Fantasy Glades

Fantasy Glades was a small theme park which operated until April 28 2002 in the town of Port Macquarie New South Wales, Australia [http://portmacquarie.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?story_id=144507] . The park operated for 35 years in its rainforest setting, catering to a child-friendly clientele.

History

Fantasy Glades was opened in 1967 by George and Rosemary Whittaker, both of whom were sufferers of dwarfism. In 1987 the park was sold to Brian Hutchinson, who operated the park until its closure in 2002 [http://portmacquarie.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?story_id=144507] . Some of the rides and attractions have since been purchased by Tony Williams who has plans to reopen the park in a new location on the Hastings River [http://portmacquarie.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?story_id=234965] . Currently this idea appears to be on hiatus.

A sign at the front of Fantasy Glades before its closure read:

Fantasy Glades was located at 44 Parklands Cl, Port Macquarie.

On the 17th March 2008 the parkland became available to buy [http://portmacquarie.yourguide.com.au/news/local/general/fairytale-ending-not-pure-fantasy/1204311.html [4] . The parkland is the only landsite of its kind in the beach side area of Port Macquarie.

Attractions

Expand list|date=August 2008

* Cinderella Castle - a large pink castle with life-size mannequins behidn glass depicting the story of Cinderella
* Witches Cottage - a recent addition, this wooden house was full of fun 'booby traps'
* Snow White Diamond Mine - a walk-through mine with motifs of the singing seven dwarves
* Snow White Cottage - a miniature house themed with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves designs
* Crooked House - a recent addition, this was similar to the witches house and featured distorting mirrors
* Wishing Well - a simple wishing well
* Monorail - a recent addition, this was a people-powered push-pull monorail which wound through the rainforest
* Dinosaurs - a series of Dinosaur sculptures near the Cinderella Castle
* Dragon - a large pink dragon whose eyes flashed and sprayed water and smoke from its nose at passers-by, due to infrared sensors.
* Coin-powered cars - these tiny cars were designed for children to ride around a bitumen area, and could be operated by inserting a 20 cent coin
* Old Woman's Shoe - this large red shoe (approx 3 metres tall) was designed to represent the nursery rhyme There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe and could be climbed in
* Train - this electric road train circumnavigated the theme park on a loop
* Miniature Chapel - a tiny church, sized for children and dwarves
* Hansel and Gretel - A glass-windowed shopfront depicting the story
* Humpty Dumpty - A large figure a humpty dumpty who, when a button is pressed, falls off his wall
* Little Red Riding Hood's Grandmothers house - with the big bad wolf dressed as grandma in bed.
* Kiddies Corner - a recent addition, this was a selection of generic 'shopping mall' coin operated rides
* Wildlife Park - Included Goats, Kangaroos, and Emus.
* Golden Goose - That laid a golden egg.
* Hickory Dickory Dock - A grandfather clock that a mouse would run down.
* Jack in the box - Press a button and he pops out.
* The mouse house - a small house with a cat painted on it, inside were robocic moving mice such as musical mice,fishing mice,dancing mice, mice ordaments, choral mice, family mice and maior mouse. the mice were adult size, placed behind a glass screen and infrount of a theamed background. press the button and the mice would move and/or sing.
* Dungeon- Underneath Cinderella's castle
* Doll room- A room filled with a collection of beautifully detailed dolls
* Musical Piano Wall- A wall with touchable piano keys
* The three bears cottage/Blinky bills house
* Various little mushrooms to sit under
* crocadile bridge - a bridge with a giant sized crocadile under it
* Hand opertated Miniture-mono rails
* Pirates corner- a corner near the coin operated cars with various pirate games eg -lift the gold out of the well

External links

* [http://sexyninjamonkey.blogspot.com/2006/04/fantasy-glades-port-macquarie.html A blogger recalls memories of Fantasy Glades]
* [http://portmacquarie.yourguide.com.au/news/local/general/fairytale-ending-not-pure-fantasy/1204311.html The Landsite is for sale]