Interview with Margaret Hadfield on Miniland Coonabarabran (15th November, 2023)

During the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, Miniland near Coonabarabran was a popular tourist attraction with its prehistoric theme and fiberglass dinosaurs. Margaret Hadfield, daughter of Miniland creator Peter Zordrager, shared that her parents immigrated from Holland and built up a business in painting and sign writing. Inspired by Disneyland, they created Miniland on Timor Road. The park had coin-operated dinosaurs, a cave with animated cavemen, a museum, and a mural painted by Margaret. After the park closed, the dinosaurs were scattered and the mural was found in poor condition. Margaret has since restored it and it will be returning to Coonabarabran. The park also had a giant spider, a service station with a Flintstones theme, a slippery slide, a lake with an island, and various other attractions. Margaret mentioned that it would be difficult to recreate Miniland today due to copyright and safety issues. Growing up in the During the 1970s, 80s, and into the 1990s, Miniland on the Timor Road near Coonabarabran was an enchanting tourist attraction with its prehistoric theme, which included semi-animated fiberglass dinosaurs. Now, to find out more, to relive this memory, and I've been chatting to a lot of people, and they all remember Miniland, whether you were a child of the 70s, 80s, or 90s, or you were a parent of those children, you certainly remember it. I'm going to catch up right now with Margaret Hadfield. Margaret is the daughter of Miniland creator, Peter Zordrager, and she joins me on the line. Margaret, good morning. Good morning, Ian. It's fabulous to catch up with you. Miniland, I must say, you and your family gave everybody else's family a lot of enjoyment and, you know, pleasure from Miniland at Coonabarabran. Now, let's set the scene. When, how did it all come about? Your parents, your family came from Holland, didn't they? Yeah, my parents were double Dutch. They... My father was very creative. He was already an artist and a painter. So, yeah, they immigrated in 1951, as most immigrants did, and started with nothing and built up a business of painting and sign writing. But it wasn't enough for him. He wanted to create something interesting. So, hence Miniland. How did you end up in Coonabarabran, though, of all places? There was a difficulty in finding a house for my parents with three children. They... I came along later, by the way, much later. They found a house at Jeroen out of Coonabarabran and it was more about finding a place to stay and then it was to find work. So, there was... They wanted to come to Canberra, actually, but they couldn't find a house. So, it... Yeah, it just sort of venturated that way and eventually, I know, there was a lot of kindness along the way. I know a gentleman did assist in sort of getting them into a block of land and then they built the house in King Street in Coonabarabran and then made the bricks with cement. They're handmade. And they were hard workers. Was your father... You said he was an artist, but I remember back at Miniland, was he, you know, verging on being a bit of an inventor or something or was he just very handy? Ah, yeah, he was just innovative, I suppose. He was certainly very handy. And he... I remember when we still lived in Coonabarabran itself, he started to experiment with the fibreglass materials and playing around with that. So, he got to know the materials. And he was just so inspired by the Disneyland ideal of... You know, obviously, never got to that, but to be able to create something out of nothing and sort of just grow and develop over years. So, it's that sort of... that dream of being really creative from nothing, really. Obviously, being inspired by the whole Disneyland thing, you've got the block out there on the Timor Road. The locals call it Timor. Timor Road, right. Get it right. Wow. So, you got the block out there on the Timor Road, correct? And obviously, you know, Miniland started to evolve. It was fairly simple at the start, but, you know, it grew and grew and grew. The thing I remember most, a lot of people remember, are the three major dinosaurs which were coin-operated. There was a Tyrannosaurus Rex which moved its head, roared. Did they have, like, a taped sound in them, a recorded sound on a tape? Yes, it was a 10-set machine for the Tyrannosaurus Taurus, but it was little tape recorders. It was pretty basic. And my father tried all sorts of things to make dinosaur roars. We all tried things. And a few people in town, in Coonabarabran Electronics people, assisted in that area as well. You've got to remember, this is earlier. When did it actually open? I worked it out. It's 1969. 