Melbourne Eye - a waste of time and money?

[brightsky]

Is it just me, or did the government spend thousands of dollars building the Melbourne Eye in effort to imitate both the looks and the economic benefits of the London Eye, but took the whole thing down just a few months in?

[*ryan777*]

its not just you, i agree
this is all a big waste of money, they could have at least build it in a better position
i doubt the economics benefits of it would be that great anyway,
im,o the melb eye doesnt attract ppl to that area, the  nearby shopping centre/costco etc would

[brightsky]

its not just you, i agree
this is all a big waste of money, they could have at least build it in a better position
i doubt the economics benefits of it would be that great anyway,
im,o the melb eye doesnt attract ppl to that area, the  nearby shopping centre/costco etc would

+1

The shopping centre's amazingingly contemporary and costco brings a fresh, new American touch to the area!

[*ryan777*]

i do think that if the docklands area wants to do well commercially there needs to be more residential development in the inner west area of the city
at the moment it all just seems too isolated from the rest of the city

[brightsky]

Yeah but considering its a very newly developed area of the city, it's doing quite well, excluding certain fruitless/meaningless/absurd/plain dumb attempts at boosting the district's economy.

But definitely agree that the inner west area of Melbourne should be developed more. But then again, isolation is not always a bad thing, considering the whole "city" of Docklands is a futuristic black sheep, if you like, adjacent to the partially weathering CBD.

[jay1993]

I went on it, and gee talk about an anti-climax! Sure it was pretty damn big, but the location was pre crap coz the view of Melbourne wasnt great from there.
It came down because of that heatwave. It just buckled under the heat. They didnt really have a choice, but they didnt want to waste even more money on the Eye (or Southern Star, as they called it).
 BTW isnt it great that COSTCO came in? Australian supermarkets, imo, (Coles and Safeway) are generally over-priced, and Costco just adds to the competition.

[*ryan777*]

I went on it, and gee talk about an anti-climax! Sure it was pretty damn big, but the location was pre crap coz the view of Melbourne wasnt great from there.
It came down because of that heatwave. It just buckled under the heat. They didnt really have a choice, but they didnt want to waste even more money on the Eye (or Southern Star, as they called it).
 BTW isnt it great that COSTCO came in? Australian supermarkets, imo, (Coles and Safeway) are generally over-priced, and Costco just adds to the competition.

+1
i noticed within weeks of costco opening here in melb that coles/safeway lowered many of its prices just enough to remain competitive
for australia, which has one of the highest inflation rates among OECD countries this is a welcome change

[ZachCharge]

I went on it awhile back. The view was ehish (the train depo or whatever nearby really ruined it imo). However, my view was limited by my autistic little bro who after made several attempts at saying words to convince me to take him on the thing, suddenly gained a fear of heights and as of such stayed seated holding on to my arm while I tried to take pictures. The ride was slow, the view wasn't that inspiring and the price to get on it was too much.

I agree, it doesn't seem worth the money they spent building the damn broken thing.

[Eriny]

Isn't it called the Southern Star? And yes, it is a waste of money. But, sometimes you gotta appease the tourists.

[Trent]

It is a Labor government, wasting money is a prerequisite. The Victorian government can't get anything right.

[*ryan777*]

It is a Labor government, wasting money is a prerequisite. The Victorian government can't get anything right.

+1