{"id":700956,"date":"2026-05-28T22:57:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T22:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/700956\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T22:57:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T22:57:16","slug":"kids-protest-against-fast-food-giant-after-mcdonalds-buys-castlemaine-land-for-4-6m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/700956\/","title":{"rendered":"Kids protest against fast-food giant after McDonald’s buys Castlemaine land for $4.6m"},"content":{"rendered":"

About 100 children and parents with homemade signs gathered at the site of a proposed McDonald’s in historic Victorian gold rush town Castlemaine to protest against the fast-food giant’s arrival.<\/p>\n

McDonald’s this month confirmed it planned to invest more than $3.5 million in a new restaurant<\/a> in the central Victorian town.<\/p>\n

Wren, 11, said she was disgusted by the prospect of a McDonald’s in her town.<\/p>\n

“It’s such unhealthy food, it’s right across from a school and a sports ground, and where the farmers market is,” Wren said.<\/p>\n

“I’m quite determined not to let a Maccas be built.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Siblings Alby, 8, and 11-year-old Wren say they don’t want a McDonald’s in Castlemaine. (ABC News: Nate Woodall)<\/p>\n

“There’s been a load of arguments at our school about not having Maccas or having Maccas,” her brother, Alby, 8, said.<\/p>\n

Last month, McDonald’s won a court battle, <\/a>despite community opposition, overturning a council’s rejection of its plans for a 24\/7 fast-food restaurant at Northcote, in Melbourne’s inner north.<\/p>\n

Wren’s mother, Hannah O’Keefe said the turnout in Castlemaine was inspiring.<\/p>\n

“One kid said, ‘You know, this is our town. We live here. It’s gonna be our town in the future. Surely, we have some role to play in the decision making’. And I just thought that just cuts to the core of it,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Castlemaine mother Hannah O\u2019Keefe says a McDonald’s will adversely affect the health of her town. (ABC News: Nate Woodall)<\/p>\n

Land bought for $4.6m<\/p>\n

Property records reveal McDonald’s purchased the land at 72-80 Forest St for $4.62 million in May.<\/p>\n

The land was previously owned by Brendan Blake, who owns a Maxi IGA on the opposite corner of the town’s roundabout.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"exterior<\/p>\n

A Maxi IGA is located nearby the planned McDonald’s (ABC News: Nate Woodall)<\/p>\n

Mr Blake, who lives in Toorak, Melbourne, unsuccessfully fought for a decade against Woolworths’s<\/a> plans to build a competing supermarket, which opened last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said his supermarket trade had plummeted by 50 per cent since Woolworths opened, and had triggered his decision to sell the Forest St site.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I needed the cashflow to come back into the business,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I really hate to throw myself into the same mix as bringing a major [business] into Castlemaine, but this is what I’ve had to do to keep the store open.”<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Brendan Blake owned the site sold to McDonald’s in May. (ABC News: Shannon Schubert)<\/p>\n

Mr Blake said he didn’t set out to lure McDonald’s as a buyer.<\/p>\n

“Anyone could have bought that site,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The fact that it was McDonald’s is simply a result of the parcel being put up for sale that somebody wanted more than anybody else.”<\/p>\n

Despite the downturn in his supermarket business, Mr Blake said he had no plans to close.<\/p>\n

More news from regional Victoria<\/p>\n

Mount Alexander Shire Council said it had not received a planning application for the site and any future application would be considered on its merits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Planning applications are assessed against the Mount Alexander Planning Scheme, which is a public document available on our website, for anyone who might want to look at what it sets out,” a council spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Last month, McDonald’s won a court battle<\/a> despite community opposition to its plans for a 24\/7 fast-food restaurant at Northcote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About 100 children and parents with homemade signs gathered at the site of a proposed McDonald’s in historic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,341276,99,129711,1295,47008,341277,53664,13558,2647,341278,20637,295318],"class_list":["post-700956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brendan-blake","tag-business","tag-castlemaine","tag-food","tag-iga","tag-land-in-castlemaine","tag-mcdonalds","tag-planning","tag-protest","tag-real-estate-in-in-castlemaine","tag-school","tag-takeaway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}