Games and Sideshows - Wonderland History

Besides its rides and shows, Australia’s Wonderland ran games and sideshows in every land from opening day to closing day. They were paid for separately from the pay one price admission, and the park’s Games and Merchandise department ran them. The table lists every game, with the years each is known to have run. The photos of the stalls are further down the page, and the electronic Games Arcade in Goldrush has its own page.

Every game named by the park

Name	Land	What was played	Years
Astro’s Action	Hanna-Barbera Land	A timed ball toss: throw the balls into the can before the lid closes.	1985 to 1987
Jabber Jaw’s Water Wonder	Hanna-Barbera Land	Squirt gun action for little squirts.	1985 to 1987
Jetson’s Star Maker	Hanna-Barbera Land	Small fry skeeball.	1985 to 1987
Old McScrappy’s Golfing Farm	Hanna-Barbera Land	Eighteen holes of mini golf, on the site later taken by Fred Flintstone’s Splashdown.	1985 to 1987
Pebble’s Ring Fling	Hanna-Barbera Land	Ring a bottle of Coca-Cola.	1985 to 1987
Wilma’s Weigh-In	Hanna-Barbera Land	Guess your weight: if Wilma got it wrong you won the prize.	1985 to 1996
Top Cat’s Putt Putt Park	Hanna-Barbera Land	Mini golf, by the Rainbow Arch.	1997
Dunk the Foole	Medieval Faire	One of the five games centres of 1985, a dunking game.	1985 to 1987
Jester’s Court	Medieval Faire	One of the five games centres of 1985.	1985 to 1987
Royal Sports and Courts also Royal Courts and Sports (1987)	Medieval Faire	One of the five games centres of 1985; by 1987 there were two of them, called Royal Courts and Sports.	1985 to 1987
Sorcerer’s Challenge	Medieval Faire	An olde worlde game of skill, still running in 1990/91.	1985 to 1991
Tournament Faire Games	Medieval Faire	One of the five games centres of 1985, with its own sign.	1985 to 1987
Ye Pitching Place	Medieval Faire	One of the five games centres of 1985, with its own sign.	1985 to 1987
Laughing clowns	International Village and Old Botany Bay	The laughing clowns stall in the Tudor style games building, still there behind the Ducks A-Hoy stall in the park’s last years.	2000 to 2004
Basketball	International Village and Old Botany Bay	Three balls for $2, three in the hoop for a large prize and two for a small one, two prizes a day.	2002 to 2004
Ducks A-Hoy	International Village and Old Botany Bay	A duck pond, $2 a play, with numbered ducks for small, medium and large prizes.	2002 to 2004
Ballarat Bonanza	Goldrush	One of the Goldrush stalls; what was played is not recorded.	1985 to 1987
Bushranger’s Find	Goldrush	One of the Goldrush stalls; what was played is not recorded.	1985 to 1987
Goldminer’s Glory	Goldrush	One of the Goldrush stalls, possibly the gold panning: a lucky visitor could strike gold in Goldrush.	1985 to 1987
Jackeroo’s Keep also Jackaroo’s Keep (1987)	Goldrush	One of the Goldrush stalls; what was played is not recorded.	1985 to 1987
Murrumbidgee Boatmen also Remote Boats (1987), Murrumbidgee Remote Control Boats (2000 to 2004)	Goldrush	Remote control boats, paid for separately. Called Murrumbidgee Boatmen in 1985 and 1987, with Remote Boats in Hanna-Barbera Land as well in 1987, and Murrumbidgee Remote Control Boats from 2000.	1985 to 2004
Ophir Reward also Ophir’s Reward (1987)	Goldrush	One of the Goldrush stalls; what was played is not recorded.	1985 to 1987
Dunk the Convict	Goldrush	Goldrush‘s answer to Dunk the Foole.	1987
Goldrush Grand Prix	Goldrush	What it was is not recorded.	1987
Midway Basketball	Goldrush	A basketball shooting game.	1987
Snowy River Cup	Goldrush	What was played is not recorded.	1987
Hill End Mines Gold Panning also Fossickers Gold Mine (2000)	Goldrush	Gold panning, added in 1997; Fossickers Gold Mine by 2000.	1997 to 2000
Video Arcade	Goldrush	The electronic games arcade near the former Ned Kelly’s Getaway; see the Games Arcade page.	2000
Bushell Ball	Goldrush	A ball game; in 2001 a voucher offered a free game, buy one get one free.	2001
Eureka Challenge	Goldrush	A test your skill stall in one of Goldrush‘s timber buildings.	2002 to 2004
Milk can ball toss	Goldrush	One ball in the milk can wins. In the park’s last years the sign read 1 in Wins with a Goldrush special of eight balls; earlier the One Ball Wins sign hung over teddy bears in overalls as prizes.	2002 to 2004
Molten Nugget Casino and Stardust Casino	Goldrush	A stall painted as two casinos, with a spiral target game.	2002 to 2004
Coin toss	Land not recorded	Coins thrown one at a time had to land past the counter’s edge for star and flower prizes.	2002 to 2004
Ring the Coke bottle	Land not recorded	Three rings for $3, eight for $5 and twenty for $10; a ring over a clear bottle won a small prize, red a medium and yellow a large one. Still running in March 2004.	2004

