Good afternoon everyone I trust you have been safe and well, I've been really enjoying the posts everyone has been sharing and the group has been picking up greatly. I've also been picking up on the engagement and upvotes. Apologies if I get to you a little late my time zone in Australia often leaves me a little behind.
I wanted to share with you a beautiful piece of engineering here in Australia just a short drive from my home. It makes for the perfect romantic day trip and it was so good we had to attend twice! So for today's post I have day and night pictures of the beautiful view. Unfortunately the day shots were a little cloudy and rainy and I've been meaning to head back but lockdown means the Melbourne Star is temporarily closed.
Previously known as the Southern Star and now known as the Melbourne Star is the southern hemispheres largest observation wheel located in docklands Melbourne which is a waterfront city location on the western section on Melbourne CBD.
It is the only observation wheel of its kind in the southern hemisphere towering at 394 feet or 120 meters tall. In comparison the London Eye is only 49 feet (15 meters) shorter.
The view from the peak down is quite something to Marvel and it's really amazing at the amount of engineering that went into this project. Everything from its placement to its design has purpose and meaning.
The central spokes of the Melbourne Star are made up of seven points. The seven points represent the seven pointed Star of the Australian flag. The seven points on the Australian flag represent the 6 original Australian states with the seventh representing its territories and other small islands.
It is known as the Commonwealth Star and is the Australian crest or coat of arms. The Commonwealth Star is also referred to as the federation Star acknowledging Australia's federation in 1901. Yet widespread debate and conflict emerges between pro English and pro independent groups. It is quite often referred to as either and can be accepted as such.
The red, blue and white colours used throughout the Melbourne Star are all the colours that make up the Australian flag. Without drawing to conclusions its probably acceptable to perceive its designer and founder as a conservative of previous Australia. Australia is split into a few categories. But the interesting part of this project is that it was led by an international developer and designers.
The project was led by ING Real Estate a Dutch financial banking corporation who brought in Hansen Yuncken an Australian construction company founded in 1918 as consultants. Hansen Yuncken specialise in sustainable architecture and built the world's first 6 Star Green Building. But we'll cover that in a future post.
The Melbourne Star was designed and built by the Japanese ride builder Sanoyas Holdings Corporation with steel being provided by Alfasi Steel Constructions.
Unfortunately this is where things become to get a little fractured with the Melbourne Star. Construction commenced in 2006 with the cabins constructed and assembled in Osaka, Japan then shipped to Australia.
It took two years to complete construction with the Melbourne Star officially opening on 20 December 2008 and behind schedule at a cost of $AUD100 million.
Shortly after opening it was shit down by worksafe after cracks were identified. Each crack was over 3 meters long and in one section an entire node was torn off its weld. Due to the imminent danger of collapse the wheel was closed indefinitely without a plan to repair it.
Disputes erupted and the company blamed Australia's weather and recent heat wave for causing the damage.
Engineers were called in to investigate and a total of 14 cracks were identified and their cause. Engineering design. As such Sanoyas conducted another review and identified that it was their engineering design at fault and under their warranty agreed to repair and reconstruct much of the ride.
The original wheel steel was sold as scrap metal and the entire ride needed to be reconstructed here in Australia at a factory in South Dandenong. Further turmoil surrounded the Melbourne Star as contractors stopped work as they claimed that they were not being paid for work.
Work commenced and in 2011 while engineers and contractors started rejoining the Melbourne Star the wheel broke free from its restraints and started free spinning in the high weather conditions at the time resulting in one injury of a contractor.
People began thinking the wheel was cursed.
In 2012 with much of the project ready to be walked away from Arup the international experts team behind the London Eye were called upon to support the project and complete it.
Due to all the issues the name changed from Souther Star to Melbourne Star in the hopes of shaking off bad spirits whom seemed to plague the project.
At this stage many had given up hope on the Melbourne Star ever opening and all hope was lost from the community who had been waiting since 2006 for an international tourist destination and a viewing platform that Melbourne needed.
ING Real Estate refused to provide an opening date and at one point made a public comment that the wheel would not open unless Melbourne had 3 months of no wind, no rain, no heat. For people in Melbourne we knew this was an impossible ask.
But in October 2013 job offers began being listed for staff to work at the Melbourne Star sending the community in a buz.
On 6 December 2013 it was announced that the ride would be reopening on the 23 December with T.V advertisements commencing on the 15 December. It had taken the company 5 years to repair and rebuild the Melbourne Star and a name change seemed to be able to shake off the bad spirits.
It wasn't clear sailing as on the 28 December issues arose with cracked cabin windows originally stated as bird strikes. However, two families were left traumatised as the cabins they were in began to tilt as the wheel began to rotate. One cabin becoming stuck. As these cabins rotate with the wheel the family most likely would have been thrown around the cabin.
A few weeks later in January the ride was closed again as it appeared much of the issues was due to software as reported by the company.
The ride reopened the next day and has been in operation ever since without hinder or issues. Until the Pandemic hit and the ride is no longer accessible to tourists or locals alike.
Despite all the issues experienced with the Melbourne Star my partner and I really enjoyed the romantic ride that gave us absolutely breath taking views of Melbourne and across the bay including Melbourne's West, our home.
If you're ever in Melbourne, be sure to check out the Melbourne Star and don't be put off by past history.
Have a lovely end of the week!
