The story behind Sydney’s Luna Park and its impact on the city
4/17/202650 min
Author Helen Pitt has written a history of the iconic fun park and it's a tale bound up with con men, crooked cops, and developers who have long wanted to snatch up the prime piece of waterfront real estate.Millions of people have happy memories of walking through the teeth of the gigantic face on the edge of Sydney Harbour but it wasn't the first Luna Park in Australia, that honour goes to the Melbourne version which opened a decades earlier.
But the tale of Sydney's Luna Park is arguably the most dramatic and it's one of only two amusement parks in the world protected by government legislation. Helen Pitt's book is called Luna Park: the extraordinary story of the showmen, shysters and schemers who built Sydney's famous funk park is published by Allen And Unwin.
This episode of Conversations explores Luna Park, amusement parks, Sydney, Sydney Harbour, history, show rides, engineering, the Great Depression, the Ghost Train fire, tragedy, historical preservation, waterfront real estate, protest, Martin Sharp, the Big Dipper, protein spills.
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First 90 secondsHelen Pitt· Guest0:00
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Richard Fidler· Host0:05
The Luna Park that sits on the edge of Sydney Harbour wasn't the first Luna Park in Australia. Melbourne had a Luna Park that's a few decades older, and there were Luna Parks in Adelaide and Perth and Brisbane. But the one on Glenelg Beach in Adelaide went broke, so it was dismantled, packed up, and then sent to Sydney, where it was reassembled largely by workers who had just finished working on the colossal Harbour Bridge right next to it. Helen Pitt is back on Conversations today. Last time Helen was here, she was talking about her prize-winning book on the Sydney Opera House. And now Helen's written the history of that gargoyle that grins across the water at the House of High Culture. Luna Park's famous slogan was and is, "Just for fun." I should say I went there as a kid, as a twelve-year-old. I remember that as one of the happiest nights of my young life. I was so excited by the lights, the rides, the junk food, the noise, the color, the sense of freedom. I thought my head would explode. Luna Park was more than just a place for kids. It was also a pleasure palace for young lovers, too. Millions of people have similar happy memories of Luna Park, of walking through the teeth of that gigantic grinning face at the entrance, of screaming