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Katie Woolf spoke with Darwin Waterfront Corporation General Manager Sam Burke · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Joining me live in the studio right now from the
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  Speaker 1: Darwin Waterfront Corporation, the general manager, Sam Burke.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Sam, Good morning, Katie, Good morning listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for coming in this morning.
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  Speaker 3: Now.
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  Speaker 1: I know, well, look, I know my daughter is going
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  Speaker 1: to be excited, so I thought it would be a
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  Speaker 1: perfect opportunity to have a chat with you because there's
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  Speaker 1: going to be a new aqua park in the Lagoon area,
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  Speaker 1: isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: We're super excited.
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  Speaker 3: This is brand new, state of the art inflatable aqua park.
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  Speaker 3: It's got elements for all ages and the operators are
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  Speaker 3: really professional. It's going to be fantastic and it opens
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  Speaker 3: on Saturday, so we're pumped.
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  Speaker 1: So opening this Saturday now, so it's going to be
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  Speaker 1: different to the one that was previously in there.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, this one's got heaps of activations, it's the right
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  Speaker 3: professional operators and we think Darwin's going to really enjoy it.
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  Speaker 3: And it's all part of this Let's have a holiday
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  Speaker 3: at home. Let's add as many things as we possibly
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  Speaker 3: can with the beach club and the aqua park and
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  Speaker 3: the wave Lagoon, sangreas and fish tacos by the lagoon.
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  Speaker 2: It's dreamy, there's no reason to go anywhere else. Sounds
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  Speaker 2: like it's going.
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  Speaker 1: To be the place to be over the holidays.
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  Speaker 2: I tell you what it will be, and for your daughter.
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  Speaker 3: We've got a five meter high iceberg, We've got a
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  Speaker 3: loop course, we've got a pillow flip that faces the
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  Speaker 3: boardwalk for great photos for parents, monkey bars like sound.
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  Speaker 1: This is all part of what's going to be happening
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  Speaker 1: down at the waterfront over the Christmas holidays.
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  Speaker 3: So this installation we're hoping, we're hoping to have there
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  Speaker 3: for the medium to long term is starting off on
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  Speaker 3: a twelve month sort of arrangement.
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  Speaker 2: But this type of activation is what we're all about.
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  Speaker 1: So let me just get this straight, Sam, is the
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  Speaker 1: pillow flip and all that is that part of this
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  Speaker 1: thing that's in the water.
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  Speaker 3: It's part of it. So you basically it's like an
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  Speaker 3: obstacle course. And I know some people actually buy memberships
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  Speaker 3: for this stuff to work out because it looks intense,
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  Speaker 3: like it's hard.
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  Speaker 1: How old do people have to so to be to
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  Speaker 1: go on.
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  Speaker 3: This, So if you're aged between six and nine, you
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  Speaker 3: have to be accompanied by an adult. But so six
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  Speaker 3: is basically the starting age, right, up through depending on
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  Speaker 3: your fitness how long you last. If you're getting up
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  Speaker 3: there like me, I reckon three or four minutes.
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  Speaker 2: You're not ages.
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  Speaker 1: You can be as old as you like, so long
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  Speaker 1: as your fitness levels as.
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  Speaker 2: Old as you like, and you can be as young
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  Speaker 2: as six.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I tell you what, My kids are going to
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  Speaker 1: be absolutely pumped, but unfortunately by the sounds.
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  Speaker 2: But I've got to go on there as well.
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  Speaker 3: We know, I see your pain in the wave lacoon
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  Speaker 3: with me, and there will be on this thing.
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  Speaker 2: So buy an annual pas.
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  Speaker 1: No, they are going to absolutely love it. So is
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  Speaker 1: that sort of what else is going to be happening
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  Speaker 1: over the Christmas break? Because I know that you guys
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  Speaker 1: always have plenty going on down there.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, So we've got Christmas lights, We've got Santa's Grotto.
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  Speaker 3: Check out Waterfront on Mt. Dot Cove dot AU. It's
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  Speaker 3: got all the details. But you know we're coming out
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  Speaker 3: with a twelve giveaways of Christmas shortly. All the restaurants
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  Speaker 3: have got amazing things for Christmas parties. New Year's biggest ever.
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  Speaker 3: We're extremely excited about that. Huge December for us.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds like for New Years, you guys are going
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  Speaker 1: all out. Obviously you've got some phenomenal Aussie acts who
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  Speaker 1: are going to be performing. But then there's also things
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  Speaker 1: are going to be a little bit different. Like in
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  Speaker 1: the past, you've not really been able to have a
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  Speaker 1: drink on the lawns for New.
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  Speaker 2: Years, have you. Yeah, so this is totally different.
