Australia's second snow dome
is due to open in June as an addition to the Big Banana
Theme Park at Coffs Harbour, NSW.
Only 200 metres from the beach the park currently
attracts around 300,000 visitors annually with attractions
such as an ice skating rink, monorail and mountain
slide.
The slope will be 140m long and fresh snow from a
Bucceri Snow machine will add 100 mm of fresh snow
daily. The temperature in the building will be maintained
at around 5 degrees Celsius year round.
The new Bucceri system is the
latest innovation from Alf Bucceri who was a pioneer
in indoor snow making technology in the early 1980s
and was involved in one of the world's first indoor
snow domes at Mt Thebarton in Australia more than
a decade ago.
Traditionally indoor snow making has been much more
expensive than conventional' outdoor systems used
increasingly at winter sports resorts worldwide. The
cost of the snow making system being installed at
Coffs Harbour is a mere fraction of the cost of the
other systems that have been installed in the 20 or
so centres built around the world.
"Because of this I believe that
the opportunities to make indoor skiing domes possible
in many more locations throughout the world will now
be possible." Bucceri said. The total cost of the
ski dome should not exceed $US 600,000 which will
allow for ample opportunity to operate the business
profitably
