New Zealand: Lord of the Rings creators stop divisive land development

A controversial NZ$500m ($298m) housing development plan in New Zealand has been scuppered by Lord of the Rings director Sir Peter Jackson.

He and his wife Dame Fran Walsh, who co-wrote the film trilogy, have bought the former Air Force Base at Shelly Bay in the country’s capital, Wellington.

It means that plans to build hundreds of houses, as well as commercial businesses, will no longer take place.

Mr Jackson and Ms Walsh say they want to restore the bay’s “natural beauty”.

“It’s a wonderful coastline that holds a great deal of cultural and historical significance,” Mr Jackson and Ms Walsh said in a statement.

The pair, who are both from the Wellington area, have been long-term opponents of the development.

“Our immediate goal is to start the landscaping and replanting work required to return Shelly Bay to its natural state.”

Mr Jackson and Ms Walsh said they would look at ways the land could be used for both arts and recreation in the longer term.

The price they paid for the land was not revealed.

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau said she looked forward to sitting down with them and the council to discuss what their vision was for the land’s future use.

However, Ms Whanau added she was sorry to see that an increase in low-cost housing, which was part of the development, would now be lost.

Wellington, like much of New Zealand, is in the midst of a housing crisis brought on by sky-high private property prices and rents, as well as a shortage of state housing.

It is an issue on voters’ minds ahead of the country’s general election next month.

“Wellington’s housing crisis just got worse,” tweeted opposition MP Christopher Bishop, the National Party’s housing spokesperson, in response to the news.

The announcement about the land’s sale to Mr Jackson and Ms Walsh follows a long-running dispute over what to do with the land, which has divided locals.

A spokeswoman for Mau Whenua, a group made up of some members of the local Māori tribe who opposed the development, said they were pleased.

“Sir Peter and Dame Fran have a very intimate understanding of our position and the high cultural significance of the whenua [land] at Marukaikuru/Shelly Bay and have been extraordinary supporters of our kaupapa [cause],” said Catherine Love on social media.

Mau Whenua, which has been backed by Mr Jackson, held a two-year occupation on the land in protest that ended in 2022.

Shelly Bay was settled by Māori before the land was sold in the 19th Century during the British colonisation of New Zealand.

It was used as a military base for more than 100 years before it was decommissioned and land was bought by local Māori as part of the Treaty of Waitangi settlements.

Some Wellington residents, interviewed by Television New Zealand on Thursday, were also pleased the land had been brought by Mr Jackson and Ms Walsh.

“I like Peter Jackson’s idea rather than have concrete buildings, with the beautiful view we have there at the moment,” said one.

It is not the first time land has been bought in New Zealand from under the nose of developers in order to preserve it.

In 2021, a public-backed charity paid NZ$2.15m to buy part of a beach following efforts to subdivide it in order to build houses.