Mainstream media lap up Melbourne Lord Mayor's call for Victorian Disneyland

Australia’s mainstream media has this week given extensive coverage to calls for a new Disneyland Resort to be built near Melbourne.

The proposal, made by Lord Mayor of Melbourne Sally Capp, has excited editorial teams including those of the Melbourne’s Herald Sun, Perth Now, News Ltd and the Mail Online, none of whom appear to have chosen to drill down into how such a project would stack up financially or look into how similar proposals have fared in the past, when they have been deemed unviable.

Nonetheless, Lord Mayor Capp, who is expected to shortly nominate for re-election, has successfully generated a lot of positive news coverage that can only benefit her campaign.

Without committing a dollar of the City of Melbourne’s money for a project outside the boundaries of her local government area, Lord Mayor Capp has used a tactic advanced by others in the past.

In past years, those wanting to generate a public profile on the Gold Coast - particularly property developers and aspiring politicians - would often wheel out plans for new theme parks, despite lacking either land, planning approvals and finance - or sometimes all three!

In 2015, Western Sydney property developer and aspiring politician Ammar Khan revealed widely promoted plans to revive the Wonderland Sydney theme park that closed in 2004 - where he had once worked as ride operator.

As recently as last year, Adelaide winery owner Warren Randall advanced plans for a Disneyland to be built on land he owned in South Australia - a proposal backed by the Committee for Adelaide and enthusiastically reported by Channel Seven.

Show me the money!
Theme parks and major attractions don’t come cheap.

Dreamworld’s most recent ride the Steel Taipan cost $32 million and Sea World's New Atlantis precinct cost $50 million so it’s easy to see how a number of rides would make a new theme park cost several hundred million dollars, and that’s not even accounting for the cost of land.

At the Disney end of scale, its most recent resort, Shanghai Disneyland cost US$5.5 billion.

You wonder whether that’s the sort of money Lord Mayor Capp would be committing.

Who Will Come?
While their attendance figures aren’t reported, the Gold Coast’s theme parks are understood to attract in the region of 800,000 visits a year, so is that what a Melbourne Disneyland could expect?

Pre-Covid, Shanghai Disneyland attracted around 11 million a year, more than 1000% more than each of Australia’s theme parks.

Pre-Covid, Melbourne (with a population of 5 million) was Australia's second most visited destination in 2019 with 39.5 million domestic and international visitors.

By contrast, Shanghai (with a population of 26 million) attracted 294 tourism visits.

A bit of history
Even with their modest, by global standards, attendances it’s often been said that the Gold Coast is the only region or city in Australia where theme parks can be operated.

The failure of Sydney attractions like Sega World, the Fox Studios Backlot and Wonderland Sydney is testament to that while Melbourne has never really had one, with a $410 million plan by entertainment giants Viacom-Paramount at the turn of the millennium for a Studio City theme park being deemed unviable.

As for Disney, a decade or so ago rumours circulated of it being interested in building a waterpark on the Sunshine Coast while in 2007/08 it did consider building of a Disney Resort on Sydney Harbour.

Glossy proposal documents for what was called ‘Disney Wharf at Sydney Harbour’ around Sydney’s White Bay and Glebe Island were circulated to the then NSW Government, who treated the proposal with utmost secrecy, even referring to the project by a special code name, ‘Project Lester’.

The waterfront attraction was a grand vision, incorporating classic Disney theme park elements, along with themed hotels, a marina and ferry wharf, two new light-rail stations, a retail space, an entertainment quarter and a residential development.

However, the reaction from NSW’s then Labor administration was mixed, with Labor Party politicians fearing a backlash from voters in surrounding Labor-held parliamentary seats.

Among ministers, the most enthusiastic was the subsequently-disgraced Ian Macdonald, who held the state development portfolio. Then NSW Premier Morris Iemma and then NSW Treasurer Michael Costa were involved in high-level talks on the project but their interest waned as the scale of infrastructure investment expected by Disney became apparent.

The development would have required at least $500 million investment in transport infrastructure while others feared the plan was really a development proposal dressed up as an attraction.

What Might be Realistic
While Disney is a globally known brand, Merlin Entertainments already has a presence in Melbourne with the SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium and in regional Victoria with the Otway Fly Treetop Adventure.

In addition, during a visit to Australia in June, Scott M. O'Neil, Merlin Entertainments’ newly appointed Chief Executive, indicated that the operator of Legoland Resorts and Discovery Centres along with Madame Tussauds, SEA LIFE and the Dungeons brands, is eyeing expansion in Australia.

Images: The Shanghai Disney Resort, which cost US$5.5 billion to build (top), Dreamworld's Steel Taipan (middle) and the SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium (below).