A harbourfront water park that played a role in launching Nicole Kidman’s acting career will be demolished within days.
For almost five decades, Aussies flocked to Manly Waterworks in the Sydney seaside suburb every summer for school holiday and weekend fun, end-of-year gatherings and birthday parties.
First opened in 1981, its famous water slides featured in the 1983 teen flick BMX Bandits, which gave Kidman her first screen role.
An iconic scene showed Kidman and her gang of bandits racing into the park on their BMXs to evade police, before hurtling down the water slides on the bikes to avoid capture.
After a long list of leaseholders, a brief rename and a temporary closure in 2015, The Boathouse Group took over Manly Waterworks in 2021 after the site emerged on Facebook Marketplace with an asking price of $950,000.
The hospitality group confirmed this week that Manly Waterworks will be demolished after its waterslide structures were ruled as unsafe.
It comes after the water park closed in mid-February for the remainder of the summer due to ‘necessary scheduled maintenance’.
‘After 45 years, Manly Waterworks has come to the end of its life and will be turning off the pumps for good,’ its website states.
‘Engineers have deemed the structure no longer safe for sliders with demolition planned to commence from end of September.
‘Although this Manly institution will no longer stand proud in West Esplanade, the memories will remain for generations of Manly locals and visitors who have enjoyed the water park over the years.
‘Any further plans for the site are yet to be confirmed.’
A complete rebuild of the aging waterpark was deemed as not only financially unfeasible but outside the operator’s expertise food and beverage.
‘I think if the structure was still sound, there would be no doubt that we would continue to operate it, because it brings a different clientele down,’ a Boathouse Group spokesperson told the Manly Observer.
‘But ultimately, we’re a hospitality food and beverage business at our heart, and we’re not an amusement park business, so it was really not the core of what we’re good at. Essentially, we ran the slides for a couple of years, and we did a pretty good job, from our opinion, but at the end of the day, that’s not our core business.’
Daily Mail contacted The Boathouse Group for further comment.
The closure comes seven years after nearby Manly Sea Life Sanctuary shut down after more than half a century in operation.
Fans were sad to hear of the water park’s demise.
‘A sad day for Manly,’ one woman wrote.
Another added: ‘I’ve lived here now for 23 years, and things I used to enjoy doing, or was looking forward to sharing with my children, are now vanishing.
‘What is the point of having a billion apartment blocks everywhere and zero infrastructure to support it, no parking, no fun.’
For others, the news brought back nostalgic memories.
‘My first ever job was at Manly Waterworks in 1985. I got $6.30 an hour working weekends and holidays,’ another said.
However, not everyone was sad to see the attraction go.
‘Realistically, it was never anything special. A handful of slides crammed into a tiny area with massive lines during the summer,’ one local wrote.
Another added: ‘Good, that noisy water thing is so old and archaic. Good riddance!’
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