An uplifting opportunity to own the home of a legendary downhill slide has just hit the market an hour north of Newcastle.
Toboggan Hill Park in Nelson Bay is for sale on realcommercial.com.au and is best known for its thrilling 1km toboggan track. It’s a rare chance for adventurous investors to secure a family favourite.
Since opening on Boxing Day 1987, the amusement park has been a fixture on the Port Stephens tourism map. Its signature attraction, the Wiegand toboggan run, is a winding ride packed with 11 downhill twists and turns.
The toboggan ride boasts 11 exciting twists and turns. Picture: realcommercial.com.au
The German manufacturer of the stainless steel slides provides adrenaline-inducing rides throughout Australia’s most popular theme parks, including The Big Banana, Magic Mountain in Merimbula and Thredbo Resort.
Beyond its token toboggan, the park has evolved into a multi-attraction tourism destination offering everything from mini golf and a grand wooden maze to indoor rock climbing, 10-pin bowling, bungee trampolining, roller skating and a tractor train ride.
For close to four decades, the founding Caldwell family has run the venue, but now Toboggan Hill Park is selling via an expressions of interest campaign closing on May 6 with JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group.
The manufacturer of the track also produced the iconic one in Thredbo. Picture: realcommercial.com.au
Greg Jeloudev, senior vice president at JLL, said opportunities of this calibre are rare.
“Toboggan Hill Park benefits from a stable base of gate-driven income, complemented by ancillary revenue streams, while also offering significant scope to expand and diversify the experience,” he said.
“With an asset like this, just look at the actual product offering; it’s $15 an adult ticket and $12 for four to seven years old. It’s very reasonably priced for a day of fun out with the family.
“You go to the cinema and you’d spend a lot more than that, plus you’re outdoors and the kids are off the screens.”
The 16.1ha site at 16 Aquatic Close combines 2.6ha of freehold land coupled with a substantial 13.5ha Crown lease.
“We only launched the campaign on Wednesday, so it’s early days, but we’ve got private individuals – husband and wife teams – interested who have owned various businesses, and we’ve also got large entertainment groups looking at it as well,” Mr Jeloudey said.
Mr Jeloudev added that given the asset’s unique offering, there are no comparable prices or an official guide.
“All I can say is that it’s a high-yielding opportunity. We’re simply showing interested parties what they can buy in terms of land and business revenue. It’s got a great profit margin, but we can’t disclose any figures publicly as it’s a going concern,” he said.
Bowling and rock climbing are some of the other attractions. Picture: realcommercial.com.au
The next custodians of the site will be able to ride the next growth phase at Toboggan Hill Park with a development approval already in place for a new alpine coaster attraction by Wiegand, which is expected to significantly boost visitation and earnings.
Nelson Bay, 60kms north of Newcastle taps into the broader Port Stephens tourism economy, which attracts around 1.72 million visitors each year, according to Destination Port Stephens. In the 2024 calendar year, visitors reportedly spent $822 million in the region.
Theme of the times
Toboggan Park Hill joins a long list of tourism sites that have come to market in recent years, from small holiday parks to mammoth household names.
Just this week, another Port Stephens vacation spot was listed with the Big-4 Bays Holiday Park in Anna Bay for sale through HTL Property.
The 4.05ha site two and a half hours north of Sydney has 115 sites, a swimming pool, jumping pillow, outdoor bowling, basketball courts, a children’s playground, camp kitchen, barbecues and an amenities block with a laundry.
There are also proposed plans for an additional 18 sites, including long and short-term places. The expressions of interest campaign closes on 29 April.
The Big 4 holiday park at Port Stephens is also for sale. Picture: realcommercial.com.au
By far the largest and most iconic, Sydney’s landmark Luna Park changed hands in 2024 after a high-profile international sales campaign. The deal meant that the harbourside fun house and all its trimmings was back in Aussie hands for the first time in two decades.
Up the coast in Wauchope, Timbertown hit the market in late 2025. The 34.56ha pioneer period “township”, known for its animated characters, its steam train and horse-drawn carriages, was established in the late 1970s as a tribute to the local 1880s to 1910s timber era.
Fantasy Glades in Port Macquarie was listed for sale in 2023. Picture: News Corp
In Port Macquarie, the Fantasy Glades site was listed for sale in 2023 and is yet to find a buyer. The parcel at 5 Parklands Close, which welcomed thousands of visitors through its faux castle gates between 1968 and its closure in 2002, appears to no longer be on the market.
Further north on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, Infinity Planet green-lit a $2.6 billion, 68ha “mega” theme park and integrated entertainment city due in 2030.
Infinity Planet would generate thousands of jobs for Queensland. Picture: Supplied
The bold tourism venture that promises to “bring the world to Australia, and Australia to the world” will feature a futuristic theme park, 2,943 hotel rooms, a 10,000-seat city hall and a cultural shopping mall showcasing unique products from 50 different countries.
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