The Thrillseeker was a

steel roller coaster A steel roller coaster is a type of roller coaster classified by its steel Railway track, track, which consists of long steel tubes that are run in pairs, supported by larger steel columns or beams. Trains running along the track typically rely ...

located at Sea World on the Gold Coast,

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Designed by S.D.C., the

Galaxi Galaxi (also Galaxy) is the common name of a series of mass-produced roller coasters manufactured primarily by Italian company S.D.C, which went bankrupt in 1993. The roller coaster design was first used in the 1970s, and as of 2009, sixteen Gal ...

model opened to the public in 1982. The ride is now a traveling roller coaster owned by Shorts Amusements of Victoria known as Taipan.

History

In 1982, Sea World opened the park's first roller coaster, the ''Wild Wave Rollercoaster'', along with the ''

Pirate Ship Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

'' and ''

Carousel A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (International English), or galloper (British English) is a type of amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular platform with seats for riders. The seats are tradit ...

''. The ''Wild Wave Rollercoaster'' was later renamed to the ''Thrillseeker''. In May 2002, the Thrillseeker was closed and removed from Sea World. It now operates as a traveling roller coaster owned by Shorts Amusements of Victoria, known as Taipan. Following the ride's removal, proposals were made for the area it once occupied. These included a seal exhibit named Seal Rocks and a hippopotamus attraction was proposed for the site. From 2006 to 2008 the site was home to the temporary Sea World Eye. In September 2008, work began on the site for a yet-to-be-named ray exhibit. By October, the name of the exhibit was announced to be Ray Reef. It was originally scheduled that the exhibit would open on Boxing Day 2008 (26 December 2008), however, a number of delays forced it to open on 14 January 2009.

Ride

The Thrillseeker had a track length of , with a ride time of two minutes and a maximum speed of . The track is

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

, and the

trains A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

consist of two four-seat cars per train, for a train capacity of 8 passengers. The ride began with the right turn out of the station. After ascending the

chain lift hill A lift hill, or chain hill, is an upward-sloping section of track on a roller coaster on which the roller coaster train is mechanically lifted to an elevated point or peak in the track. Upon reaching the peak, the train is then propelled from ...

riders were sent in a course of quick dips and spiralling helixes.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Roller coasters in Australia Roller coasters operated by Village Roadshow Theme Parks 1982 establishments in Australia 2002 disestablishments in Australia