The years are those that can be confirmed so far; most games ran for longer than the years shown. Pages about individual games will appear here as they are added.

The games by era

Hanna-Barbera Land, 1985

Hanna-Barbera Land opened with six games:

Astro’s Action: a timed ball toss, “quick, toss the ball into the can before the lid closes”, named after Astro from The Jetsons
Jetson’s Star Maker: “small fry Skeeball”
Jabber Jaw’s Water Wonder: “squirt gun action for little squirts”
Pebble’s Ring Fling: “ring a bottle of Coca-Cola!”
Wilma’s Weigh-In: a guess your weight game, “you can’t fool Wilma when she’s guessing your weight”
Old McScrappy’s Golfing Farm: “eighteen holes of PAR-ticular fun for the entire family”, the mini golf course on the site later taken by Fred Flintstone’s Splashdown

The land’s shops stood beside the games: Rainbow Gifts (“every cuddling toy under the rainbow”), The Memory Market, Fred’s Famous Photos and Top Cat’s Treasures (“hats, hats and more hats”).

Medieval Faire, 1985

Medieval Faire had five games centres: Jester’s Court, Ye Pitching Place, Royal Sports and Courts, Tournament Faire Games and Dunk The Foole, with Sorcerer’s Challenge beside them. Ye Pitching Place and Tournament Faire Games had their own signs, photographed below. Which games were played in each is not recorded. An early photo shows a ring the bottle game in a white pavilion with an attendant dressed as a clown, and another a family with a prize bear at a games counter near the fountain, its attendant in medieval costume.

The 1990s

Medieval Faire was still offering “olde worlde games of skill like Sorcerer’s Challenge” in 1990/91, and in 1993 every Hanna Barbera game outlet ran on the promise that “everyone’s a winner”. By 1995 the park had a Merchandise and Games department with its own seat on the staff committee, and in 1996 Wilma’s Weigh-in was still going, with the prize for anyone whose weight Wilma guessed wrong, among “loads of games to play and plenty of prizes to be won in Hanna Barbera Land”. In 1997 the games stood in Goldrush and Hanna-Barbera Land.

Wonderland Sydney, 2000 to 2004

In 2000 the laughing clowns stall stood in the Tudor style games building of the old Medieval Faire, by then Old Botany Bay, and in 2001 a free game of Bushell Ball in Goldrush came with a discount voucher. The photos below from the park’s last years show the stalls as they were then: the milk can ball toss (“1 in Wins”, with a Goldrush special of eight balls), the basketball hoops in International Village (three balls for $2, three in the hoop for a large prize, two for a small one), Ducks A-Hoy ($2 a play, numbered ducks for small, medium and large prizes), a coin toss, the Eureka Challenge in a Goldrush timber building, a stall painted as the Molten Nugget Casino and the Stardust Casino, and the ring the Coke bottle game of March 2004, three rings for $3, eight for $5 and twenty for $10, with a limit of two large prizes per player per day. Prizes were plush toys hung from the stall roofs.

A Sydney Morning Herald reviewer in January 1986 found the Gold Rush sideshow games reminiscent of the Easter Show, paid for separately and hard to win; her family of five spent $19.50 on drinks and games, two of each per person.