NEWS DESK
‘Potter’ prepares for new ‘stage’ Candidates urged to Liz Bell liz@mpnews.com.au IT appears to be business as usual for the teams behind the Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience event in April, with organisers pivoting quickly to focus on the new site at The Briars community forest dog park. Signs on the gate block people from using the dog park so that infrastructure upgrades and decorative installations can be completed by the event’s start on 6 April. The advertising spin of the event remains unchanged, tempting audiences with the line that it will be a “nighttime woodland trail experience filled with magical creatures and wizarding wonders from the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films”. Apart from the deal not yet being sealed by an official letter from Warner Bros confirming the site change, those opposed to the wildlife sanctuary being originally chosen as the event site are celebrating the organisers’ change of heart. The site change was prompted by a global backlash that threatened to harm the Harry Potter brand and was enough for global entertainment giants Warners Bros and Fever Entertainment to rethink their choice - with approval from Mornington Peninsula Shire - of using a wildlife sanctuary. Community group Save Briars Sanctuary (SBS) was behind a national and international protest campaign calling on organisers to relocate the event away from the sanctuary.
Dog ban: Work has already started at the Briars community forest dog park to get it ready for the Harry Potter event by 6 April. Picture: Supplied
Its petition attracted more than 22,000 signatures and the campaign gained support from the political parties, environmental groups and wildlife carers, in Australia and abroad, and the group wrote directly to Warner Bros. In a welcome move, on 8 February the group received an email from the senior vice-president of Warner Bros. Discovery Global Themed Entertainment, Peter van Roden, saying the companies were “reevaluating the current location of Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience in The Briars at Mount Martha”. The council then scheduled an extraordinary meeting to inform the community of the “joint” decision to relocate the event to the community forest dog park within The Briars. Responding to a question during the meeting by Cr Sarah Race about the “very big dog community” on
the peninsula, CEO John Baker said dog walkers would be accommodated at the public golf course in Mount Martha during the Harry Potter event, and “other dog walking” options were being investigated. A release from Save Briars Sanctuary stated: “The decision to relocate Harry Potter is a significant achievement and we are relieved that the wildlife will now be safe. “However, the seeming lack of scrutiny when approving the largest event in the history of the Mornington Peninsula is alarming. Especially when the location is a special and precious ecosystem. Our wildlife should never be put at risk for profit.” A spokesperson for the group said it was looking forward to the shire’s promised review of its processes and hoped that the shire “engages with the community during and after the examination”.
back Peninsula Trail THE Mornington Community Safelink Group is calling on Dunkley by-election candidates to commit to financing a safe connection between Frankston and Mornington. Convenor Graeme Rocke said that with more people walking and riding, the “critical missing link” of the Peninsula Trail which fell partly in the Dunkley electorate, would provide a connection to the peninsula for all residents of Dunkley and Melbourne’s southeast. Eight candidates are the contesting the Saturday 2 March by-election being held to fill the vacancy created by the death last December of Labor’s Peta Murphy (Eight line up for Dunkley, The News 13/2/24). Mornington Peninsula Shire Council recently released for public comment a draft of its strategic plan for the Peninsula Trail which identifies this section as being of its highest priority. The Peninsula Trail is council’s plan for a set of connected walking and riding paths that proponents hope will become one of Australia’s destinations for active travel and transport. Rocke said the Mornington Community Safelink Group supported the council plan. “At the last federal election the coalition recognised the value of this shared path and committed $5 million dollars to it, if re-elected. We are now
calling on both parties to recognise the priority the community places on this local project, and make a commitment,” he said. “The Safelink is consistent with the state government’s draft Frankston to Mornington Parklands Plan and, if developed in conjunction with both the existing steam railway and the potential of the area to create a green natural corridor, could become one of the peninsula’s major year round community assets.” The CEO of the Committee for Frankston & Mornington Peninsula, Josh Sinclair, said the project had strong community and local government support. “It’s a no brainer. This project would help connect the peninsula’s trail of networks, creating a worldwide cycling and walking network attracting visitors from across Australia,” he said. “Having better connected and healthy communities is a core pillar of local government and the committee, and this project should be a priority for the incoming federal member for Dunkley.” For details of the project go to mornpen.vic.gov.au/About-Us/Advocacy/Peninsula-Trail To comment go to shape.mornpen. vic.gov.au/a-strategic-plan-for-peninsula-trails Liz Bell Candidates’ have their say. Page 10
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20 February 2024
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