Atlantis Marine Park

Atlantis featured live marine animal shows, a water park with pools and water slides, a pedalo ride, a sea serpent-themed roller coaster and three restaurants. Along with its dolphin shows, the park also featured performing seals and sealions, a penguin exhibit, and an aquarium with turtles, rays and sharks on display.^[8] Live performances included those inspired by the Wild West, The Three Musketeers and Ancient Rome.^[7]

A 10-metre high limestone sculpture of King Neptune by American sculptor Mark Le Buse overlooked the park. Le Buse also contributed other sculptures, including a disembodied head of Jacques Cousteau.^[8] The park also featured a clock with the hours marked by limestone sculptures of celebrity heads, which included Prince Charles and Princess Diana, Charlie Chaplin, The Beatles, Elvis Presley and John Wayne.^[7]

Prior to the park's opening, seven bottlenose dolphins were caught from the local coastal population and were used as performance animals for the next ten years. In 1988, three female dolphin calves were born. At the time Atlantis closed in 1990, the park had nine dolphins, six wild born, and the three captive born juveniles.^[9][10]

With the closure of the park, owners Tokyu Corporation agreed to a proposal by Nick Gales, a marine park veterinarian and research scientist to fully fund the release of the animals to the wild, provided it would end their financial commitment to the dolphins. The project to release the animals into the wild began in March 1991; the rehabilitation program began in the park pools and eventually moved to a sea pen at the Two Rocks Marina in October 1991. The dolphins were fully released into the wild in January 1992.^[9]

The initial release encountered problems, with some of the dolphins losing a lot of weight. Three of them were recaptured and returned to the sea pen. The three recaptured dolphins were not re-released to the wild, but were relocated to Underwater World, now the Aquarium of Western Australia.^[9]

After its closure in 1990 the park was abandoned and vandalised,^[11] though the site was featured in the CBBC programme All Over the Place – Australia in March 2014.

The King Neptune statue remains a major landmark in the suburb and is often factored in any future redevelopment plans.^[11] The sculpture, which had sat abandoned and fenced off since the park's closure in 1990, was heritage listed by the Heritage Council of Western Australia in 2006,^[12] before being restored and the surrounding area reopened to the public in May 2015.^[13]

In January 2023, the Sun City precinct, which encompasses the former site of Atlantis Marine Park and the King Neptune sculpture, as well as Two Rocks Marina and shopping centre, was added to the State Register of Heritage Places in recognition of Sun City's place as the state's first private residential, commercial and recreational investment project.^[14]

As of 2026, much of the former site of the park has been cleared and slated for redevelopment. It is currently owned by property developers the Fini Group, which put forward plans to the City of Wanneroo to develop the area into a mix of retail, commercial and entertainment land uses.^[11] In late 2025, construction of a new shopping centre called "Two Rocks Village" on the site commenced with an intended completion date in mid-2026; the development had faced widespread opposition from the community due to the heritage value of the site.^[15]

Media related to Atlantis Marine Park at Wikimedia Commons