1969. Yeah, and do you know that they, referring to my parents and my brother, they won the ANTA, Australian National Travel Association Award, for two years in a row. Yes. It was 72 and 73. It was remarkable. And then SeaWorld got it the next year. Wow, there you go. You're in good company there. Look, obviously Miniland at Coonabarabran opening 1969, you predated Old Dubbo Jail here as a tourist attraction. It opened in 74 and Western Plains Zoo in 1977. You were basically our regional tourist attraction, particularly aimed at children. Yeah. It was just fun. And I don't think we just had children. We had lots of older people come through as well. But yeah, families came for the day out. They certainly did. Look, they had, as I said, the T-Rex there at the front. He moved his head and roared with a tape sound. The Triceratops moved its head and growled. And the Brontosaurus inside, the really big one, it growled, moved its head and water sprayed from its mouth, didn't it? And in the early days when it was working, there was a little geyser was bubbling as well, all for 20 cents. It turned its neck, growled, and some water was bubbling. And the Triceratops, his eyes would move. That's right. So who built the dinosaurs? Was it like your father, your brother? How did that happen? There was a combined effort. I think most of the hard work was my very strong brother, John Sawdrager. He put a lot of the labour into it. And my father sort of was there on the periphery as well. And they also involved some of the local people to do the welding, welding parts as well. So yeah, it was cool. What happened to the... Now, obviously, we'll talk about this, but after the park closed, what happened to the dinosaurs? I know the Brontosaurus's frame is still sitting in Coonabarabran, but what about the other two? I'm not quite sure what happened to Tyrannosaurus. I know the Triceratops is down in a pub in Victoria. So the next owner who bought it from us, he took that with him. And yeah, it just sort of scattered. But the Brontosaurus was melted in the big fires in Coonabarabran. So it just has the metal frame standing in Coonabarabran. Also, too, there was the cave with the animated caveman and woman. You had the museum. You had the museum and the mural. Now, this mural, you're an artist. Did you paint the mural? That I did, yes. There was a 180-degree mural of the bread knife in the Warambungles, which it was just an area which just lent itself to a mural. If there's anything that's flat and empty, got nothing on it, I'll paint it. And so I decided, well, my then-husband and myself, we were running the park for seven years. And during that time, I painted the mural. And, yeah, I didn't know what had happened to it over the years. And actually, I was page three girl in the Australasian Post. No, I wasn't. I was in about the page three. So it was, yeah, it got a bit of publicity. And what I found was people came to see the mural, which was really interesting. So that became quite valued. But over the years, I didn't know what happened to it. So I researched and asked a few friends, where is it? What happened to it? And discovered it was in a shed in the Warambungles. I didn't know what to do with it. Oh, it was in a ranger's shed, wasn't it? Yes, it was. And it wasn't in good nick either, was it? No, sadly. And there were white ants in it when, I think, when we'd left. I think they started, or they found white ants there. And so there were quite a few holes in it. And it was in many pieces, and it had bird poo all over it. And it wasn't in a good state. And really, there was only one person who could repair it, and that was me. So I got embarked on that. I'm looking at a photo of it off the internet. It's amazing. It is so lifelike. It is incredible. So anyway, it's been restored. I believe it's coming back locally to Coonabarabran. Yes, there's one half already up there. It's returning. And Crystal Kingdom in Coonabarabran have purchased it off me. And I'm just in the process of setting it up there. So it's really lovely that it's going back and that it's being valued as well. So also there, there's the things like the giant spider. There's the service station at the front with the Flintstones theme. You had the large slippery slide. You had the lake with the island. There was like a hand-operated barge where you pulled the chain, I think. It went across the water there somewhere, didn't it? Yes. There were some really fun things. There was a miniature pirate ship. They had the picnic facilities. You later added cars and a bit of a racetrack, didn't you? Yes, and a Flintstone train. As well. So we added those things, and they were really, really cool. The interesting thing is, you know, the water area where the castle and the pull-along little raft and the boats, you would have to have a lifeguard on there now. Oh, look, it's an interesting point you make because I don't think you'd be able to do many lands these days. A, copyright infringements, OH&S. It'd be a legal minefield, wouldn't it? Yes, it would be very hot. And a few bird bottoms on that slippery deck as well. Because you used to have a wheat bag or something you went down on it on, I remember, to stop the friction. Sometimes they went off one way and you went another way and things like that, and they got very hot. You, I believe, were sort of a teenager by the time Miniland came around, but how did it feel growing up in a theme park? I didn't really... Well, it grew very slowly in my early years. I was still at school and, yeah, it was interesting, to say the least. But what I found, because I was already showing signs of being an artist and painting, that it became a place for me to sell my little artworks. And as a teenager, nothing better than selling your paintings instead of washing cars. Liz, that would have been a real thrill for you to find that people were admiring your