A ONE TRACK MIND
Sea World’s monorail opened 35 years ago this week, becoming Australia’s first single-rail transport system
THERE’S nothing on Earth like a genuine, bona fide, electrified nine-car monorail.
For decades, the Gold Coast led the world by having Australia’s first monorail.
It also became the only city to have two independent single-rail transport networks at one time. More of that later.
The Sea World Monorail was a game-changer when it launched 35 years ago on Sunday, August 15, 1986, bringing with it promises of a public transport revolution.
Now, the once-futuristic technology is out of vogue and Sea World’s monorail is the last in Australia.
The dream of building the nation’s first monorail originated with Perth businessman Peter Laurance who bought Sea World for $35m in October 1984.
The then-39-year-old announced the project in February 1985 when he insisted he would develop “every skerrick’’ of the 20ha theme park site.
He commissioned feasibility studies by the Japanese company Mitsubishi and flew to Tokyo to see the results.
Mr Laurance’s grand plans for Sea World, unveiled in August that year, were welcomed by then-Southport MP Doug Jennings.
“The timing is appropriate with the casino nearing completion, stabilisation of the Southport Bar, the Gateway Bridge and also Expo ’88 coming up,’’ he said at the time.
To fund the $3.3m, 2.3km monorail and park expansion, Mr Laurance unveiled a $20m public offering.
The attraction was built through early 1986. Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen and hairdressing boss Stefan Ackerie were its first passengers.
The Swiss-designed monorail was identical to the monorail operated at Vancouver’s Expo ’86 site and the systems planned for Brisbane’s Expo ’88 and Sydney.
Then-Sea World managing director John Menzies told media its novelty was a drawcard.
“Monorails have been talked about for some time in Australia,” he said.
“People will come from everywhere to see it.’’
Up the road in Brisbane, the state government was planning a Coast-wide network of monorails.
Transport Minister Don Lane revealed that Cabinet had approved a submission for a feasibility study to investigate building an H-Bahn hanging monorail.
The monorail would have travelled from The Spit to Broadbeach.
By January 1989 the project was still under consideration by the National Party government. It was to follow the eventual route of the Gold Coast light rail.
The Gold Coast Monorail Company was selected as the preferred proponent but discovered several major problems and setbacks at the dawn of the 1990s and the project was ultimately shelved.
Meanwhile, Sea World’s Monorail was going from strength to strength, having inherited one of the vehicles left over from Expo ’88.
The $12m Brisbane monorail, which ran for one year, was Australia’s second and was followed by Sydney’s in 1989.
The final piece of the puzzle came when the Broadbeach monorail opened in 1989, connecting the newly built Oasis shopping centre with Conrad Jupiters Casino.
It was the site of a famous protest in August 1994 when then-21-year-old Gold Coast activist Shane Adams climbed on its track to protest against the capture of wild dolphins.
The Southport man ran along the 7m-high track for several hundred metres, appealing to the media to publicise the tourist attraction’s dolphin-permit program.
He was arrested following the protest.
The Sea World monorail continued to be a popular attraction through the 1990s and by 1996 there were plans to create new stations and build new tracks as part of a $70m expansion of the park itself.
This ultimately did not occur.
By the late 2010s, both the Broadbeach and Sydney monorails were retired. They were too expensive to run and parts too hard to replace.
Broadbeach’s system ran for the final time in January 2017, leaving Sea World’s as the last remaining monorail in Australia.
By early 2020 there were fears that Sea World was intending to shutter the monorail.
Rumours flew thick and fast in April that year, shortly after the park was forced to close because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
But Sea World chief operating officer Bikash Randhawa dismissed the speculation as “rubbish”.
“If we were doing anything, you would hear it from us,” he told the Bulletin at the time.
Today, the Sea World Monorail remains the last example of a futuristic public transport network that never came to pass.