Overview

'All the thrills, spills and tragedy behind that iconic grin, brought to life by a masterful storyteller.' Wendy Harmer 'A rollercoaster ride through some of Sydney's brightest and darkest stories. A compelling tale, vividly told, and history every Sydneysider should know.' Richard Glover For decades, the young and the young at heart have loved the Luna Park face and its promise of laughs and thrills - and a whiff of danger. Helen Pitt has uncovered Australia's intriguing Luna Park story. It's filled with con men and criminals, crooked cops, failed politicians and movie moguls. Like the circuses, from which amusement parks evolved, this is a tale with elephants, performing snakes and many ringmasters. The story starts in late 19th-century America, and follows the eight fun parks that opened-and closed-across Australia. The most famous of them all, Sydney's Luna Park, has a history that's truly a roller-coaster ride like its trademark Big Dipper, which was shipped piece by piece from South Australia for its 1935 opening. From the engineering feats of its construction in the dark days of the Depression to the tragic deaths of six boys and a father in the 1979 Ghost Train fire - one of Sydney's most heartbreaking unsolved mysteries - and despite financial disasters, legal battles and closures, Luna Park survives, glittering by the water. 'A hugely enjoyable rollercoaster of a book' Delia Falconer 'An irresistible ride from start to finish' Heather Rose 'A compelling page-turner that will make you look at that beaming grin across Sydney Harbour with fresh eyes' Kate Mulvany 'A timely reminder of how lucky we are to still have an amusement park with one of the best locations in the world' Sam Marshall 'Pitt writes with a contagious enthusiasm, and her meticulous research, beginning with her own eighth birthday party adventure in the River Caves, unearths wonderful anecdotes and tantalising trivia.' Sydney Morning Herald

Full Product Details

Author:   Helen Pitt
Publisher:   Allen & Unwin
Imprint:   Allen & Unwin
Weight:   0.438kg
ISBN:  

9781761065118

ISBN 10:   1761065114
Pages:   352
Publication Date:   03 March 2026
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Table of Contents

Preface: The light and dark of Luna Park 1 The Mungana moors 2 Give 'em the ol' razzle dazzle 3 Luna's Coney Island legacy 4 All the way from America 5 Alice in Wonderland 6 From St Kilda to Hollywood's silver screen 7 Lightning strikes, snake bites and wild surfs 8 South Australian seaside start 9 The Laurel and Hardy team 10 Opening day to heyday 11 Wirth it 12 Soldiers, sailors, prostitutes and princes 13 The mystery of the missing teeth 14 Lights, camera, action: Art in the Park 15 The Spatt/Fink/Wran spat 16 The Ghost Train fire 17 The inferno's aftermath 18 Friends of Luna Park 19 In the shadow of Abe Saffron 20 The Big Dipper decibel debacle 21 But wait, there's more . . . 22 Strike Force Sedgeman 23 Surviving in the streaming and selfie era 24 How to go on? Acknowledgements Notes

Reviews

Author Information

Helen Pitt is an award-winning journalist and author. Her first book, The House: The dramatic story of the Sydney Opera House and the people who made it, won the 2018 Walkley Book Award. She has over four decades of experience in the media, reporting from three different continents (Australia, Europe and the United States). She has worked as the Sydney Morning Herald's opinion editor, Spectrum deputy editor and as a staff news and feature writer there, and at The Bulletin, HQ magazine and New York Times Digital. This is her second book.

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