Former Walt Disney Imagineer Jim Shull shared the concert art for Disney Wharf, a project designed to be built in Sydney Harbor, Australia that was never fully realized.
According to Shull, Disney Wharf was designed to be a mixed use space. Rather than a theme park, it was to be a retail and entertainment project.
Walt Disney was no stranger to Australia. The animated short Mickey’s Kangaroo (1935) kicked off that connection, with Mickey’s Australian friend exporting a kangaroo. Mickey Down Under (1948), featuring Mickey using a boomerang was another cartoon short where Mickey visited Australia.
Later on, The Rescuers Down Under (1990) and Finding Nemo (2003) were both major animated films set in Australia. Finding Nemo has been a staple of Disney’s Animal Kingdom for years with the stage shows “Finding Nemo: The Musical” and now “Finding Nemo: The Big Blue… and Beyond!” And guests familiar with the music played in the queue for Soarin’ will recognize “Cody’s Flight”, a song from The Rescuers Down Under soundtrack that has become a queue loop staple.
Would you have liked to see this project realized? Let us know in the comments.
For the latest Disney Parks news and info, follow WDW News Today on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Someone should bring this project back to life. It has a lot of potential.
Retail wharfs are difficult to market.
They are usually far from mass transit, and the walking distance can discourage tourists.
Plus there’s the weather, especially on an exposed pier.
Consider South Street Seaport in Manhattan and Navy Pier in Chicago.
You need a lot of weinies to encourage people to explore further, and what would be the Cinderella’s Castle here?
I think they were thinking of White Bay – where the new cars used to come in and be stored before transport elsewhere. The main problem was how tk deal with extensive traffic increases and parking at the site which was already a bottleneck at Anzac bridge. Probably best to have found a different site.