Australia’s Disneyland dreams could still come true in Melbourne’s southeast
After “exhaustive research” Frankston has been declared the perfect location for Australia’s first Disneyland as the local council weighs in on the possible arrival of Mickey and his mates.
South East
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It’s own version of Monopoly is already in the works and now Frankston is now being touted as an ideal location for Australia’s first Disneyland.
A campaign to bring the global phenomenon to Melbourne’s southeast was kicked off on Thursday by Libertarian MP for South East Metro David Limbrick.
Mr Limbrick said that after doing “exhaustive research” into the best locations in the Southern Hemisphere for a new Disney theme park, he had narrowed it down to three potential locations.
“They are so good I cannot easily split them,” he recently told state parliament.
“To prove it is a small world after all, it turns out the best locations are in my electorate: Dandenong, Cranbourne or Frankston.”
The Walt Disney Company in September last year revealed it was developing plans “to accelerate and expand investment” in its parks and experiences to nearly double capital expenditure over a decade, to $60bn.
It said this included investing in international theme parks.
The revelation reignited rumours that Disneyland was coming to Werribee but the local council was quick to quash the gossip.
Last week Mr Limbrick called on tourism minister Steve Dimopoulos to tell the Walt Disney Company that “every assistance would be given to them if they were to establish a theme park, that they would be welcomed by the people of southeast Melbourne and this is the only logical place for the happiest place on earth”.
He did his electorate had tens of thousands of families with children “looking for things to do” and a workforce that would love to live and work close to home.
“Crucially we have an airport at Moorabbin and plenty of open spaces connected by the Mordialloc Freeway,” he said.
Mr Limbrick’s call was quickly spruiked online by the local council’s tourism arm Imagine Frankston.
However, mayor Nathan Conroy was tight lipped about the possibility that Mickey and his mates could be part of Frankston’s current reinvention.
He told the Herald Sun that he was “aware of these discussions but unfortunately cannot comment any further at this stage”.
Locals had a bit more to say.
Advance Frankston founder Garry Ebbott thought the seaside suburb was the perfect location for a Disney theme park and resort.
But finding room for a major theme park would be tricky.
“Frankston is pretty much landlocked,” Mr Ebbott said.
“Unless there was an appetite for giving up some green wedge land, which I don’t see happening, there’s really no room.
“The only options with enough land to build something as significant as a Disney theme park would be in Skye or Langwarrin South.”
Mr Ebbott said a Disney theme park in Frankston had the potential to convince the state and federal governments to fund an extension of the Frankston train line to Crib Point on the Mornington Peninsula.
“Finally the peninsula would get the public transport infrastructure it needs.”
Victoria Tourism Industry Council chief, Felicia Mariani, told the Herald Sun on May 13 that the state desperately needed more major attractions like theme parks.
“Whether it is Disney or some other type of major attraction, the reality is those sort of new attractions are really critical to driving visitation into Victoria, and in particular having something that sits in the greater Melbourne region, as opposed to Melbourne CBD,” Ms Mariani said.