You can see the eerie smiling face from Circular Quay, on the other side of the harbor. The face is enshrined at the entrance to that sprawling Sydney fun house, Luna Park.
Dizzyingly weird, Luna Park gives that better-known Circular Quay attraction, the Opera House, a run for its money. Hence the repeated interest of filmmakers, documentary makers and TV directors. For instance, an episode of the iconic Aussie TV series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo was filmed there.
Learn more about the retro attraction set at Milsons Point on Sydney’s elegant North Shore. The attraction, which dates back to 1935, has a rich, dark past that should mean it is haunted, if ghosts exist.
Seven Secrets of Luna Park
1. Sydney’s Luna Park takes its cue from the American version which opened on Coney Island, New York, in 1903.
2. Luna Park's beaming-face entrance is nine meters wide – even proportionally broader, you might imagine, than the Cheshire Cat’s smile inAlice in Wonderland.
3. During the Second World War, Luna Park drew droves of servicemen – some taking their girlfriends on a wild night out, others on the prowl for new partners.
4. The flood of Second World War servicemen brought a less-than-wholesome element to the park. Mass brawls between Australian home defense soldiers and American sailors on shore-leave regularly erupted.
5. During WWII, the park's outer lights were 'browned out' in case of a Japanese surprise attack on Sydney. The neon lights were unplugged and frivolous electricity use – mostly for ride façades – was curbed.
6. In 1979, the park's Ghost Train caught fire. The park’s fire hose system failed to cover the understaffed ride and six children and one adult perished. The fire was contained before it got the chance to engulf the nearby Big Dipper and River Caves. Controversy surrounded the fire, Australian artist Martin Sharp convinced it was the work of property developers looking to have the park torn down.
7. Subject to volatile swings of fortune, Luna Park has been repeatedly shut down and resurrected from the dead. The fun park’s last phoenix moment came in 2004. Since then, it has been going strong. Its most famous attraction, the Wild Mouse rollercoaster, which was first installed in 1962, has been disassembled and removed several times. The Wild Mouse remains in the picture, New South Wales’s only permanent rollercoaster.
More lunacy
Did you know that the word ‘lunar’ is related to ‘lunatic’? So the bizarre gateway smile that swallows you up makes a strange kind of sense. Perhaps even more maniacal is the slightly sinister façade of Melbourne's Luna Park (lunapark.com.au). The first of the four Luna Parks to be built in Australia (in 1912) and the only other one still standing, Melbourne Luna Park enjoys a far less storied past.
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