Early concept drawing showing the entrance to the ride. The idea was for guest to feel as if they were entering an abandoned and long forgotten saw mill yard.
Inside the entrance and heading towards the queue building.
The queue building. I wanted to look as if it was about to collapse. Instead of going through a door guests would enter through what appeared to be a hole in the wall.
The way out. The small building is the former helicopter joy flight ticket booth. We wanted the guests to have one last fright on the way out, and planned to place a sensor inside that triggered a blade of compressed air and a loud buzzsaw noise. Hasn’t been implemented yet, hopefully soon.
Dreamworld decided to place the coaster at the very front of the park, in between the car park and the river rapids ride. This meant that by the time the ride was in place, we were left with a 4-5 meter wide driveway in which to build the queue building. The queue building needed to have a capacity of around 450 people, and provide a themed experience to keep guests entertained on the lead up to the ride. The driveway also provided crane and forklift access to other areas of the park, so the queue building couldn’t interfere with this. We came up with a solution that allowed queuing for approx 460 people, with 3.5m x 4m crane access through the building, and forklift access past one side.
Another version of the plan showing the flow of guests through the building and onto the ride. Upon entering guests find themselves in a large open room, with audio visual effects creating the illusion of a haunted saw mill. As they progress through the queue they are led through a series of small corridors, with themed displays and more audio to build the story of the haunted mill.
Elevation of the main entrance
West elevation of the queue building. The large saw blade rotates. The small blade sits directly above the ride car during boarding. The roof of the building was designed to appear to be collapsing. The rest of the frame is straight, but the wooden cladding has been applied haphazardly to create the illusion that the building is about to collapse.
South elevation showing the entrance to the queue.
Interior section showing the main queue area. The blue sections are screens. The screens display 3D animations of doors opening and closing, with a ghostly figure and strange lights in the background. Occasionally one of the doors catches fire and burns away.
Interior section showing the entrance, and the ladder to the loft. At the top of the ladder is a door leading to a black room beyond. Strange noises and whispering can be heard. The sound of a buzzsaw starting up fires randomly to keep the guests on edge.
Concept for the saw bench inside the queue building.
Theming for inside the queue building. Newspaper articles hint at the back story to the building, and why it is haunted. Photographs all show a strange figure in the background.