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  Speaker 3: We've got national and international headline acts where really proud
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  Speaker 3: Tones and I Dance Monkey. If your kids can't sing it,
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  Speaker 3: I don't know where they've been hiding. Plus check her out,
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  Speaker 3: she's got a whole repertoire of great songs.
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  Speaker 1: Yep.
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  Speaker 3: Obviously Shepherd who just did the AFL Grand Final. They're amazing.
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  Speaker 3: Plus poor Patrol, two massive fireworks, bunch of local artists
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  Speaker 3: and kids entertainment. So it's a big night, but it's different.
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  Speaker 3: Both COVID and the caliber of the acts and the
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  Speaker 3: nature of the night means that we're ticketing, which people
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  Speaker 3: can get tickets and information through our website still. And
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  Speaker 3: because it's ticketed and it's more managed, we're having an
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  Speaker 3: open public bar and yes, people can enjoy a delicious
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  Speaker 3: mid strength beer or we've got ginger beers and a
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  Speaker 3: couple of seltzers and other things available. Along with soft
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  Speaker 3: drinks and water, and you can take that anywhere within
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  Speaker 3: the waterfront domain and enjoy it while watching the show.
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  Speaker 1: I know a couple of people have been a little
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  Speaker 1: bit critical of the fact that you have to obviously
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  Speaker 1: pay to go. What's the reason for that, because usually
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  Speaker 1: it is a free event, isn't it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, So there's a few reasons. One is that with
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  Speaker 3: the COVID requirement and our COVID plan that's been signed
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  Speaker 3: off on, we're capped with our numbers, so we have
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  Speaker 3: to do spacing. We have to have registrations to attend,
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  Speaker 3: and what we need is that there's more costs. There's
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  Speaker 3: a lot more staffing involved in complying with that. We've
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  Speaker 3: also got these headline acts, which we think represent fantastic value.
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  Speaker 3: But we don't want to have a situation where we
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  Speaker 3: cap it it's free, people just select a bunch of
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  Speaker 3: tickets and don't come.
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  Speaker 2: And also the costs can't allow us to do that.
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  Speaker 3: So we hope we've found the middle grand and even
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  Speaker 3: people you know, you go to the movies, you go
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  Speaker 3: bowling or ice skating, whatever, you'll spend this sort of money.
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  Speaker 3: We appreciate every dollar counts at the moment, but man,
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  Speaker 3: poor patrol and tones an eye or stay the whole
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  Speaker 3: night with fireworks twenty dollars. It's amazing and under five
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  Speaker 3: are free, so we're doing our best.
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  Speaker 1: And then what are you kind of is there going
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  Speaker 1: to be like, you know, something around the perimeter stopping
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  Speaker 1: people from coming in.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so basically that whole central waterfront that people know
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  Speaker 3: from the Wave Lagoon across to sort of Wharf one
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  Speaker 3: restaurant and down to Chow is all going to be fenced.
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  Speaker 3: That's going to be set entrances with security, and you'll
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  Speaker 3: need your pre purchase ticket and you will have need
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  Speaker 3: to have picked up your wristband prior to the event
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  Speaker 3: to come. Yep, you can come in and out, food trucks,
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  Speaker 3: open bar, amazing entertainment. I think it's going to be
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  Speaker 3: the best New Year's Dares.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it sounds like it's going to be a phenomenal event.
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  Speaker 1: Lots and lots of fun and something for everybody. Hey,
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  Speaker 1: just very quickly, I know, as we're talking about right
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  Speaker 1: at the start, the Aqua Park that's going to be
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  Speaker 1: opening this Saturday. It's so basically it's going to be
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  Speaker 1: replacing the Big Boy water Park.
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  Speaker 2: How come you've.
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  Speaker 3: Decided to replace so wesically had an operator agreement with
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  Speaker 3: that operator that expired and we've moved on to a
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  Speaker 3: new operator. Now we're really excited about this operator. They've
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  Speaker 3: operated parks nationally. They're exceptionally professional. They've gotten the site
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  Speaker 3: set up yesterday. It looks brilliant. We think it's going
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  Speaker 3: to be a real success for tickets for Saturday. You
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  Speaker 3: can go onto their website AQPK like aquapark, dot com
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  Speaker 3: dot au start having a look into it. They're ready
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  Speaker 3: to go and we're really excited.
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  Speaker 1: Awesome, all right, I'm very interested to see how it
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  Speaker 1: all looks.
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  Speaker 3: I see you out there and they want to see
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  Speaker 3: you getting tickets for New Years and the dancing like
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  Speaker 3: a monkey.
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  Speaker 1: Well, now that you've got, now that you can get a.
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  Speaker 2: Drink there, I'll be able to more midstream. Good on you, Sam,
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  Speaker 2: good to talk to you this morning. Thank you, Thanks
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  Speaker 2: as always.
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  Speaker 1: That's Sam Burke there, the Darwin Waterfront Corporation General Manager.