Sanctuary may be forbidden for Harry

Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au

Mornington Peninsula Shire Council is this week expected to back down on its insistence that the Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience event could not be moved from The Briars wildlife sanctuary.

The move follows last Thursday’s announcement that Warner Bros and Fever were “re-evaluating the current location” of the event at the shire-owned Mount Martha property.

This week’s council meeting has one “Community Strengthening” item on its agenda: The Briars – Event Experience Trail Location. An report prepared by five council officers was not available Monday morning.

The shire was continuing to defend the choice of the wildlife sanctuary for the nightly sound and light spectacular just two days before Peter van Roden, senior vice-president, Global Themed Entertainment Warner Bros. Discovery contacted the Save Briars Sanctuary group to say the site was being reviewed.

Shire CEO John Baker gave assurances at Tuesday night’s public council meeting that the “Harry Potter areas” in the sanctuary “will be managed by trained security staff who will be able to ensure people stay in the designated areas, which are already used by the community”.

“The experience will occupy only seven per cent of the 90-hectare sanctuary, leaving space for animals to move away,” Baker said in response to more than 50 letters questioning the choice of a wildlife sanctuary for the months’ long nightly Potter performances.

No mention was made about how far the lights or sound would travel in and outside the property.

Questions raised in the letters included concerns for the welfare of wildlife living in the sanctuary; secrecy surrounding the contract for the Harry Potter show; how individual councillors had voted on the decision; and lack of community consultation.

Any debate by councillors and reports by officers about the Potter show have been kept secret since first being raised in August last year.

Councillors - except David Gill - agreed to sign non-disclosure agreements, ensuring that there would be no public announcement about the use of The Briars sanctuary for the Harry Potter show until a marketing plan was in place and tickets were ready to be sold.

Once that date was reached, the shire’s website promoted the show and provided online links to ticket sellers along with details about paid parking.

However, once the secret was out protesters quickly organised an online petition (more than 20,000 signatures), displayed placards condemning the show in The Briars wildlife sanctuary, called a public meeting and attended last week’s council meeting, again carrying placards calling for the show be held elsewhere.

In a since deleted Facebook post, Cr Steve Holland described protestors as “a noisy, fringe minority”.

The disclosure has also ensured that the secrecy surrounding the Harry Potter saga will be ongoing for councillors seeking re-election in October (Potter sequel at the ballot box, The News 30/1/24).

While the presence of the demonstrators at last week’s council meeting did not see any councillors make any surprise moves, Warners Bros acted in less than 48 hours. Crs Lisa Dixon and Steve Holland did not attend the meeting.

The best council could offer at its meeting was that it was looking into the legal aspects before seeing how much information it could release about the decision it made in August 2023.

“We are currently working on some elements of the contract that potentially could be released, but obviously subject to some very detailed legal review,” Baker said.

“This is referring to the council report and the minutes [of the August 2023 meeting] and obviously want to make absolutely sure that none of that refers to any confidential issues.”

At 2pm on Thursday, Baker was quoted on the shire’s Facebook page: “Together with Warner Bros. Discovery Global Themed Entertainment, Mornington Peninsula Shire is re-evaluating the current location of the Harry Potter Forbidden Forest Experience at The Briars in Mount Martha. We will have more information soon.”

The next move was to call a special council meeting for today, Tuesday 13 February, although the shire has yet to publish an agenda.

Louise Page, of Save Briars Sanctuary, said the group was “somewhat cautious … [but] extend heartfelt thanks to the decision makers for recognising the error in choice of location and taking steps to identify an alternative”.

“This is not only a win for the sanctuary and its precious wildlife, for the community and for the environment, but also for local businesses and The Briars because now we really do have a quadruple bottom line decision; we are not sacrificing the environment for economic gain.”

The mayor Cr Simon Brooks was almost shouted down when he told the public meeting at Mornington Yacht Club on Monday 29 January that councillors had not seen the fine details of the contract with Warner Bros and could not reveal what they did know because of the confidentiality agreement signed by most councillors (Potter protests continue, The News 6/2/24).

With Warners and the shire now “re-evaluating” the performance site, the Victorian Greens have urged the state government to step in and stop the Harry Potter event “from going ahead in a wildlife sanctuary”.

The Greens say the show will “cause harm to the precious animals that call the sanctuary home and put a number of threatened species at risk”. The six-week event would expose the animals to “damaging artificial lighting, noise and high foot traffic”.