Australia is a place that just begs for cinematic flyovers. First popularized during the 1980s by IMAX, the helicopter-flyover genre of travel video was brought to home theaters by a series of DVDs from various companies almost a decade later. It is in the context of such presentations that Zalman Silber’s Oztrek amusement ride makes its appearance. Screening at the Sydney Tower in the Harbour City, the Oztrek is a cinematic flyover of many of Australia’s national treasures – geographic and otherwise.
Some of the locations showcased by this fifteen-minute ride (Oztrek bills itself as a “ride” on account of special seating that provides some physical, kinetic feedback paired to events onscreen) are a Queensland river, a Sydney beach, as well as famous landmarks throughout the country, both natural and man-made. The non-geographic highlights include such activities as Aussie Rules Football and buffalo mustering, further cementing the self-image of Australians as a hardy hearty folk who work and play rough.
Also at the Sydney Tower – and also from serial entrepreneur Zalman Silber – is the Skywalk, an exhilarating experience even more stimulating than his Oztrek. This is basically a catwalk a thousand feet above street level, the highest point in all the city from which panoramic bird’s-eye views are possible. Full glass flooring really adds to the excitement, allowing guests to look straight down without any visual obstructions and feel like they are, well, literally walking in the sky!
It is difficult to compare the two attractions to one another, though they both come from the same entrepreneurial mind. One is extremely visceral, while the other is much more cerebral and, incidentally, rather conventional. Yet it is easy to see how they so wonderfully complement each other, and a visit to the Sydney Tower would not seem complete without sampling two of its most popular marquee attractions.
