Must Do: View The Coastline From The Deck Of Q1
Q1 is the world’s tallest residential tower, and is located in the heart of Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia. Standing at 322.5 metres tall it is also the tallest building in Australia, the second tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere and the 27th tallest building in the world (however when it was originally built in 2005 it was the 20th tallest building in the world — as noted by several plaques found around the edge of the Observation Deck (QDeck).
The QDeck is located 230 metres above sea level, on the 77th floor of the 80 story high Q1 building, and is open to the public 7 days a week from 9 am until 9pm (Monday — Thursday) or Midnight (Friday and Saturday). *18+ Identification required on Friday and Saturday nights. Even at 77 stories the express elevator to the QDeck only takes a supposed 42 seconds — it is fast, but there does seem to be bit of a delay between the elevator saying it’s reached the appropriate floor and the elevator actually stopping at the floor.
The view from the observation deck undoubtedly has one of the best, if not the best, views of the Gold Coast. With full 360 degree views of the surrounding area, from the highest vantage point there is a lot to see. The only “problem” is that this view, at $19 per person, does come at a slight premium and don’t be surprised if your food and/or drinks cost a little extra at QBar.
Even with the somewhat pricey admission I would recommend visiting the deck of Q1 at least once. For those of you afraid of heights, fear not as the deck is more of a ‘room’ as it fully enclosed by large glass panels; to keep you safe and secure.
News.com.au Maps
Although it appears to be 7 months old, I recently stumbled across a useful Google Maps mash-up from News.Com.Au. The ‘News Map’ places 10 articles (they say 10 on their site, but it appears to be a lot more than that) from news.com.au World and National sections on to the Google Map interface, allowing users to see where particular stories are taking place. In order to determine the geographical co-ordinates, Metacarta is used to extract place names from the articles and convert them in to longitudinal and latitudinal references.
Of course this isn’t the only mash-up of its kind, with others providing such Google Map displays with articles from the Associate Press, and news.bbc.co.uk. There are also alternative implementations, such as a map by multi.co.za, which allows uers to click on a country and be presented with a list of articles, from an array of aggregated news sources, which reference the selected country.
