Posts from ‘December, 2008’

The Golden Gumboot

The Big Gumboot

The Big Gumboot

The Golden Gumboot is a large boot shaped tourist attraction in the town of Tully in Queensland. Tully sits between Cairns and Townsville, so its right in the Australia’s tropics, hence the reason for the gumboot as the town’s average annual rainfall exceeds 4000mm. A bit of a rivalry exists between Tully and Innisfail and Babinda on who has the most rain with a gumboot given to the wining town each year. Tully is also know for its gumboot festival that is held each September as well as being Australia’s answer to Roswell, with more UFO sightings in the town than any other place in Australia. The Golden Gumboot stands at stands at 7.9m tall and represents the record rainfall received in 1950 at Tully, a spiral staircase leads visitors to a lookout at the top of the boot. Read the rest of this entry »

Great balls of fire!

Crown Casino Fireballs

Crown Casino Fireballs

Crown Casino in Melbourne is Australia’s largest entertainment precinct being home to the one of the world’s biggest gaming facilities, the city’s best restaurants, clubs, bars and exclusive shopping. Another huge attraction is the nightly fireball or Gas Brigades show which explode into the night sky every night between dusk and midnight (except for bad weather). The huge flames explode out of eight 10 metre high towers and the gas flame can reach sizes of 7 metres in diameter and are the largest ever created in the world all programed with a state of the art computer system.  Crown Casino is currently planning the biggest Australian hotel to accompany it’s already huge complex. The $300 million dollar project will feature another 658 rooms bringing the Casino’s rooms to more than 1600 and will feature new convention facilities, bars, restaurants and a huge new retail showcase. It is hoped the new wing will open in May of 2010 in time for the $140 million dollar refurbishment the Casino is currently undertaking. Read the rest of this entry »