artwork and, indeed, purchasing it. Yes, that's right. Tourists would come through. I had this ready. Oh, it just had to do with paint. Now, that would have... I did work in the shop and I loved it. We loved it. Well, the front part there, which was the shop and the entrance there at the service station, that was crafted like a Fred Flintstone house, and, indeed, it had a replica Fred Flintstone's car on the top of it, didn't it? Yeah, how naughty is that? I don't think... Yes, I don't think Hanna-Barbera licensed that somehow. No, nothing to hurt about. Although, actually, that's an interesting story. There was an issue with the name there for a while, wasn't there? Yeah, that happened later on. Miniland had something to do with mini-miners. The name had already been taken. So they objected to you using Miniland. Miniland and Dinoland, I think I can remember TV ads saying that too, yeah. Yeah, so we had to incorporate the Dinoland into it, but everyone knew it as Miniland. So there was an issue then with that name. It's funny you brought that up. As I said, look, you and your family gave a lot of other families heaps of enjoyment and pleasure there. Simple pleasure through Miniland. I mean, even that huge spider that was hanging up in the trees there, that might have scared some people. In fact, I have a memory. I was probably about six or seven, and I know we went there with school excursions and also with our own family, but I can remember younger children crying with the T-Rex out the front, growling at them. When I say older, just say if you're talking about a toddler and you're a six-year-old, you think, oh, that's a little bit amusing from a child's point of view. There were some crying children, that's for sure, but it was all in fun. Oh, yeah, yeah. Hopefully they got over it. Was there a pterodactyl there somewhere in the trees? No, the pterodactyl was on... I actually made it on the front of the train. Oh. So, yeah, just, you know, where a train has its pipe where the supposed smoke comes out. Yes, the stack, yeah. Well, the stack, I put a pterodactyl there. So that was the only pterodactyl. I tell you what, you're bringing back some memories for me. We had a little cafe. Yeah. And I used to sell pterodactyl droppings. Were they biscuits of some sort? No. Oh. They were a Dutch croquette. Oh. They were really healthy. Yeah. So, yeah, there were dino burgers, brontosaurus steak sandwiches and pterodactyl droppings. Oh, my God. Was the whole family involved in it? Yeah. Yeah. Often in holidays, the cousins would come and help. My sister had six children and they'd be around. And, yeah, they... Certainly, you know, my brother was a big part of it. My mum was a big part of it too. And, you know, so it was a family affair. There's no two ways about it. Now, I think it's Halcyon days were the 1970s and the 1980s. So what happened to it? What, you know, what happened there towards, you know, the early 90s? I can't recall the actual year that we sold it. With my then-husband, we lasted seven years. But circumstances were that we had a child with medical problems and a disability. So running backwards and forwards to Sydney to Prince of Wales Hospital, all those sorts of issues, very difficult. And to run a business, we were just not physically or, you know, emotionally equipped to deal with all that. And so we sold it and the Webb family bought it. And then after a few years, the Shea family took it over. They had some sort of arrangement between them, I think. I'm not quite sure of that. My data says that your former husband, Stephen, yourself, you managed the site from 1983 until 1990. Obviously, that followed the passing of your father, Peter Zordrager. Yes, we went there about a year or so after he had died. He died too young, but he, you know, not as much knowledge about heart, you know, blood pressure and heart attacks. But 62, he died, but he was 62 years of age. Yeah. But, yeah, we took it over. Mum tried for a while and just got too hard, could see we had to do something. Yeah. And my then husband was in the police force, gave that up, and we went up to do it. Well, so that was obviously unsold and eventually closed. I know some things were moved or sold, but I guess to the 2013 bushfire, basically that destroyed the remnants of it, didn't it? It didn't completely burn the museum building and some of the structure, like I think the Fred Finstone building was still OK, but the big brontosaurus, I think, just melted from what I hear. And, yeah, it sort of did get rid of everything that was left, probably. But that brontosaurus, the framework of it, is still in Coonabarabran, isn't it? Yeah, I went round the back streets of the industrial area and there he is. The skeleton. Oh, that's unfortunate, isn't it? But do you know what? I can't get over, you know, the number of memories that people would have had of Miniland, you know, the hours of enjoyment there, you know, whether they'd be children or whether then they became parents and took their own children there. It was absolutely fascinating, and that's one of the reasons why I wanted to catch up with you and just go over a little bit of some of the history of it and, you know, some of the lesser-known things, Margaret. I thank you very much for your time this morning on 2DU. No problem at all.