna Park Site Act 1990 gazetted.
- January 1995: Reopens with the new steel Big Dipper.
- 14 February 1996: Closes after the noise fight.
- 2001: The steel Big Dipper goes to Dreamworld.
- 4 April 2004: Reopens for good.
- 2010: State Heritage Register listing.
- 2021: ABC's Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire, and the new Big Dipper opens on 26 December.
- June 2024: Lease sold to the Oscars Group.
Where the Sources Disagree
- Who brought Luna Park to Sydney. Wikipedia's Luna Park Sydney article names the Glenelg owners as Herman Phillips, his brothers and A.A. Abrahams. Its Luna Park Glenelg article puts David Atkins up front: Atkins held the first lease, founded the company with Herman Phillips, and went scouting for the Sydney site himself.
- When Barton's happy face went up. One section of the Wikipedia article puts Barton's Old King Cole redesign after the 1950 buyout, among the 1950s changes. The section on the face itself dates it to 1960.
- When the face's towers were rebuilt. The Wikipedia history says the towers were rebuilt during the 1993 restoration, while its section on the face says 1995.
- What started the Ghost Train fire. Police said an electrical fault. The coroner said the cause couldn't be conclusively stated, and the most probable cause was a cigarette or match in litter. The NCA couldn't fix a cause. Martin Sharp, later witnesses and the 2021 ABC series point to arson linked to Abe Saffron. Saffron denied it, and his son called it an accident. None of this has been tested in court.
- How many have died on the Big Dipper. Wikipedia's Big Dipper article lists a fall on New Year's Eve 1932. That was at Glenelg, three years before the ride came to Sydney, so I've left it out of the Sydney story.
My Earlier Posts
- Sydney Harbour Bridge 80th Anniversary (2012)
- Bradfield - The Harbour Bridge - The Trains - Water
- Sydney Trams – From Horse Trams to Light Rail
- Sydney Harbour Panorama Magazine
- Carabella House - North Sydney
- Glass Negatives from the Holtermann Collection & Holtermann Mansion, North Sydney
- North Sydney Post Office and Courthouse
Sources
- Wikipedia, "Luna Park Sydney": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_Park_Sydney (includes CC BY 4.0 text from the NSW State Heritage Register entry 01811, Luna Park Precinct)
- Wikipedia, "Sydney Ghost Train fire": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Ghost_Train_fire
- Wikipedia, "Big Dipper (Luna Park Sydney, 1935)": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dipper_(Luna_Park_Sydney,_1935)
- Wikipedia, "Luna Park Glenelg": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_Park_Glenelg
- Wikipedia, "Luna Park, Melbourne": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_Park,_Melbourne
- Sam Marshall, Luna Park – Just for Fun, 2nd ed., Luna Park Sydney Pty Ltd, 2005 (main printed source cited by the Wikipedia articles)
- Godden Mackay, Luna Park Conservation Plan, 1992 (cited by Wikipedia)
- Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, including State Library of NSW (Sam Hood and Ted Hood), State Library of South Australia and the NSW State Heritage Register photo set. Individual credits are under each picture.