{"id":60855,"date":"2025-08-11T20:51:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T20:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/60855\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T20:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T20:51:11","slug":"full-circle-melbournes-beleaguered-star-ferris-wheel-to-turn-again-victoria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/60855\/","title":{"rendered":"Full circle: Melbourne\u2019s beleaguered Star ferris wheel to turn again | Victoria"},"content":{"rendered":"

After lying dormant for almost four years, the beleaguered Melbourne<\/a> Star Observation Wheel is expected to turn once more, although one of its new owners admits he\u2019s nervous given \u201cit\u2019s failed so many times before\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Monday, it was announced that MB Star Properties Pty Ltd, the owner of the 120-metre structure that went into liquidation in 2021, will be restructured under an $11m takeover.<\/p>\n

Under the deal, a new partnership will take control of the wheel, made up of Melbourne-based Skyline Attractions, the operator of several smaller wheels including at the nearby Melbourne Convention Centre<\/a>; US-based Ray Cammack Shows, which operates wheels at major events including Coachella and the Los Angeles County Fair; and RoBu Group, which bought the wheel in early 2021.<\/p>\n

Skyline Attractions, run by husband and wife Jay and Jane Jones, will oversee day-to-day operations.<\/p>\n

The attraction is scheduled to reopen in 2026, although Jay Jones declined to provide a specific date.<\/p>\n

He said years of inactivity meant \u201ca lot of maintenance\u201d was required and the team wanted to manage expectations.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOver many years, this thing has been over promised and under delivered. We don\u2019t want to do that,\u201d he told reporters on Monday.<\/p>\n

Planned upgrades also include repainting the wheel, installing new motors and refurbishing cabins with better wifi.<\/p>\n

Jones said the project would help make Docklands \u2013 one of Melbourne\u2019s most divisive suburbs \u2013 \u201cshine\u201d again.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who hasn\u2019t been to the Docklands thinks, \u2018Oh, the Docklands is terrible.\u2019 But actually, we came down here for the ice skating a couple of weekends ago, and the place had an atmosphere. The only problem was the big dark thing in the middle of it,\u201d he said, referring to the wheel.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery city has got a major observation wheel, people go on them, and the Docklands are doing a great job of making this place an entertainment precinct that\u2019s not just for gamblers. I think this is a real opportunity to get it working again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones said he was nervous, given the wheel\u2019s chequered past.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s failed so many times before. Of course, I\u2019m nervous. But that\u2019s made us do our due diligence over and over again \u2026 it is a world-class piece of equipment in a world-class city, so why can\u2019t we make it work?\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n

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Initially called the Southern Star Observation Wheel, the Melbourne Star first opened in late 2008 but only operated for 40 days before closing<\/a>, after a contract worker inadvertently discovered cracks in the steel up to three metres long.<\/p>\n

The fault was at first attributed to a heatwave, but later turned out be a structural problem. Much of the 40-storey, 1,500-tonne structure was sold for scrap and the wheel was redesigned and rebuilt from scratch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2011, during reconstruction works, the wheel broke free from its restraints, began rolling in strong winds and injured a worker. A year later, a spokesperson for the wheel said it could reopen as early as January 2013 if Melbourne had \u201cno wind, no rain for the next four months\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With its new name, the Melbourne Star eventually reopened in December 2013<\/a> \u2013 but closed for good in September 2021<\/a> when its operators went into liquidation, blaming \u201cthe global Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent travel restrictions and sustained shutdowns, adding to pre-existing challenges of operating amid increased high-rise development and changes in the Docklands area\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lord mayor Nicholas Reece, whose recent reelection bid included reviving the wheel, said the City of Melbourne had been involved in \u201cmany behind-the-scenes conversations to help get the Star turning once more\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m stoked we can now celebrate openly with the rest of the city, and I can\u2019t wait for the maiden voyage,\u201d Reece said.<\/p>\n

The new team behind the Melbourne Star anticipates it will welcome a quarter of a million visitors in the first year of operation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After lying dormant for almost four years, the beleaguered Melbourne Star Observation Wheel is expected to turn once…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-60855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}