12:00a.m. 29th December 2007

| By Jane Gardner

An artist's impression of the planned Adventura water fun park in Caloundra.

After four years of battling bureaucracy, it looks as if Caloundra will get its long-awaited water fun park just in time for summer 2009.

Adventura representative Damian Brown is confident a revised development application for the $110 million “Wet ’n‘ Wild” style water park on 20ha of disused cane land on Caloundra Road will pass council with flying colours.

Previously Adventura has encountered stop signs from the state government and Caloundra Council because original plans included 800 caravan and camping sites that were prohibited under the South-East Queensland Regional Plan.

If all goes well, construction will start in mid-2008 and the park, complete with state-of-the-art thrill slides, pools, chill out areas and kids’ facilities, will open in September 2009.

It will be the fourth in Australia and the second biggest next to Wet ’n‘ Wild on the Gold Coast.

“We expect the first year attendance will be at 450,000,” Mr Brown said.

“That compares with Wet ’n‘ Wild have one million, but White Water World (at Dreamworld) is much smaller. Our park will be more spread out.

“Of course, these things grow over time and we have 20ha to allow for that.”

New data from Tourism Queensland shows 3.4 million overnight tourists visit the Coast each year and 4.8 million day trippers – a rise of 24% from 2006.

And with the Kawana Way upgrade to align directly next to the park in 2008 – the timing is perfect to capture the Mooloolaba market.

However, the test will be whether the new amalgamated council will pass the application.

“We are confident, but these things are never certain and of course there might be glitches that we’re not aware of yet,” Mr Brown said.

The construction of the park will create 225 full-time jobs.

Tickets will cost less than $40 for an adult and the development application has allowed for overnight accommodation for 50 to 80 visitors.