Werribee Open Range Zoo (B: Epilogue)

CASE PROGRAM 2011-76.2 Werribee Open Range Zoo (B: Epilogue) In June 2008, the Victorian Government’s inter-departmental committee lodged its report on the proposed African Safari World at Werribee Open Range Zoo. At the beginning of July, Tourism Minister Tim Holding announced that the plan would not be proceeding, stating that: “While the tourism merits of the proposal were clear, we felt the financial contribution that would be required from the state government was too great. There would also have been a number of other hurdles for this project to work, including additional infrastructure requirements and governance arrangements with Zoos Victoria regarding the management of animals.”1 An Age newspaper article the next day claimed that the plan had been scrapped because the Committee believed that the plans failed to adequately address a range of issues including: the problem of multiple land titles, the complexity of transferring Crown leases to a company, potential loss of revenue to the existing zoo, and animal welfare issues.2 The Committee also reportedly found that the level of public expenditure required would greatly exceed Village Roadshow’s estimates. “These sorts of proposals are always more complex and challenging than they first seem,” said an unnamed government source.3 Insiders felt that investing large sums of money in a theme park when Victorians were grappling with rising living expenses and This case epilogue was written by Marinella Padula, Australia and New Zealand School of Government for Professor John Alford for teaching purposes to accompany the case 2009-76.1. The use of teaching materials is restricted to authorised persons. Cases are not necessarily intended as a complete account of the events described. While every reasonable effort has been made to ensure accuracy at the time of publication, subsequent developments may mean that certain details have since changed. This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence, except for logos, trademarks, photographs and other content marked as supplied by third parties. No licence is given in relation to third party material. Version 30052011. Distributed by the Case Program, The Australia and New Zealand School of Government, www.anzsog.edu.au . 1 Higginbottom, N. ‘Plan for Werribee zoo theme park scrapped’ Herald-Sun, 1 July 2008. 2 Millar, R. ‘Red flag over zoo theme park’ The Age, 2 July 2008. 3 ibid. an overburdened public transport system would not be well received. At the same time, serious questions were being raised about the value and future of Melbourne’s loss- making Formula One Grand Prix.Prior to the Committee report, former Werribee Zoo Director David Hancocks flagged the possibility that the proposal might be somewhat optimistic: “They're talking about building a world-class facility for $220 million, which is a very small figure if they’re going to deliver anything of quality. They have compared the park to Animal Kingdom in the United States, but Disney spent US$1.5 billion on it, over a decade ago.”4 He also doubted whether there was sufficient evidence to support the claim that the facility would attract an extra one million visitors: “I’ve often been in audience projection modelling exercises and it rapidly became very clear that people just grab numbers out of the air. There is no science to it.”5 Pasquale Sgro, Professor of Economics and Tourism at Deakin University concurred: “Unless you’ve got hard evidence it would be very foolish of them to try and carry it out...I think you run into danger of destroying that attraction by trying to change it to a theme park.”6 However, the Government had not closed the door completely on the concept. Even as the plans for African Safari World were rejected, Minister Holding was quoted as saying, “A major theme park remains a gap in Victoria’s tourism offering and we would welcome viable and appropriate proposals from the private sector.”7 Meanwhile, Zoos Victoria chief executive John Wills was also looking ahead, stating that: “Zoos Victoria is finalising a 20-year vision and I look forward to working with Government on our exciting plans for the future. We’re looking forward to further developing Werribee Open Range Zoo as a true iconic tourist destination for Victoria.”8 4 Tait, C. ‘Not so wild about theme park.’ Werribee Banner, 7 May 2008. 5 Hutchinson, T. ‘Victoria's state zoo to become an amusement park’ The 7.30 Report, ABC TV, Broadcast: 1 May 2008. 6 ibid 7 Millar, R. ‘Red flag over zoo theme park’ The Age, 2 July 2008. 8 Millar, R. ‘Zoo park plan fails come in from wild’ The Age 2 July 2008. .

Load more