Bush Beast

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Bush Beast - Construction  
Bush Beast - Videos             
Bush Beast - After Closure Pics

‘The Bush Beast’ was the biggest, fastest, meanest wooden rollercoaster in the Southern Hemisphere!

The Bush Beast was built in 1985 and was figure 8 configuration, a direct clone of Paramount Canada's Wonderlands Wild Beast built in 1981.

Bush Beast used fin type breakikng pioneered by taft.

Bush Beast was computerised, the computer a Westinghouse PC700 PLC, controlled everything on the ride, and would shut down the ride if there was any fault.

Bush Beast was inspected from around 6:15am and usually all the way up to Gold rush's 11am opening.

Bush Beast required at least 3 Maintenance personnel:
* A mechanic who would inspect the lift chain, lift motor and the breaking system.
* A carpenter who would walk the maintenance track walk inspecting the track and ride structure.
* An electrician who would check the electrical system including PLC(programmable logic controller, the heart of the bush beast, it controlled everything, breaks, lap bars, lift motor, the lights on the operators panel, buttons on the operators panel connected to the plc inputs along with all the sensors on the ride)

There was a small brake on the transfer track between the station and the lift hill that would be used to put a train away or get a train out of storage. A section of track would slide across to allow it to happen. One day a train was being put away. Protocol dictated that the train is stopped in the brakes, the track is slid across to open the 'garage' and then the train is slowly released from the brakes and gently pushed into the garage, where it rests on the small stoppers at the end.  This day the train was stopped in the brakes, the track slid across, then the operator just held open the brakes letting the train go into the garage with more speed than it should have. It his the stoppers with such force that the front 2 carriages lifted up, and went over the end of the garage and were hanging just above the ground.
Wazza

Welcome to the Bush Beast.
Please place all lose articles to the far side of the ride on the other side of the yellow line please ensure that all lose articles are secured as Wonderland Sydney does not take any responsibility for items lost, stolen or damage.

Here we go everyone enjoy your ride please keep your arms and legs inside the train at all times and please remain seated.

Welcome back please remain seated until the ride has come to a complete stop, once the ride has stopped I will release your lap bars, remember to collect all of your belongings and have a great day here at Wonderland Sydney.

Bussy

The cars had a sensor bar located under them, one set were positioned on the LHS of the train while the other train had the bars on the RHS. this was to tell the system which Train was running. Both trains had a common bar also. If a train missed a sensor around the track this would cause a safety stop to ensure the two trains could not get close to one another (you can guess why). If this occurred the ride was stopped for safety reasons, the trains were then sent our one at a time while some one checked the PLC inputs for the problem sensor. The display was installed to help diagnose this type of problem quickly so the ride could be re-opened. the display was 3 characters, 103 which meant train 1 sensor three.

Bjs