Mouse of the South: Wild plan to bring Disneyland to Adelaide revealed
Walt were they thinking? A top-level plan to bring one of the world’s largest tourist attractions to Adelaide has been revealed. Move over Aldinga, Disneyland beckons.
SA News
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Creating the world’s seventh Disneyland resort in Adelaide was floated by key state economic advisers as an extraordinary opportunity to create a unique tourism attraction.
The Disneyland concept was generated as a “thought bubble” during talks by the now-defunct Economic Development Board (EDB), under former Labor premier Jay Weatherill’s government.
But the plot did not thicken and the idea remained a Mickey Mouse scheme, with no site considered and no approach made to the Walt Disney Company in a bid to secure a licence.
“The idea was that there would only ever be one Disneyland in Australia – so why not Adelaide?” one former EDB member told The Advertiser.
The former economic adviser said the scheme remained “nothing beyond a thought bubble”.
Disney’s six resorts are in the US (Anaheim and Orlando), France (Paris), China (Shanghai), Hong Kong and Japan (Tokyo).
The Anaheim original Disneyland Resort, opened in 1955, is the Californian city’s biggest employer, generating 19,000 jobs. It attracted 18.7m visitors in 2019.
The 200ha site includes two theme parks, three hotels and a shopping, entertainment and dining district.
The Disneyland Adelaide “thought bubble” concept was among numerous tourism ideas discussed by the EDB, which was an independent advisory board charged with generating plans for jobs and investment, after it was reshuffled by Mr Weatherill in 2014.
It is believed the southern Adelaide region was considered for potential sites but none was pinpointed.
The Economic Development Board was created in 2002 by then-premier Mike Rann and the body continued under Mr Weatherill, before being disbanded after Steven Marshall’s Liberal government won office in 2018.
Renowned Australian business leader Robert Champion de Crespigny was the inaugural chairman, while IT entrepreneur Raymond Spencer was the group’s final chairman. Other prominent members included former Liberal premier Rob Kerin, former Santos chief David Knox and Thomas Foods International chief Darren Thomas.
More than 16 years earlier, a secret deal to bring Disneyland to Queensland’s Gold Coast was being negotiated behind closed doors for more than two years but fell apart over an $845m dispute over costs.
In a letter to the-then Queensland premier Peter Beattie, Disney said: “For a Disney project to be feasible, it would require direct government support including land, infrastructure, tax incentives and capital dollars for construction costs of the theme park of at least $US300m ($427m) to $US500m ($713m), most likely toward the upper end of this range.”
But Mr Beattie replied by saying his government was not prepared to commit that money.
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