NSW history: McDonald’s catered Aussie menu to local tastes since 1971 opening

While many derided the fast food chain for Americanising our food, the original McDonald’s menu was designed to please local palates.

A man dressed as a clown hands out yoyos to children and a busload of guests are chartered to a site in the western suburbs of Sydney.

The date is December 30, 1971 and it’s an event that will herald a change to the food culture in Australia — the opening of the country’s first McDonald’s.

The event at Yagoona may have been a grand affair, but it was not the first time American-style burgers had tempted Sydneysiders – not by a long shot.

McDonald’s weren’t even the first American hamburger franchise to open here. But it is without doubt the most successful.

The first McDonald’s menu posted in the Yagoona restaurant revealed a 14-item menu that included the Big Mac at 49c, a cheeseburger at 25c, french fries (with an explanatory “chips” in brackets) at 15c and the hot apple pie at 20c. The Quarter Pounder and Fillet o’ Fish wouldn’t arrive in Australia until 1976.

The first McDonald’s in Australia opened in Yagoona in 1971.

But Jan O’Connell, food historian and author of AustralianFoodTimeline.com.au, says what is more interesting about the menu is what was specifically created to tempt Aussies.

“The menu was so different to the American ones,” she says.

“It had things like fish and chips and chicken and chips — things that Australians would recognise.

“McDonald’s does this around the world; we think of American global chains as imposing their food on the world, which they do to an extent, but McDonald’s do make an attempt to please local palettes. A perfect example of this is the McOz with beetroot.”

Prior to the arrival of McDonald’s — and Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1968 and Pizza Hut in 1970 — fast food in Australia was restricted to meat pies, fish and chips, Chiko Rolls, Australianised dim sims and our own style of hamburgers.

O’Connell adds there was also an influence from Greek milk bar owners on this style of eating.

“A lot of these Greek cafe owners had relatives in America, I would say Greeks were responsible for a lot of the Americanisation of milk bars and cafes, which were inspired in a large part by diners and burger joints,” she says.

This year McDonald’s is celebrating 50 years since opening its doors in Australia.

And we had been introduced to US-style burgers and hot dogs as early as the 1930s, food that was made more popular by American GIs stationed here during World War II.

A columnist in the Katoomba Daily, whose byline was simply “Observer”, said in February 1935 “a hamburger is only a decorated rissole after all,” after saying he had visited the popular Sydney eateries of Hamburger Joe’s and California Hank’s.

“Hot dog shops and malted-milk bars are as numerous in Sydney as flies are in the summertime … these shops turn out hot dogs, hamburgers, Spanish omelettes, egg rolls and other flavoured tid-bits of the great USA public.”

In the year before McDonald’s launched here, a burger joint called Hardee’s opened in Earlwood with the quirky jingle “Hurry on down to Hardee’s where the burgers are barbecued”.

They were a joint venture between Kellogg’s Food Products and the Hardee’s chain of hamburger restaurants in America and their flagship store included a drive-through window, which had not been seen before in Australia.

Inside the first McDonald’s in Yagoona.

Hardee’s was an instant hit in Sydney and by 1972 it had opened four more locations — Liverpool, Canterbury, Manly Vale and Kogarah — with plans to open up to 100 locations throughout the country.

They ended up with 12 locations in Sydney and six in Melbourne before they suddenly closed a few years later, as Michael Wayne details on his blog Past/Lives Of The Near Future.

“In mid-1975 Willesee, a current affairs program on Channel 7, received a tip-off from Bankstown Council garbage men that a hamburger restaurant at Bankstown had, on a regular basis, some very odd items in its dumpsters out the back,” he wrote.

“When reporters from the program went down to the Bankstown Hardee’s to investigate, they found that the bins outside were full of dog food cans. Further investigation revealed the dog food was in fact being sliced into patties and used in the burgers at this particular location.”

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MACCAS AROUND THE WORLD

If you’ve ever eaten in a McDonald’s overseas, you may have noticed a few unusual menu items. In India, you’ll find the McAloo Tikki burger, made with a vegetarian fried patty of peas, potato and aromatic spices.

Italians get to eat the Panzerotti, which is tomato and mozzarella cheese encased in a pastry shell. The Bulgogi Burger, featuring a patty marinated in the country’s famous barbecue sauce, is popular in Korea, while the Chinese have their version of the hot apple pie — the Taro Pie.

And Canada’s menu features the nation’s favourite snack, poutine, or fries topped with cheese curds and gravy.

Lady Sonia McMahon (centre) eating a Chiko Roll in Victoria in 1972.

WHEN WE GRABBED THE CHIKO ROLL

We have Bendigo boilermaker Frank McEnroe to thank for the advent of Aussie favourite the Chiko Roll. Inspired by the Chinese spring roll, Frank set out to make a meatier version he could sell from his food truck at football matches and shows. It was first sold at the Wagga Wagga Agricultural Show in 1951 and was a hit.

But it wasn’t until the 1970s the savoury fast food handful — which contained minced mutton, celery, cabbage, barley, rice, carrot and spices encased in a deep fried dough — hit its peak.

Food historian Jan O’Connell says about 40 million Chiko Rolls were sold each year in the 1970s.