Gumbuya World

I’ll confess, I had never heard of Gumbuya World until Facebook forums mentioned the park had bought Dreamworld’s old Buzzsaw rollercoaster. After some research, I read that they were in the process of installing two new coasters, taking the big leap from animal/water/carnival style park, to a fully-fledged amusement park.

So my first trip of 2023 was a 6.5 hour drive to Melbourne, Victoria, to see what Gumbuya had to offer. I was lucky enough to win a stay in a Christmas themed hotel room at the Hilton Doubletree, so we started there before making the hour-long journey east to Gumbuya World. I invited my sister Justine along, as she had family in Melbourne whom she was keen to catch up with. I was also confident that with our last trip to fun parks in Japan almost five years ago, she would be fine on a few little coasters!

We arrived just before opening, only to be sent back to the car to return my stash of Red Bull. Cans were not permitted, although the signs did not mention this. Due to an unseasonably cold summer day there were no crowds, so we didn’t have to line up for tickets, nor did we bother buying the Express Q add-ons, saving ourselves $50.

We went straight to Oz Adventure, one of four themed areas in the park, as this was the location of most of the rides. First stop was a suspended family coaster called TNT, where a short line had already formed. 15 minutes later we had our first of four rides on this zippy little coaster. I enjoyed this much more than Escape from Madagascar at Dreamworld (another family coaster of similar size) due to its excellent track and lack of harness. Lap bars always make for a smoother ride! The first drop gave some surprisingly good stomach churning action, and the ride seemed to be a winner for all ages.

The other big rollercoaster was Project Zero (formerly known as Buzzsaw). Without explanation, it didn’t start operating until one hour after opening. I wasn’t sure if there were technical difficulties, or if this was as a result of being short staffed on a quiet day. My sister opted to skip this one, despite going on coasters much bigger/scarier/more thrilling in Japan. I get it though – these days my body doesn’t cope well with carnival style spinning rides, and for Justine, it was the height that was the problem. While it was nice to revisit an old favourite, Project Zero was lacking a thrill factor for me. I remembered enjoying it immensely in the past, but suspect I have been overindulged with excellent coasters, so this sky loop model just felt a bit old school. Project Zero had numerous closures during the morning due to technical issues, so I was thankful that I got to ride it earlier in the day.

For Victorians, both rollercoasters would be warmly welcomed since there is nothing else like them in the state. To Gumbuya World’s credit, they had installed single rider queues on both coasters, and staff were very efficient with their loading and unloading.

There was one other rollercoaster at the park called Mining Race Coaster. This was a typical mine train style coaster for little ones, completing 3 laps of the short track. We went on that one to tick it off, making sure to play corners as roughly as we could for cheap laughs.

With the roller coaster done, we explored the rest of Oz Adventure. I went for a solo ride on Rebel, a carnival style pendulum with individually spinning seats. The staff member looked at my middle aged self and asked “This round will be the maximum version. If you like, you can wait for the tamer version next, which will have less spinning.” I looked at her and shrugged. “ This one will be fine.”

Justine assures me she had more fun watching me and the other patrons laughing/screaming, than she would have had on the ride herself. We also went on the chair swing ride called Tree swing. With two spinning rides under my belt, I was done for the day!

We had a quick walk through the kiddy area known as Outback Explorers. Containing carnival favourites like Dodgem cars, a baby pirate ship, little truck ride and a playground, this area was a hit with the under 5s.

Due to the cooler weather, we had a walk around Oasis Springs without going on any of the water slides. The wave pool and Lazy River would be very inviting on a hot day though, and there seemed to be a good variety of slides.

The last area was the wildlife park. I had booked us into the bird show, but when we turned up, there were only a few people sitting in plastic chairs in front of a tiny wooden platform, and no birds or staff in sight. We weren’t sure if we were in the right spot, so went to ask the nearest staff member, who was a 10 minute walk away. We were reassured that this temporary little stage was the right spot, so we headed back. It was not to be however, as a little chain had gone up because the show was about to start. It was disappointing that we missed the show, and felt that this was the only area of the park that didn’t look and feel as professional as the other areas. Since we were in the wildlife area, we went on a self-guided walk through the exhibits.

Gumbuya had an excellent collection of beautiful native birds including various species of cockatoo, and we loved the albino peacock. So majestic, this was surely the Fabio of the bird world. As mentioned in other posts, I am not a fan of animal parks in general, but felt Gumbuya World did a great job ensuring the animals had lots of space, and had not overcommitted to a ridiculous amount of creatures at the expense of their welfare. We saw a couple of albino wallabies which was a new experience for me. I suspect these animals were deaf and blind, and so Gumbuya gives security from predators which would not be the case in the wild.

Justine and I had done everything we wanted within 3 hours, and were happy to report no sore feet, as the park is very compact and easy to navigate.

What started out as a pheasant park, had slowly evolved to a wildlife park in the 1970s. In 2016, a group of investors purchased the park, and have done a wonderful job bringing some quality amusement park experiences to the southern part of Australia. Both Justine and I agreed the park has huge potential, describing its current status as a mix between Dreamworld and our local water park which is a tiny family run business.

Summary

Ticket prices:

One day pass: $78 for people over 120cm tall, $73 for those 90cm-120cm.

Number of rollercoasters as of 2023: three