By Mikayla van Loon
Mount Evelyn is a community prepared to fight for the quaintness of their foothills township as a global fast food company prepares plans for a major site development.
The No McDonald’s in Mount Evelyn action committee, led by Amy Kidd, held its first public meeting on Thursday 4 April seeing close to 300 people attend the forum.
“It was really validating to have so many people turn up. But to be honest, we already knew there was a really strong opposition to this because we’ve had our Facebook group grow to over 1000 members in just a few months,” she said.
“So we’re well aware of its strong opposition in the community, but it was great to meet some of those people in person and have a more in depth conversation and strategise about stopping this from going ahead.”
The plans, which are still under review by Yarra Ranges Council, propose to build a 24/7 McDonald’s at the site of the current futsal stadium on Hereford Road, with an adjacent childcare centre.
The dual design of the development was a point of concern for many of the people who attended the meeting, with Ms Kidd saying numerous questions around safety were raised.
“They want to build a childcare right next to a McDonald’s. Are there any safety measures that are going to be put in place to keep children safe?,” Ms Kidd said.
“We also are aware, almost all the police we’ve spoken to have said, without exception, McDonald’s increases illegal activity in an area.
“So that’s something we’re deeply concerned about, especially given the fact we don’t have a 24 hour police station here in Mount Evelyn.”
With members of the Tecoma No Maccas campaign at the meeting, Ms Kidd said although they lost their battle, it was still good to understand their approach and gain advice.
Committee member Clare Worsnop, who was involved in the three year refusal campaign of a Safeway, which ultimately won in 2008, said it proves it is possible to win against big corporations.
“Knowing that we fought, and more importantly, won against Safeway, which was huge, and we’re still the only town in Australia that has ever done it, puts us in a pretty believable space for people to say, ‘Well, we did it, we understood it, and we won’,” she said.
“We went through the whole process, which was, I’ll have to say, not the easiest process I’ve ever been through and not one I would have cared to do again but here we are doing it again, and Safeway or Woolworths is a similar sort of big corporate body, just like McDonald’s.”
As the president of the Mount Evelyn Environment Protection and Progress Association, Ms Worsnop said not only is there the concern for human safety but for wildlife safety.
“We have seven endangered species in Mount Evelyn and one of them, which is the symbol of Mount Evelyn, is the powerful owl,” she said.
“There’s a pair of powerful owls who will be directly affected by the development because their nest site and their roost site are very close to that development.
“So under the flora and fauna guarantee the council and the government has an obligation to protect the habitat and nest sites of an endangered species.”
Despite the Tecoma McDonald’s being approved with a condition that the immediate vicinity must be kept clean of rubbish, Ms Worsnop said that has not happened, a concern for the environment of Mount Evelyn.
“If a fast food outlet comes, be it McDonald’s or whatever, there’ll be lots of rubbish, there’ll be food thrown around, there’ll be scraps everywhere you go. That will attract rats and mice,” Ms Worsnop said.
“That will in turn affect the native little bush rats by destroying their habitat and taking it over and even killing them.”
Another impact of rubbish attracting rats and mice is the use of rodenticides, which if birds of prey or possums consume will result in their deaths as well.
Giving all the information they could at the time of the meeting, Ms Kidd and Ms Worsnop said it would allow the community to make up their own mind moving forward, based on what was presented to them.
“We wanted to have the meeting now because we wanted to just give information to people to reassure them of where the process is, and help let them know we’re there to help them have their say, and make that as easy as possible,” Ms Kidd said.
Knowing it could be a long campaign, Ms Kidd said she is prepared to take it on.
“I’m definitely motivated and committed to fighting this for as long as it takes. If we do nothing, then it’s definitely going to be built.”
As a passionate Mount Evelyn resident, Ms Worsnop said seeing younger people, who have perhaps only lived in the town for a few years, want to protect the town they have has been inspiring.
“Amy [has] done so much work to get this group together. She’s a newbie in the town. She’s only been here a couple of years. She’s young, she’s vibrant and she’s very calm.
“It’s our job to hand it over to them, but support them along the way…because it’s their future. It’s their children’s future, and it’s their town.
“It was a really wonderful experience to see how the community still values the special things that are in Mount Evelyn, our wildlife, our trees, our village atmosphere, our camaraderie.
“That’s inspiring for any community to have and it’s just wonderful. So it makes me feel proud to be a Mount Evelynite.”
