Published February 2025
Hendra residents are fundraising to appeal a McDonald’s fast-food store to be built on the corner of Nudgee and Gerler roads.
Hendra Locals Action Group founder Bill Moore said: “These places are being foisted on us and marketed to our kids. They are very difficult to stop but someone has to stand up and have a go.”
“There are five adjoining properties that will now have a 24/7 fast food operation next to them and there’s nothing they can do about it.
It’s the first time ever in Australian history – What precedent does that set? No suburb in Brisbane is safe from this now,” he said.
Brisbane City Council approved the project on January 21 despite 436 objections, and the group has only a couple of weeks to lodge their appeal with the court.
The basis for their appeal will be that a commercial business was approved on character residential zoned land, its intensity and scale is a significant departure from the current low impact car rental business, and what Mr Moore described as a “clearly flawed” traffic report.
“The traffic report is clearly flawed – it doesn’t include local streets, doesn’t make allowance for that fact that 400m away is a police station, and 200m from that a fire station. Those emergency services have to navigate the intersection at speed,” he said.
The group are also concerned that this approval may now attract other operators to the area, as fast-food stores are often located in clusters.
They estimate their costs will be $10,000 – $20,000; the group’s GoFundMe page is gofund.me/822ce065.
Photo caption: Jennifer Lowe and Bill Moore. Photography: Kate Lockyer
