Luna Park Glenelg lasted four seasons — Adelaide lost it to Sydney

After F.S. Gordon first pitched an amusement park to the Glenelg Town Council in March 1928, showmen David Atkins and Herman Phillips founded Luna Park Glenelg Ltd and built it on the Adelaide foreshore near Colley Reserve. The park opened on 8 October 1930 — domes and minarets, the Big Dipper coaster dominating the skyline — in the middle of the Great Depression.

It never made money. As crowds fell, management asked the council for rent reductions and permission to open the rides on Sundays; the council refused the rent relief and unanimously rejected Sunday opening, while local residents complained the park attracted undesirable types.

In late 1934, with no profit and no relief, the company went into voluntary liquidation. At the auction on 8 April 1935 Atkins and Phillips bought back their own assets, dismantled the rides and shipped them to Milsons Point in Sydney, where they reopened on 4 October 1935 as Luna Park Sydney. Adelaide's amusement park had become Sydney's.