Docklands as a whole could do with a big bulldozing
Sydney and Rio about the two most stunning cities in their natural sea front settings, not a competition between Melbourne and Sydney, different attractions, but Port Philip Bay no match for Sydney Harbour.
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I went on it last year. We were lucky enough to get a clear night. The skyline lights as far as you could see looked amazing. I loved it.
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Coming by train from the station before Southern Cross to Flinders Street, how could those cheek by jowl developments ever got planning permission?
You can’t treat Docklands as a “whole”, it’s 3 completely different locations. The south side is out of the wind, and has no people there, and empty townhouses along the water with empty moorings for superyachts.
The middle has all of those big businesses who got convinced it was a good place to set up a sustainable office, and is empty on the weekend, bit the library is very nice.
The North side has all of those bars on the water facing directly into the prevailing wind, and then the wasteland of Harbour Town.
I think it probably would have eventually sorted itself out to some extent without Covid, but it was a planning disaster. And whoever thought that building a giant football stadium to block the flow from the city was a good idea was an idiot. Southern Cross station should have been built underground, Docklands stadium shouldn’t have been built, and a linking series of parks should have brought the city to the water’s edge…
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Had a business model of funnelling tour bus loads of Asian tourists who didn’t have much choice in the matter. Once the international tourism got shut down by covid, this was a matter of time.
Guarantee that every other business around Australia that is overseas tourism focused has shut down or is about to.
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It never shone very brightly. Rust in Pieces. 
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Send it to Tassie, seems to be the dumping ground of unwanted VIC things
did anyone actually go on it?
Whereas Southbank opened the Yarra and its promenades , lovely northern sun , outdoor dining without Melbourne wind.
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one of my all-time favourite sht banter calls is when an out-of-towner asks “what’s that place” you look confused and say “i have no idea, it wasn’t there last week”
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i know some people who claim they did, but they couldn’t prove it
Co-worker.
Until I went on the Star, I’d only ever seen shipping containers from the side, back and front.
Seeing the top of them, man…
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Sydney’s hard to beat but some high rise views in the CBD are positioned to see the MCG, St Francis Cathedral, the Exhibition building, Carlton Gardens amongst other places. A view that compares favorably with many other cities skyviews.
Brand new tourist attraction that developed structural cracks right after opening, and had to be shut for a longer period of time than initial construction took, to fix it?
Yeah, not going to go on that.
Give me the rickety timber wheel in Vienna any time. (May have only gone on this because a) we stumbled across it by accident, and b) it was in a James Bond movie.)
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to be fair, this was built at the docklands which is butt ugly. coulda built it somewhere nicer.
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Also from the Macedon Ranges, night or day ( barring fog and smoke in the air)
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Mrs B won a Crown voucher a few years ago, so we booked one of the hotels and treated ourselves (and Little Miss B) to a weekend in town, a chance to be tourists in our own city. At the time Little Miss B was 4 or 5, so we took her up to “Christmas In July” promo they had going on at that shopping mall. It’s the only time I’ve ever been there.
Other than the “Christmas” displays. the place was desolate. As many shopfronts unoccupied as were actually operating, and none of them doing anything vaguely approaching a roaring trade. As a surpise to no-one, I seem to recall the wheel was not operating on the day. Man, it was a gloomy place. Other than the possible exception of Costco, I’m not sure anyone would have a reason to go there.
And that was very much pre-COVID. God only knows what it’s like these days…
That whole Docklands area is a ghetto waiting to happen…
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I will put my hand up and say I went on it it. Was about 5 years ago in January, we were in Melbourne for my lads 18th and my 5 year old niece bugged me to go on it with her. She loved it but was very underwhelming (and I’m normally a fan of that kind of thing)