Helen Pitt

Once they moved all the rides and unloaded them at that very same wharf that had been the place where all the activity had taken place for the Harbour Bridge, all the workers came and Depression Era lined up.

And, you know, it's quite remarkable that...

Given it's one of the three icons of Sydney, the Harbour Bridge was built in eight years.

The Sydney Opera House was built in 16 years.

This took three months, 12 weeks of nonstop work.

And there you go.

It remains glittering by the ocean now.

It's quite hard to believe.

Was it an instant hit, Luna Park?

Instant hit, yes.

People were there that night and then all the local kids were let in for free the next day.

And I interviewed one of them, Patty Harbert-Blesser, who died the same month that Luna Park celebrated its 90th.

But again, like us both, it was a standout memory of her childhood.

She just loved every minute of it.

What did she remember off that?

Oh, she could remember the rides, running through with her brother, holding his hand, being given the tickets and just the sheer joy because this is a kid of the Depression.

She'd never had anything like it.

And she also particularly remembered the box of airplane jelly she got given as a freebie.

It never made it home.

It was meant to go home to the families.