Embark on an immersive experience at the relaunched Melbourne Skydeck
It’s Melbourne, on another level.
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Picture yourself slowly ratcheting up Luna Park’s Great Scenic Railway, a rollercoaster that has been making fun-lovers scream with delight since 1912. You reach the top, round a corner, plummet down at speed and… suddenly you’re in the midst of a rowdy crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, cheering for an Australian Football League (AFL) team as it runs onto the grass. These Melbourne icons, and many more, are what you will experience as you sit in a futuristic chair at the Melbourne Skydeck Voyager Theatre, experiencing the city and its surrounds via a multi-sensory virtual-reality trip through its highlights.
Once seated in the egg-shaped chair with VR headset and headphones in place, you’re on an 11-minute ride that knows no bounds – hovering high above the Melbourne CBD, joining a rower on the Yarra River, flying over vineyards, watching penguins waddle past, and walking through an art-decorated laneway as a coffee vendor fires up his espresso machine. It’s a marvellous introduction to the Victorian capital, which you will soon see for real from the lofty vantage point of the Eureka Tower’s 88th floor. And it’s not the only such curtain-raiser for that godlike view over the city. Next to the theatre at ground level is an impressive scale model of central Melbourne, created by a 3D printer over several months as a precise 1:1100 scale model of the city’s buildings and streetscapes. Adding context is a series of screens mounted around the model’s edge, presenting different perspectives and running video simulations of what the landscape looked like from the pre-colonial era to the present day.
As you take the fast lift to the 88th floor, it’s time to see this view in 1:1 scale from Melbourne Skydeck’s observation area. This is the tallest public observation deck in the Southern Hemisphere and so naturally it provides a marvellous view. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, you can see distant landmarks in every direction: Mount Dandenong in the east, Mount Macedon to the northwest, and the broad waters of Port Phillip Bay to the south. Directly beneath your feet is the dynamic cityscape previewed by the 3D model and the Voyager Theatre – the intricate latticework of the Melbourne CBD, a complex creation of tall buildings, heritage structures, parkland and the ever-popular laneways pulsing with culture.
There are other attractions at this level – The Edge, a glass box which pushes out from the building to suspend thrill-seekers high above the ground; and the VR Plank Experience, which has you soaring above the city’s rooftops on a virtual zipline. You can also have fun with the Melbourne Skydeck app, which allows you to ‘capture’ animated virtual replicas of Melbourne landmarks and place them wherever you like in the real world.
However, there’s also one of the world’s highest bars, Bar 88, with stylish interiors to match the views on the show, as well as a range of drinks (including Bollinger) and tasty light meals. Order a coffee, a glass of champagne or a carefully curated cocktail and sit on a bench right against the window or take a stroll around. The view is a pure elevated delight. It’s Melbourne, on another level.
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