The streaming company announced plans to film a series called “Byron Baes” in a press release on April 7, sparking opposition in the form of an online petition that had garnered more than 6,700 signatures on Monday.
“It’s a universally recognized truth that an influencer who has a good number of followers should need a beach backdrop,” Netflix said.
Byron Bay is “the perfect setting for our next original Australian Netflix,” which will follow “the hottest Instagrammers living their best lives,” the press release continued.
The planned “docu-soap” is called “Byron Baes.”
Netflix
But locals have drafted a petition to ask local authorities to refuse to grant filming permits and revoke permits that have already been granted, citing the detrimental impact of filming on the community and the environment. .
“We are a community that is experiencing significant challenges driven by the rapidly changing culture of influence and resident demographics,” the petition says.
“We don’t want it to become the perfect backdrop and magnet for social media influencers. We don’t want to appear in ‘Byron Baes.'”
The petition calls on the authorities to “address systemic issues of housing affordability, coastal erosion, rising unemployment, traffic management challenges, low high school completion rates and high levels of gender and domestic violence “.
The community is concerned about “the impact of showing up on a global stage in a way that can only harm our local environment and our community.”
Ben Gordon, owner of the Byron Bay general store, told 7News, a subsidiary of CNN, that he turned down the opportunity for his business to appear in the series.
“They’re inventing their own narrative, drama and gossip and the result will paint a completely misleading and damaging picture of what Byron is,” Gordon said.