Sydney agrees to S6M underwater showcase

Press, 4 November 1986, Page 35

Sydney agrees to S6M underwater showcase

PA Auckland Sydney- will get a $6 million transfusion of the . same New Zealand ini genuity that , turned disused sewage tanks in , Orakei, Auckland, into an underwater -showcase. The Maritime Services Board in Sydney has approved an Auckland company’s proposal to convert the Manly aquarium into an underwater viewing ■stage similar to that at Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World. The expensive Sydney project will incorporate many of the unique concepts ' developed for the Orakei aquarium by the late Mr Tarlton and his partner, Mr lan Mellsop. Mr Mellsop is heading ; the Sydney venture, in - partnership with an Auck- ; land company, Australasian Breeding Stables. The central feature of

the refurbished Manly aquarium will be an acrylic tunnel similar to the one devised by Messrs Tarlton and Mellsop for the aquarium at Orakei. The technique they applied to the Orakei tunnel had not previously been attempted anywhere in the world. The thick acrylic was moulded in a Westfield factory and moved to the Orakei site in one-tonne sections. The finished job saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in overseas funds.

Mr Mellsop now plans to* apply the same moulding technique to the project in Australia, making the moulds in Auckland and shipping them to Sydney in one-tonne sections.

Mr Mellsop said the Manly site had enormous potential and virtually no

competition. The North Sydney suburb of Manly was a seaside mecca and a showpiece aquarium there would attract hundreds of thousands of visitors. Work on the Sydney project will begin in February and is scheduled to be completed in December next year. Mr Mellsop has several other acquarium projects awaiting final approval in Australia and elsewhere. When he sold his shareholding in the Orakei aquarium, Mr Mellsop formed a company with the aim of building similar structures in Australia and elsewhere. Mr Mellsop and Australasian Breeding Stables already own a 50 per cent share in the Manly aquarium site and the adjacent Manly pavilion, which incorporates waterslides, a restaurant and shops.