AusLeisure

As it counts down to its 30th birthday later this year, Gold Coast theme park Dreamworld has revealed a host of additions to the park including a bone chilling new thrill ride, BuzzSaw.

In addition to its new exotic animal exhibit, 'The Lair' and the new adventure ride, 'ShockWave', BuzzSaw will boost the park's 'Big 6' thrill rides to a 'Big 7'.

Opening in time for the September school holiday period, BuzzSaw is an Australian first and will be the ride to conquer for high-action adrenaline seekers.

Seated in an open carriage, riders will be held in by a single waist harness leaving the upper body fully exposed to the elements, and with little to cling onto. This white-knuckle ride starts with a suspenseful 46 metre vertical ascent before flipping the rider's centre of gravity and dangling them upside-down 15 storeys in the air. The ride car then free-falls through a 360 degree heart roll, and plummets down a final vertical drop at speeds of up to 105km/hour.

BuzzSaw will be the highest inversion ride experience in the Southern Hemisphere.

Situated in the park's Gold Rush precinct, the construction of the new ride has unearthed some unusual stories about the make-believe mining township, which has been part of Dreamworld since the mid 1980's.

Unexplainable occurrences recounted by staff working in the area and historic research dating back to the late 1800's have inspired the ride's theme and will have guests wondering where fact ends and fiction begins.

With construction now well underway, BuzzSaw will be one of the first menacing thrill rides guests can spot as they arrive in the main car park adding to the already impressive landscape including the Tower of Terror II and The Giant Drop.

Greg Shaw, Chief Executive of Dreamworld owner the Ardent Leisure Trust, has this week spoken of the importance of Dreamworld as Ardent's "largest single investment."

Interviewed in The Australian, Shaw explained that "together with Whitewater and Skypoint, theme parks generated total revenues of almost $58 million in the first half. (Nearly 1.5 million visitors spent on average $38.80 each.)

"They represented 43% of the group's total revenue of $196 million up to December last year."

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