At a time when there is mounting concern about the level of development that is to be allowed inside many of Australia’s national parks, one tiny community is creating an almighty uproar about a development they fear will be allowed near a national park.
The development in question is a McDonald’s restaurant … and residents of the Victorian town of Tecoma have given the plan a massive thumbs down. They say, if allowed, the restaurant would destroy the atmosphere of the peaceful village nestled in the famed Dandenong Ranges where Melbourne’s leafy eastern suburbs meet the mountains and forests.
The residents have been fighting against the proposed restaurant since McDonald’s lodged its application in 2011 … and they have just taken their battle to the corporation’s home in Chicago.
The group raised $40,000 for four of its members to fly to the US to present a petition to the company’s chief executive Don Thompson. They also took out a $25,000 full-page advertisement in The Chicago Tribune.
Garry Muratore was one of the group who flew to Chicago.
“It is a David and Goliath story,” he told the ABC. “It’s too close to a kindergarten, it’s too close to a primary school – it’ll be the closest McDonald’s to a national park in the country.”
Although the local council originally rejected the McDonald’s plan after receiving more than 1,100 written objections, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal overruled the council’s decision and gave McDonald’s permission for the development to proceed.
Last month, the bulldozers moved in to demolish the existing building on the site and the new restaurant looks set to be constructed … despite the frantic efforts of residents. McDonald’s is now seeking an injunction to keep protesters off the proposed site.
McDonald’s Australia chief executive Catriona Noble says the company just wants to get on with business.
“I regularly get emails from people in the community who say they do want us there in their town in Tecoma,” she told the ABC. “So I am surprised that there’s such a vocal and aggressive opposition to us from what I think are a small number of protesters.”
Does coming across a big name fast food restaurant in a beautiful ‘remote’ part of Australia devalue the experience for you? Do you think there should be guidelines about what should be built near national parks, as well as what should be built inside them? Is this progress?
Comment below.
consider it is not in a park will employ young people attract people to spend money and god forbid may do some good
If it’s designed to fit in with the local environment (as many new Maccas stores are) then it will be great. Anyway remember 40 million Australians by 2030 and 9 billion people on the planet by then, we need places to live, places to visit, places to eat.etc especially when we retire.
If the towns people don`t want it then it should not be allowed
I agree. If Macca’s is successful in having the take away built it would be interesting to measure the obesity rate before and after. The town folk probably realize that next it will be a Pizza Hut, then a Kentucky Fried Chicken. We’ve seen it all before
I can see there could be lots of litter