When will Gympie’s Hungry Jack’s reopen?

Hungry drivers have been itching to get back into one of the Bruce Highway’s flood-ravaged fast-food outlets. Now, an expected reopening for the upgraded store can be revealed.

Gympie’s only Hungry Jacks is earmarked to reopen as early as the middle of May, as a million-dollar project to refurbish the store is underway.

The restaurant, located on the corner of Rose Street and the Bruce Hwy, was hard-hit by the February floods when the Mary River peaked at 22.96 metres.

The store has been closed since.

However, it was recently turned into a construction site, with project manager Matt Skerrett telling the Gympie Times it could be reopen for business as early as mid-May.

It comes as a number of businesses and community groups across the region continue to struggle in the wake of the floods.

Mr Skerrett said there was no structural damage sustained to the building, but the interior essentially needed to be gutted.

Additionally, the building had undergone a complete clean and sanitisation after the floods.

I wasn’t there, so I couldn’t tell you what the damage was … but (I was told) the water reached about 1200 centimetres, 1.2 metres,” Mr Skerrett said.

The whole store will undergo a complete refurbishment and receive a new layout in line with the updated Hungry Jack’s company requirements, according to Mr Skerrett, which included a new and safer layout for the kitchen.

He estimated the cost of the upgrades was roughly $1 million.

The repairs are estimated to be complete between the middle and end of May, 2022; and Mr Skerrett said the store’s reopening would not be far behind.

The Gympie Times has also reached out to the building owner, Lars Hedberg, for further comment.