Coast should give no quarter to Macca’s
DEAR Jesus, Allah, Buddha and Krishna, say it ain’t so.
Donald Trump, COVID-19, closed borders ... 2020 was depressing enough.
We desperately need 2021 to be a little cheerier. But on Monday, Gold Coast Bulletin business editor Kathleen Skene reported news that stole another slice of our souls. The site of the former NightQuarter, for an all too short but wonderful period the beating cultural heart of the northern Gold Coast, was being eyed up by McDonald’s.
In the name of all that’s holy, has there ever been anything more depressing?
The Bulletin has, on many occasions, reached out to readers, asking what they think the Gold Coast needs. All sorts of things get suggested. New cinemas, concert venues, cable cars – even things that do not yet already exist anywhere else, like hyperloop trains. No one has ever written to say what we really need is another Macca’s.
It’s not like the fast-food chain is all bad. It gives thousands of kids a great start to their working lives, and even better, does fantastic work for less fortunate children via the Ronald McDonald House charities.
It’s more that, burger after countless burger, we are already incredibly well served.
It is near on impossible to drive two minutes down a main road on the Gold Coast without passing the golden arches.
Consider the north of the city, in the area around the former NightQuarter site now touted for yet another Big Mac bonanza. In the 19km from the McDonald’s at Gainsborough Green in Pimpama to the Macca’s at Pitcairn Way in Pac Pines, there are already seven of the outlets.
There are also a dizzying array of Hungry Jack’s and KFCs and Subways and every other fast-food restaurant you can think of. Our suburbs have been super-sized.
Some southern Gold Coast sophisticates may quip that northern tastes don’t extend far beyond a Happy Meal, but that is very far from reality. Just look at how the locals mourned the loss of NightQuarter, a foodie paradise that was constantly packed by eager locals.
And it’s not like the fastfood giants have not colonised the southern Gold Coast too. There are, in fact, a remarkable 14 McDonald’s restaurants between Broadbeach and Coolangatta – more than serve the 350,000 residents of the Sunshine Coast.
We need to turn the tide a little. Push back against the relentless march of the drivethroughs (or drive-thrus as they maddeningly insist on calling them). Remember, the Gold Coast is ultimately a tourist town. The former NightQuarter site is at the heart of the northern Gold Coast’s transport network and a hop and a skip from Movie World, Wet’n’Wild, Paradise Country, the Australian Outback Spectacular and the oft overlooked splendour of the Coombabah Lakelands. It would be a desperate shame if it became just yet another stopping off point for dollar burgers and frozen cokes.
Perhaps the owners of the land, which includes the state government, could show a little imagination and get behind something that would give the area a genuine lift. NightQuarter is not coming back, but instead of a concentration of fast-food restaurants (distressingly, it’s suggested a KFC might join McDonald’s on the site), something akin to the Harbour Town Eats precinct would do more for the area. Dare one say it, such a development might even include a performance space to help create a little of the NightQuarter vibe.
Without question, the much lamented market needs replacing with something more joyous than the sullen scrabble of stone chippings that are now the only feature of its former site.
If not a foodie haven, locals would love to see a cinema. Or a bowling alley. Or a skating rink.
Hell, anything but another Macca’s. After the year we’ve just been through, we need something better to cling to.