Australia’s Forbidden Forest Experience Relocated
Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience has traveled the world, and it was set to head from its current home in Singapore to Mount Martha in the Briars, a national park just outside of Melbourne, Australia, in spring. After backlash from Australian fans, however, the event will now be relocated to elsewhere in the park.
Following pressure from the global Harry Potter fandom, the decision has been made to move the experience from the fenced wildlife sanctuary of the park to a community forest area. More than 200 people attended a special council meeting with the Mornington Peninsula Shire council earlier this week to discuss the arrival of the Forbidden Forest Experience in the area, and the motion to move the event was unanimously passed.
Save Briars Sanctuary supporters outside their local council offices. (Source: yannicreative)
The council meeting came as a result of petitions against the experience, citing potential threats to local wildlife as the reason for the relocation. The original area is the only fenced sanctuary on the peninsula, and as such is home to rare wildlife and fragile ecosystems. Locals worried that the animals wouldn’t survive the impact of the thousands of fans expected to attend the experience. Over 22,000 people signed the petition to reconsider the experience’s place in the sanctuary, and fans came together to create a campaign called Save Briars Sanctuary. They wrote an open letter to Warner Bros. and several letters to J.K. Rowling. A spokesperson from the group, Louise Paige, shared the group’s relief that they were listened to, calling their success a “significant achievement” before continuing, “The location is a special and precious ecosystem. Our wildlife should never be put at risk for profit.”
Council officials stated that the risk to wildlife will be “greatly reduced” by moving the experience to the community forest area of the park, stating that all species present there are listed as common. Human traffic was also a major factor in the move, as the fenced sanctuary sees very little human activity or unnatural light, whereas the forest regularly has visitors.
A full ecological due diligence report for the new location will be released soon. Tickets for the event are on sale now, with the experience still currently set to open on April 6. Are you planning to go to the experience while it is down under?
