Bathurst's third McDonald's restaurant is unlikely to open until August

The restaurant, which is part of a $4.5 million development at Robin Hill at the old Bathurst Automotive Group site, will be joined by other businesses including Red Rooster, Subway and 7-Eleven.

The McDonald's restaurant was scheduled to open in late June, but licensee Todd Bryant, who also owns the McDonald's outlets in Kelso and Bathurst, said this week that it is unlikely to open until mid-August due to development application (DA) requirements.

Despite the short delay, he said he's pleased at how quickly the site has developed in recent months.

"Mainbrace is the agent that's building it and they've done an outstanding job," he said.

"They've kept with the timetable that McDonald's and myself wanted, which was to open by the end of June.

"Fortunately we had it built in time, but unfortunately the DA won't allow us to open until the outside is finished.

"Mainly that's the slip lane out the front, which is a part of 7-Eleven."

Mr Bryant said McDonald's attempted to put measures in place to open earlier, but he was ultimately knocked back by council.

"We requested that we put fencing up to block-off 7-Eleven because we'll still have our car park and we'll have our driveway finished," he said.

"Unfortunately it can't be done because it's all the one DA."

Mr Bryant has previously told ACM that the new McDonald's restaurant is hoping to recruit between 120 and 150 employees.

He said McDonald's is recruiting for the new restaurant and is hoping that 100 staff will be employed by the opening and the remainder recruited by the end of 2023.

The new McDonald's restaurant in West Bathurst will be fitted with modern décor and feature a McCafé, dual-lane drive-through and a PlayPlace for families.

Bathurst's first McDonald's restaurant opened on August 1, 1989, when more than 700 people packed into the fast food outlet at lunchtime. Queues were reported to be stretching out into the car park.

The Kelso outlet opened its doors on April 15, 2012, with the restaurant celebrating its 10-year anniversary last year.

The development application for the West Bathurst project was lodged with Bathurst Regional Council in June 2021.

The service station and all food and drink tenancies, which will all be based at 98 Corporation Avenue off the Mitchell Highway, are proposed to be 24/7 operations.

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