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Young lovers caught out on Melbourne's wheel

by adrock2xander | January 12, 2009 at 01:34 pm

1256 views | 10 Recommendations | 3 comments

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Focus On Melbourne _ Waterfront City Opening Spectacular

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uploaded by patrik nemes

Well, no surprises there! Where else to take your fornicating activities but a gravity-defying, enclosed and air-conditioned romp!

However I can't see many people willing to shell out, if I remember correctly, $29 for 30 minutes of 'air' time. Them public relations practitioners must have had their work cut out - sure the young couple gave them an unexpected form of publicity, but with these gloomy times few would pay that much just to have a view of, well not much really. The Docklands area doesn't have anything terribly scenic or iconic that screams "HEY LOOK HERE!"

Oh well, at least that couple had their 'customer satisfaction'. Good on them.

When Britain's giant wheel, the London Eye, opened in January 2000 it took until July before the first couple — a pair of 17-year-olds — was caught in the act, sparking tabloid headlines such as "Mile Eye Club".

The Eye's operators immediately banned couples from taking trips on their own, but Mr Maybury has ruled out such a ban on the Southern Star.

"There are definitely no plans to stop couples from enjoying flights together at this stage," he said.

In fact, the wheel's operators are unlikely to turn anyone away, with visitor numbers already well below anticipated levels.

Projections by the wheel's owners that 1.5 million people will pay to take a "flight" on the wheel each year now seem ambitious according to one worker. "We're not as busy as we hoped we'd be," she said.

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LotusFlower

at 23:42 on January 12th, 2009

I like the story - thanks! Maybe your commentary would get more reading if placed ahead of the extract? Where it is now some might just read the highlighted bit and click or not to the original before getting to your piece.

alv168

at 06:45 on January 13th, 2009

The Southern Star is an observation wheel in the Waterfront City precinct at Melbourne Docklands in Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. It is the only permanent observation wheel in the Southern Hemisphere and is 120 m (390 ft) high, the equivalent of a forty storey building.

alv168 has contributed a photo to this story.