Named after the 1854 Eureka Stockade rebellion of Victorian goldfield prospectors, the Eureka Tower has become one of Melbourne’s most recognizable landmarks. Its gold-plated windows and crown glisten in the sun’s light as it soars 297 meters over the Southbank entertainment precinct. The Eureka Tower’s 88th floor Skydeck is the highest public viewing area in the Southern Hemisphere, with a glass cube known as The Edge sliding out from the building for a vertigo-inducing experience.
The Eureka Tower was designed by Melbourne architectural firm Fender Katsalidis and was the tallest residential tower in the world when it was completed in 2006. Its gold crown is to represent the gold rush, with a red stripe symbolic of the blood that was spilled during the rebellion and blue glass for the background on the Eureka Stockade’s flag. An art installation resembling a beehive by Richard Stringer and Nonda Katsalidis was added at the base of the tower in 2007, with two worker bees sitting outside the box together with a queen bee.
The entire 88th floor is occupied by the Skydeck 88 observation area and boasts thirty viewfinders for visitors to pinpoint landmarks across Melbourne’s city center. There are free binoculars to help you get a closer look, as well as a small outside area known as The Terrace where you can soak up the views.
But for the most adrenalin pumping experience, be sure to step inside The Edge, a glass cube which extends three meters (10 feet) out from the building to suspend you almost 300 meters (984 feet) above the ground. While the glass is opaque when you step into the cube, it slowly transforms to being completely transparent once you’re fully extended over the edge, adding to the thrill.