In a long-abandoned wildlife park in South Australia, there is a huge reservoir filled with cloudy green material. This liquid is called formaldehyde and high doses are said to cause cancer. But that’s not what drives the internet crazy. On the contrary, it turns out that what is lurking in formaldehyde is very attractive.
Once upon a time there was a gigantic Earth Museum in Melbourne, Australia, which attracted thousands of visitors every year. However, in 2012, the animal park was closed for good. Although nearly all of the lookout’s residents were eventually restored and resettled, a disturbing cultural relic remains. Six years later, only YouTuber has discovered the last remains of the park …
Wildlife Wonderland, located near Westernport Bay, originally opened in 1985 by a real estate professional named John Matthews. In addition to the huge worm display, the park also has koala and wombat areas, cafes and restaurants. The exhibits are very popular. In fact, around 350,000 tourists flock to the park every year.
After the park’s success, Matthews tried to sell it. This is what it did, offering a wildlife wonderland to a group of Chinese investors at the turn of the millennium. The plant will change owners again before it is completely closed.
Eventually, the Australian Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) shut down the wildlife wonderland. According to DSE, the owner expelled the park manager and tried to manage it without the necessary permits. As a result, Wildlife Wonderland was forced to close permanently in February 2012.
However, DSE is said to offer many opportunities for operators to obtain the required licenses. In 2012, Department Employee Ryan Incoll told ABC News Australia about the matter, “Our wildlife broker also visited the park to talk to the operator and help get permits. But he wasn’t there and didn’t Get a license.
In addition to these management issues, Wildlife Wonderland has been plagued with allegations of animal abuse by employees in recent years. Therefore, when the park closed, DSE was clearly investigating these reports. At the same time, with the help of the RSPCA, 130 species of animals living on the facility were moved to the Healesville Reserve, a zoo in rural Victoria that specializes in local wildlife.
Today the entire complex is abandoned, although it has not been without tourists since its closure. In fact, creepy images of park rot often circulate online. There are also clear signs that the residents of the residential complex have settled in the wonderland of nature.
Then, in 2018, urban explorer Luke McPherson walked into the park, where he filmed his journey in abandoned rooms and exhibits. In the nearly 29-minute video, it’s obvious how debilitating the tourist attraction was. Indeed, dirt and dust have fallen on almost every inch of the building complex and many places have since become ruins.
The entrance to the building has also become scruffy and the outdoor pond resembles a swamp. In the video, McPherson walks into a building on the property, but only the dilapidated porch keeps them away. There is a sign indicating the wombat’s habitat, which has been dysfunctional for a long time, and the debris is covered in a garbage can surrounded by a damaged fence.
Then, McPherson went on to enter the first room, which was once a nursery for young orphaned wombats according to the asymmetrical notice. However, as fur-like materials continue to cover the ceiling, the surface of the rock is now covered in graffiti and graffiti. While this is an unpleasant sight, it’s easy to imagine the area was once a healthy home for animals.
Then, when McPherson and his associates explored the building, they encountered other relics from the old park. Photos of its (once) residents are still on the compound walls, with information for visitors. The rocks around the fence can be laid by curious children at some point, trying to get a better look at the animals.
However, the buildings that housed the animals aren’t the only part of the park that has fallen into chaos. As McPherson and his friends continued to visit the complex, they encountered a series of rooms that could have contained offices or housing facilities. It is difficult to determine from the shoot, because each room is untidy and messy with the shadows of the past.
Furniture ranging from desks and bookshelves to sofas and wardrobes is also scattered throughout many of these spaces. However, according to McPherson, the current window residents are opossums and appear to be comfortable with the structure. But they may not be unique, as a large number of mattresses are scattered around the abandoned shelter.
Yes, there are signs of some housing residents settling in abandoned parks. Macpherson found an expired food package dated January 2017 in one room and the milk dated April 2016 was marked in the refrigerator in another room. Therefore, although the urban explorers did not encounter anyone who lives in the park during the visit, it appears that people have done so in the past.
But from there things start to get a little more disturbing. In another room, McPherson stumbles upon a pile of discarded baby clothes, as well as a stroller, hairbrush, and toys. A magazine among the piles of items suggests they were left in 2015 – three years after the park closed. Perhaps, then, a family was here.
However, the duo didn’t even discover the strangest thing when they visited the facility. Macpherson and his partner may seem unknown, but they will eventually venture into the only remaining attraction in Wildlife Wonderland. It was this part of the video that subsequently attracted the attention of the global audience.
Due to this incredible discovery, McPherson’s video was widely shared online. Since its first upload, it has received more than 14 million views and tens of thousands of comments. The release of the video will only make people notice the abandoned zoo that was once forgotten.
In these comments, there were a lot of shocking reactions, a number that surprised what McPherson and his friends ultimately discovered. In other words, the rest of the video also brought some surprise to the audience.
But while most of the abandoned attractions are at least a little creepy, there are still some particularly sinister things waiting for invading filmmakers. In fact, when the two set foot on the property for the first time, they couldn’t have expected to encounter one of nature’s largest predators. But that’s exactly what they found when they entered the room.
In the video, as the camera moves, the marks we see on the wall are “mouth full of teeth” and “Philip Island Giant”. Then Macpherson raised his head and shouted, “What the hell? Can you see him?” Yes, there is a great white shark floating in a large bucket of green liquid. Although this beast is not alive, it is very impressive. The eerie silhouette is still enough to drive fear into anyone’s heart.
After seeing McPherson’s video on YouTube, Don Kransky went to the abandoned wildlife park to see the sharks for himself. Kransky wrote on behalf of the police department in 2019: “At first it was difficult to identify the shark. However, we let our eyes get used to it and its shape emerged and the light was sprayed from a hole in the roof. . Outline it. “.
