When you think of theme parks in Queensland, you tend to think of the big ones – Movie World, Sea World 
, and Dreamworld. There is also the big water park, Wet’n’Wild . The Sunshine Coast, north of Brisbane, may not have fun parks to the same size but it does have Aussie World . For the water park, it has Thrill Hill Waterslide – operating for over 45 years.
Starting in 1979, Thrill Hill has been a destination for fun, thrills, and spills on the Sunshine Coast for a long time. There are remnants of other features below the water slides but trying to find history about it has resulted in no further information. Do you remember what used to be there? Let us know in a review.
The website says there are two slides totaling 120 metres. The two slides are end-to-end with a wading pool between them, so it is kind of a single slide with an intermission in the middle of it. The first slide has two straights with a tight bend at the end of each straight. The second slide has a third part after the second bend. The second bend on each slide gives the biggest thrill – by this time you have picked up a bit of speed, sending you higher up the side.
The slides are made of concrete, with some raised fibreglass sections on the bends to prevent you from flying off the side. And fly you do! As I started to build confidence and speed down the slide faster, I started leaving the slide’s wall and landing back onto the main part of the concrete slide. Watching other people who are clearly regulars, fly confidently and happily. Myself, I slowed down a little.
When you start off, you are given a mat. It was explained we start off with the slow mat and if we are happy to, we can progress to the fast mat. When you are really ready, you can forgo the mat altogether and that is when you really pick up the speed.
The tickets have an odd system of choosing 50 minutes or 60+ minutes. This can be double to either 100+ minutes or 120+ minutes. We choose the 120+ minutes, which let us use 60 minutes initially, leave Thrill Hill Waterslide where we went to the Woombye Bakery for lunch and a break, then came back for a second 60+ session. There is an all-day option as well, however, the all-day option isn’t available as a family ticket.
There are a couple of shelters you can park yourselves while not sliding, one of them has a fridge and gas barbeques so you can stay and bring your own food if you wish. For family and friends who don’t want to slide, a small entry fee allows all day access without the waterslide use.
Something to note is that the slide is concrete. Yes, I mentioned that before but I’m mentioning it again. It is hard and is felt by the body, especially after heading down the size a half-dozen times or more. The slide isn’t super-smooth so the bumps and lumps will be felt the next day.
The mat is very useful to position well enough so if your head goes back, it hits the mat first. It does hurt if it doesn’t. No one from our group hit their head but there are plenty of reviews where people have hurt themselves were not happy, sometimes angry, about their visit to Trill Hill Waterslides.
We loved going and are happy to go back again, but whenever we recommend someone to go, we always mention this aspect so they can make the decision to go or not. The waterslides can be very tiring, so splitting the 120+ minutes into two separate sessions was a great approach. You may find 60 minutes is enough if you are normally not too physically active. Those walks (runs by the younger ones) back up the hill for another slide takes it out of you.
