There are a number of statues still scattered throughout the park. Many of these (including the Neptune Statue) were made by a man named Marc Le Buse (deceased).
I dubbed the above statue the "Charlie Chaplin statue" for no particular reason. I have no idea who or what it was originally meant to be. Update: Yes it is Charlie, this statue was part of the large clock.
I received an email from Darren who informs me that Marc Le Buse was a Canadian, and that there used to be a large carved clock near the Neptune statue which had celebrities for the numbers. Darren wrote in his message:
The limestone carvings were all done by a local Canadian-born man called Marc Le Buse. He used to live next door to my Aunt. A wonderful man who sadly passed away quite a few years ago.
The story he used to love telling us was that he played the "shark" in the Elvis movie Blue Hawaii. He said it was him in a scuba outfit with a fake shark attached to the back. Whether this was true or just an old tale we will never know.
There used to be a huge clock up near the Neptune statue where Marc used sculptures of celebrities for each hour. From memory Prince Charles & Lady (Princess) Diana were used as number 12. Other sculptures used in this clock were of Jaques Cousteau, Rolf Harris, Harry Butler, Charlie Chaplin.
Having looked back over some of the photos that I took, one of the photos is of a plaque near the shopping centre statues which clearly says "the statues were made by Marc Le Buse" (actually, the plaque is written in all capitals which is why I didn't make the connection before this).
I did find one other statue, hidden in a corner of the park which although it is inside the park grounds, it does not look like it belongs there:
It seems to be more Balinese in nature and seems to be carved in a different style than the other statues. It has been there for some time and is not as well known as the others as it is hidden behind a group of trees. As you can see from the background, it is right next to some of the shops next to the park.
Another Update! I received an email from Angela who has some photos from when the park was open. The one below is of the clock mentioned above featuring Charles and Diana and Charlie Chaplin:
This proves my earlier assumption above that the headless statue was Charlie Chaplin. I'm not sure if the statue's current location is the orignal location, in which case there is a valley now where the clock used to be. Or, there was an attempt to move it, it was dropped (and lost its head) and was plonked down in its new location. I did not see the head anywhere when I was there.
You can see more of Angela Harrison's photos of when the park was open on this Flickr page.
There are many paths still intact. Many of them (now) start nowhere and end nowhere, but if you look at an aerial photo (2Mb image) you can probably work out where some of the pools were and some of the general layout. The photo linked to there is a large overview of the site where I've marked where some of the things are. If you plan on heading up there, take sturdy shoes and a mobile.
Interestingly, there are still many wooden structures around, though mainly the smaller ones. There were at least two bridges that I found which don't cross anything, at least not anymore.
Presumably there was a small water course or other feature there originally.
Lyndsey emailed me to say that the bridges used to be over a water course where patrons could paddle canoes around. As there was nothing there to indicate either way, the logical assumption is that they were moved to an out of the way spot while the water course was filled in, then forgotten.
I did find one of the old "jetties" for lack of a better term where the visitors who hired the small ride-on boats would launch and land.
Actually, looking at some of the old photos and looking at what is there now, it seems that the main pool has either gotten bigger or has been removed.
You can see the cement edging that ringed the edge of the pool. Click the bottom photo for larger image.
Update: Comparing these photos with information that has been sent to me after this article was originally written, I think that the lower photo shows the edging around the Pedal Cat rides (Area 15 on the pamphlet). It is too big to have been one of the animal tanks, but the pamphlet makes it look smaller. Presumably it is not a scale map.
This photo shows a bit clearer what was where:
It looks like what I thought was the main pool was actually a boat lake with some small boats that visitors could ride on.
I wasn't able to conclusively determine where the main performance pool was. When I went there, I was still going on the assumption that the pools were the same size as some of the pools at places like Sea World on the Gold Coast. Looking now at the old photos, it is clear that I was looking for the wrong thing. Atlantis Marine Park only had a handful of dolphins and a few sea lions. No orcas or other large animals.
Update: Apparantly one of the sealions was named "Popeye" and was used in several promotional posters. One was in a "wanted" theme and the theme changed from year to year. Note that the image above is not "Popeye", it's one of the leopard seals (name unknown). Popeye was apparantly a New Zealand fur seal. (Correction provided by Damion)
Originally written: December 2009
Last updated: May 2011