SkyHigh Mount Dandenong is a restaurant located on top of

Mount Dandenong Mount Dandenong is a small township/suburb of Greater Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, east from Melbourne's central business district, located within the Shire of Yarra Ranges local government area. Mount Dandenong recorded a population of 1,2 ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Location

The current location of the restaurant was first founded as a survey point in 1861, owing to its height of 633m above sea level.

History

In the 1970s and '80s, the site was an iconic

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

attraction, and was well-known to most

Melburnian This is a list of people from Melbourne with some call to fame. A Melburnian is an inhabitant of Melbourne, the capital city of Victoria, Australia. The word is a demonym. Native Melburnians The following were born or grew up in Melbourne. ...

s; however, in the early 1990s the site fell into disrepair, and the building began to look aged and dilapidated. What had previously been a large tourist attraction quickly slipped from the minds of Melburnians. This culminated with the site being shut down completely in 1997. In 2004, a new lease was negotiated with

Parks Victoria Parks Victoria is a government agency of the state of Victoria, Australia. Parks Victoria was established in December 1996 as a statutory authority, reporting to the Victorian Minister for Environment and Climate Change. The ''Parks Victoria Ac ...

, the government authority in charge of the land. The restaurant and surrounding gardens were given a $3.5 million facelift, and the site re-opened in December 2004, with the name officially being changed from "Mount Dandenong Observatory" to the current "SkyHigh Mount Dandenong". The renovations to the site included construction of an upstairs balcony and an enlarged viewing window. Besides work on the building itself, the surrounding land was graded and landscaped, and many new plants added and the hedge maze started.

Attractions

The ''

English Garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

'' has grown significantly since being planted in 2005. It features meandering gravel paths and several wooden arch bridges crossing a man-made stream, constructed as part of the renovations. The SkyHigh Maze, designed by John Connellan, opened in 2007. The maze features garden squares designed around fountains, and a ''

trompe-l'œil ''Trompe-l'œil'' ( , ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. ''Trompe l'oeil'', which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into ...

''. The ''Giant’s Chair'' is a large novelty wooden chair on the front lawn of the site.

Binoculars Binoculars or field glasses are two refracting telescopes mounted side-by-side and aligned to point in the same direction, allowing the viewer to use both eyes (binocular vision) when viewing distant objects. Most binoculars are sized to be held ...

on the viewing terrace give visitors a chance to see Melbourne in better detail. On clear days it is possible to see to

Port Phillip Bay Port Phillip (Kulin: ''Narm-Narm'') or Port Phillip Bay is a horsehead-shaped enclosed bay on the central coast of southern Victoria, Australia. The bay opens into the Bass Strait via a short, narrow channel known as The Rip, and is completel ...

and

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...

. The ''

Kugel ball A kugel fountain (also called a "floating" sphere fountain or by the pleonasmic name kugel ball) is a water feature or sculpture where a sphere sits in a fitted hollow in a pedestal, and is supported by aquaplaning on a thin film of water. Pres ...

'' is a

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

consisting of a large

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

ball supported by a very thin film of water. With this installation the pump can be turned off resulting in an instant halt to the spinning sphere. The Australiana Tree is a large

gum tree Gum tree is a common name for smooth-barked trees and shrubs in several genera: *Eucalypteae, particularly: **''Eucalyptus'', which includes the majority of species of gum trees. **''Corymbia'', which includes the ghost gums and spotted gums. **''A ...

. Rapidly dying after being struck by lightning in 2006, it has been carved into the shape of many native animals in a totem pole style.

Pictures

External links

SkyHigh Mount Dandenong Official Website
{{Coord, 37, 49, 39, S, 145, 21, 9, E, display=title, region:AU-VIC_type:landmark Tourist attractions in Melbourne Mazes Restaurants in Victoria (Australia) Buildings and structures in the Shire of Yarra Ranges