MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire councillors will look to explore “alternative delivery models” for The Briars master plan to ease the financial impact on ratepayers as the project ran into a $3m loss. Development of the master plan for the 230-hectare conservation park and wildlife sanctuary in Mt Martha, which includes a heritage homestead, began in 2018 and sets out a vision for the site’s potential.
Among the master plan’s successful projects has been the expansion of the existing wildlife sanctuary, which is nearly finished with 7000 plants having been donated (The Briars expansion nears completion, The News 10/04/25). The Ark Program, which aims to re-introduce locally endangered and extinct flora and fauna to The Briars, has also seen the Mt Martha Bundy to be the first species reintroduced along with 18 southern brown bandicoots.
But in considering a report of the master plan at their 8 April meeting, councillors voted in support of a motion to postpone a “full review” of the master plan for two years until “immediate priorities are undertaken” after the review was originally planned for this year. Councillors also supported a motion to hold a workshop to explore “alternative delivery models that reduce the financial burden on ratepayers while enabling the development of high-quality facilities”. The models include public-private partnerships, joint ventures, and expressions of interest from prospective partners across the tourism, education, environmental, and cultural sectors. Additionally, councillors supported that priority funding went towards the opening of the heritage homestead and the display of Napoleonic collection “to help ensure a revenue flow for other required works”.
The 1846-built homestead was home to Alexander Balcombe and his family, who had lived on St. Helena Island. When Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to St Helena in 1815, a close friendship was formed between the family and the emperor. Today, a collection of Napoleonic memorabilia has been kept at The Briars.
Mayor Cr Anthony Marsh said he supported pausing the full review because the “biggest frustration I have with council broadly is we do plans and designs and then we rehash them, and we don’t deliver”. “We should be exploring attracting those innovative business ventures, technology ventures, agriculture ventures, and education ventures down here in a more strategic way,” he said.
Deputy mayor Cr Paul Pingiario said while some great projects were being achieved at The Briars, there was a multi-million dollar “ongoing deficit with no sustainable model in place”. “In 2018, this council resolved that The Briars should shift to be cost neutral, that was the goal, that was the commitment … now in 2024, The Briars forecast to run about $3.036m loss,” he said. “Let’s be honest, The Briars master plan, adopted in 2019, has not delivered on its promise, not financially, not operationally, but there’s still some fantastic work going on there and it is an incredible community asset.”
Pingiario also noted the shire had spent $800,000 of ratepayer’s money on the homestead, (with Heritage Victoria contributing $150,000), “and now we’re being asked to approve another $700,000 to finish the job – that’s $1.65m on one building and still not open to the public”. “On top of that, we spent $280,000 upgrading the restaurant and there’s a budget bid for another $400,000. Also, the master plan update itself I think is sitting at around a $400,000 budget bid – we need to do a bit better on this.” “It’s time to stop spending money for the sake of spending money. We need to do it transparently and accountably.”
As previously reported by The News, the business case said the master plan could have an economic impact of $14.49m during construction and $10.51m per year on the peninsula once operational. But with the plan and business case now five years old, “significant changes to the underlying economic and social conditions have occurred during that time,” a shire report said.
Cr Kate Roper, who voted against holding a workshop, said while The Briars was a significant asset, it was also a “money pit”. “There’s no community building in Hastings open and we’re looking at some of the really significant spends on this asset, so while I appreciate it and understand the love people have for it, it really concerns me that we’re looking at another workshop,” she said. “To me, it’s a continuing money pit and it’s just disappointing.”
Cr Max Patton said while the master plan was undertaken some years ago, he believed with the “changing landscape that we’ve had with COVID and just the acceleration technology that we’ve seen, we could probably use a short workshop in the interim between looking at a full review later on”.
Cr David Gill addressed the homestead renovation project, saying there was “no need” to spend a further $700,000 on the building as it was a heritage building and “you do not have to be compliant with current legislation, it’s only if you’re re-making the building”.
First published in the Mornington News – 22 April 2025
