The Melbourne Star is back from the dead – but can it revive Docklands?

I don’t see a single soul as I wander Docklands on a Thursday evening.

The only sounds I hear are my own footsteps as I trudge past dark, empty stores. I clamber around garbage bags, upturned shopping trolleys, wooden pallets strewn across the ground. In the distance a dodgy fluorescent light flickers on and off. Then a horde of the undead break through a window and try to eat my brains.

I’m killing time, and zombies, at Zero Latency, a virtual reality arcade , while waiting to witness something else come back from the dead: the Melbourne Star.

Five years ago, I wrote an obituary for the wheel. It was always going to have its ups and downs, but the Melbourne Star seemed particularly heavy on the downs: software glitches, loose bolts, plummeting metal plates, cracked steel, tilting pods, injured workers, stranded passengers, “candid” passengers and whatever augury it is when an amusement ride is attacked by a pelican. It was even at one stage completely redesigned and rebuilt from scratch.

So when Covid-19 led to its closure in September 2021, I thought it was for good.

On this night, however, after almost 2,000 days looming still and foreboding over the Melbourne skyline, it has returned. Leaving Zero Latency, I turn a corner and see something that turns my blood cold, a sight far more shocking than any virtual reality zombie.

Hundreds and hundreds of people. A loud, long, snaking line of people. All queueing for the Melbourne Star. Maybe this time around the wheel has finally taken a turn for the better.

The new lease on life is courtesy of Jay and Jane Jones of Skyline Attractions. The wheel operators met while moving in similar circles: both were at the Royal Melbourne Show when they fell in love in 2007, Jay running carnival rides and Jane working in marketing. In 2024, they opened a much smaller ferris wheel in South Wharf.

Here, they haven’t exactly reinvented the wheel. Fire systems I didn’t even know were non-compliant have been, we are assured, brought back into compliance. The most noticeable improvement has been the lighting upgrade, in operation since July. What I once described as recalling “a bike wheel with glow sticks whacked on its spokes” is now a genuinely dazzling and mesmerising light show.

I spring for one of two Star Class VIP cabins. It’s just like any other cabin but with fancier furnishings, including a gold-trimmed bar that serves unlimited drinks over the course of our 30-minute journey.

I hop in with a dozen other people – mostly young couples, a family with a restless toddler – and the doors seal shut. A reverent hush fills the pod, interrupted only by the occasional pop of a beer bottle top. Then the most remarkable thing happens. It goes up and then it goes down. Nothing terrible comes to pass. Overall the experience is like a prolonged awkward elevator ride but with more to look at while avoiding eye contact than just your shoes.

The city skyline hasn’t changed all that much since the Star last turned half a decade ago. Melbourne was at one stage slated to host what would have been Australia’s tallest tower. Called STH BNK, the project went into administration last year without being able to afford a single vowel. Today the tallest building that can be seen from the Melbourne Star is Australia 108, so named for the number of storeys it doesn’t have – at 100 tall, it had to skip a planned extra eight due to air safety regulations.

Meanwhile, down on the ground, the Star-crossed suburb of Docklands continues to be buffeted by wind and bad tidings. Since the wheel last turned, the second-best star attraction, discount superstore Costco, pulled up stumps for Ardeer. Melbourne Pathology has bought the site, in a move that will draw blood, not crowds.

In 2019, rapidly deteriorating footings at the 100-year-old Central Pier saw diners forced to flee for safety with only 15 minutes’ warning. In 2025, it was demolished. Now rotting timber piles have closed Victoria Promenade Harbour Esplanade until at least the end of year. All the while, Docklands’ footpaths and roads continue to sink into the Coode Island silt.

There are some glimmers of hope. In June, series tickets for the Australian Ice Hockey League Finals sold out within 15 minutes at Docklands stalwart O’Brien Icehouse. And this very week, Docklands is dressed up as New York City for the filming of Deadlocked, an upcoming action film starring Jamie Foxx. It remains to be seen whether the role of the City That Never Sleeps can be pulled off by the Suburb That Never Wakes Up.

After stepping off the Melbourne Star, ducking and weaving through the massive crowd, I am reminded of the ancient symbol of the Rota Fortunae, or the Wheel of Fortune, meant to symbolise the fickle nature of fate. Spun at random by Fortuna, the goddess of luck, the Wheel of Fortune brings boons to those at the top and bad breaks to those at the bottom. But most importantly, it is always moving.

As the Melbourne Star inches forwards again, perhaps it brings with it the possibility of renewal. Or maybe it will meet yet more misfortune. The whole point is we don’t know: it’s all just a spin of the wheel.