And, coincidentally, formaldehyde isn’t always green, but it has been converted this way due to damage to the storage tank. A visitor to the center told Phillip Island and the San Remo ad in 2019: “This is a big, cloudy tank because the filter doesn’t work.”
Yes, unfortunately the attraction was badly ruined. Macpherson told Seven Networks in 2019: “The tank is huge and in poor condition, with a rusty metal frame, glass panels and garbage. As a result, it can only stay in the room for about a minute, and then formaldehyde. L noxious smell of smoke becomes too strong.
However, the shark, since then nicknamed Rosie, was not originally intended for tourists. Conversely, the 5-foot tall great white shark was finally kept in a tuna enclosure in 1997 and must be shot down to protect divers working there. In 2019, local historian Eric Kotz told the Port Lincoln Times: “The reason for the killing [Rossi] was that the five divers and several other companies working in the area were in danger.”
Rosie was then stored in a freezer by the Lukin family, who owned the fishing nets in which she was caught. And shortly thereafter, the Seal Rocks Sea Life Center ecotourism complex – now known as the Nobbies Center – expressed interest in purchasing the shark for the exhibit. Eventually, though, the owners decided they didn’t want to get hold of the animal, letting Wildlife Wonderland step in.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, transporting this two-ton creature to Bath is a problem for the zoo owner. This job is a huge logistical commitment, in fact, it requires placing a huge steel frame inside the refrigerated truck. Then, when the shark reached the state line, the South Australian state government stopped the car.
According to Max Bryant, a Wildlife Wonderland employee, Rosie was confiscated due to the ongoing missing persons case. He told advertisers in Phillip Island and San Remo: “A woman went missing on the beach, they thought it might be a shark.” “Then the shark was taken to the South Australian Museum for thawing and dissection. But the woman was not found inside.
However, when Rosie’s investigation was over, she was no longer placed under the ice, but placed in a water tank specially designed for her. Subsequently, she received formaldehyde treatment for several months. During this time, Rosie’s stomach began to warp, which meant it would eventually have to be wrapped in polyester fiber. Therefore, bringing the sharks to the wildlife wonderland cost the park about $ 500,000 in total.
However, when Rosie arrived at the animal park, the action wasn’t over. The owner must first build a new shark room, then remove the roof and use a crane to lay it. The concrete bunker also needs to be installed under the building to account for formaldehyde spill, and the storage tank itself needs continuous filtration and monitoring.
However, all the time, effort and expense to take Rosie to the wildlife wonderland seemed to have paid off right from the start. It can be seen that the park started to exceed the number of repeat visitors and people flocked to visit Rosie. During that time, it was the largest shark ever. And, of course, it became the centerpiece of a complete exhibition of great whites.
Therefore, over the years, Matthews has received many calls asking him to film the shark show. However, since getting Rosie to the park in the first place is a logistical nightmare, moving Rosie back will be “hard work,” as advertisers in Phillip Island and San Remo told. Matthews added: “It’s a vibrant attraction, so I shudder every time I walk in.” “Haven’t been there since I sold it.”
However, not all of them are far away yet. In fact, after Macpherson’s video was released, people are said to have started browsing the site frequently. Although the local police issued warnings asking them to stay away from their homes or to be illegally charged, vandals entered the property and tried to destroy Rosie’s tank. Although the intruders didn’t break the three-inch glass, they were enough to break the three-inch glass to release some dangerous carcinogens inside.
Although formaldehyde is usually present in the air we breathe, its content is extremely low. Therefore, this is not a real danger to anyone except people who are already more prone to breathing difficulties. However, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, high levels of formaldehyde exposure are associated with lung and oral cancer.
Also, contact with this substance can cause conditions such as pneumonia and dermatitis. In closed or poorly ventilated environments it can also be killed by suffocation. However, with all of this in mind, EPA spokesperson Victoria told news.com.au in 2019 that she was “aware of the sharks and water tanks and didn’t think it was dangerous.”
At the same time, as rumors about Rosie began to spread, activists created a Facebook page called “Save the Rosie the Shark”. The trick seems to work. According to reports, in February 2019, the owner of Wildlife Wonderland organized the transportation of the animals to Crystal World, a nearby center that houses the world’s largest collection of crystals, gems and minerals.
After extensive repairs to its damaged tank, Crystal World has now added Rosie to its prehistoric travel exhibit center. The move was initiated after Sharon Williamson, a Crystal World employee, discovered the ferocious creature on her Facebook page. Soon after, she started a campaign to save sharks for her boss in the workplace.
Williamson told the Herald Sun in 2019: “Otherwise, Rosie will end up in a landfill. According to” Crystal World “director Tom Capitani Secondo (Tom Kapitany) Rosie’s condition was unexpected, especially considering the fact that she was abandoned for In addition, the center has been trying to preserve shark glycerin for centuries.
“I told my employees, ‘Save her. I don’t care how much it costs, save her,” Captains told the Port Lincoln Times. “I can’t see such a beautiful animal, dead or alive, without being destroyed.” Therefore, according to founder Trent Hooper, the Facebook page appears to be working. In 2019 he told the Daily Mail: “This is an extraordinary achievement. Australia has mobilized to save Rosie and bring her home to Crystal World forever.”
At the same time, for Captains, saving the great white shark means preserving its past. Including vandalism to damage his tank in the wildlife wonderland, these damages will remain unchanged. Therefore, after struggling for many years in an abandoned park, Rosie will eventually be exhibited again without tourists having to pay anything. All funds raised from the sale of the goods will be donated to the protection and research of the shark, which is a continuation of the incredible story of the creature.