The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal last month approved a deeply unpopular McDonald's restaurant in Tecoma in Melbourne's Dandenong ranges.
Since the approval the local community has organised to reclaim space and created a garden, maintained an around-the-clock protest vigil at the proposed site and gathered thousands of signatures on petitions against the proposal.
Below is a statement from Murrundindi, Headman of Melbourne’s Wurundjeri nation against the development.
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Murrundindi, Headman of Melbourne’s Wurundjeri nation, is visiting Tecoma’s community protest site tomorrow and showing his public support with a welcome to country ceremony.
Murrundindi has provided the following statement in support of the No Maccas in the Hills Campaign: “I’m a great believer that the environment should stop the way it is. I’m sick and tired of big companies coming in on our land and desecrating our land with junk foods.
“This land is a very spiritual land, where my ancestors roamed for thousands of years. I have seen, over the last 60 years of my life, the land going backwards because of European settlement and their way of life.
“We should all go back to basics, respect the land as our mother who gives us the resources to live and to survive from.”
[For more information on the campaign to Stop Maccas in the Hills, please visit burgeroff.org.]