Scenic World: Countdown begins to latest redevelopment
A million-dollar recreational project for the Blue Mountains has been given the tick of approval.
The Blue Mountains News
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Tourism is set to get a big boost in the Blue Mountains with a $1.13 million recreational project getting approval.
After visiting the site, the Blue Mountains Local Planning Panel last night unanimously approved a proposal to allow the next stage of a project to improve the visitor experience at Scenic World.
Hammons Holdings Pty Ltd had lodged a development application (DA) to extend the queuing areas for its Skyway and Cableway rides at Scenic World in Katoomba, so they can welcome bigger lines of customers.
Panel chair and solicitor Mary-Lynne Taylor, who is also an Honorary Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia, said the panel felt the changes would “significantly improve the functionality of this nationally-significant facility.”
Opened in 1958, the Scenic Skyway is the largest aerial cable car in the southern hemisphere and the 545-metre Cableway, opened in 2000, is the steepest aerial cable car in the southern hemisphere.
“(The DA) will continue to improve the great visitor experience at Scenic World, by moving people waiting for these rides out of our retail space and into dedicated queuing areas,” Scenic World’s managing director, Anthea Hammon, told The Blue Mountains News.
“The DA is for the second stage of these works, with the first already under construction and due to be completed in the next couple of months.”
The Skyway can carry 84 passengers every 10 minutes. Customers glide 720 metres between cliff tops, taking in views of Katoomba Falls, the Three Sisters, Mount Solitary and Jamison Valley.
The Cableway, which can also carry 84 passengers, gently descends into the Jamison Valley and returns to the top of the escarpment. The Keegan family are among its fans.
The News found the family riding the Cableway on one of their regular visits to Scenic World from Darwin.
“It’s a fantastic place,” Mr Keegan said, adding “We love the bushwalks and the scenery.”
The DA also includes making alterations and additions to the main building at Scenic World — where the souvenir shop and restaurant is located — and enlarging the existing outdoor viewing terrace.
This will involve demolishing the existing 40 square metre ground-level open viewing terrace to make way for a 90-sqm one consisting of a bigger Cableway queuing area, patron pram storage and a storage room.
On the first floor, the 15-sqm open viewing terrace will be replaced with a 45-sqm Skyway queuing area.
The panel’s decision comes as Scenic World prepares to host its ninth annual outdoor Sculpture at Scenic World exhibition from April 9 to May 10, featuring 29 installations by 30 artists — including nine Blue Mountains artists — under the canopy of a temperate rainforest along the elevated Scenic Walkway.
The famous tourist venue is currently ushering in the Year of the Rat with Lunar New Year festivities running until February 9, 11am to 2pm daily, including traditional jianzi tournaments in which players aim to keep a heavily weighted shuttlecock in the air by using their bodies, apart from the hands.