Thunder River Rapids Ride, Water ride at Dreamworld theme park, Queensland, Australia
Thunder River Rapids Ride was a water ride at Dreamworld theme park in Queensland, Australia, that carried guests in round rafts through simulated white water across a 410-meter course. The installation moved visitors at speeds reaching 45 kilometers per hour (28 miles per hour) through a water channel where submerged logs created turbulent currents.
The installation opened in December 1986 and operated for three decades as a family attraction within the park. A fatal accident in 2016 led to its permanent shutdown, and the structure was completely removed two years later.
The ride stood in the Town of Gold Rush, a section of Dreamworld that opened on 11 December 1986 together with the Eureka Mountain Mine Ride. Its rafts carried up to six riders past a cave and along a large water catchment, and a conveyor belt lifted them back to the station level before they stepped off.
Each circular raft seated six people facing one another during the roughly four-minute journey. Riders passed through multiple turns and drop sections where water splashed into the vessel regularly.
Although the ride resembled an Intamin river rapids ride, it was neither built nor supplied by Intamin: a Sydney-based company was commissioned in 1983 to supply the circular rafts, each seating up to six riders. The photograph shows one of these rafts, with four ribbed brown seats in two facing pairs and the number 7 on the inner side of a seat back.
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