Damien Long is building the Territory’s next McDonald’s

Builder Damien Long went to extraordinary lengths to get from Melbourne to the Territory. Read what he did.

Builder Damien Long took matters into his own hands when he needed to move construction materials from Melbourne to Darwin for the new McDonald’s restaurant he is building in Berrimah.

The Melbourne-based chippy fulfilled a life-long ambition to drive big trucks when he secured a multi-combination licence, bought a huge Mercedes rig and drove up the guts of the country in his own B-double.

In the past six weeks Damien, the co-founder of Melbourne-based construction firm Billings Long, has made three return trips between Melbourne and Darwin in the truck as work on the new Maccas takes shape.

Damien Long at the new Maccas site at Northcrest with his Mercedes rig.

Billings Long specialises in McDonald’s constructions and the company built the last new Northern Territory outlet in Casuarina, which opened in November 2021.

The latest restaurant is under construction at Julius Street in Berrimah on the Northcrest Estate beside the Stuart Highway.

According to Damien, it will be serving cheeseburgers by Christmas.

“I got my license on the Tuesday and I left Melbourne to start the drive up here on the Saturday,” he said.

“I go up and back in seven days and it’s a great way to see the country and experience the different climates over four days. I start up here in shorts and a T-shirt and arrive home in Melbourne in jeans and a jumper.”

The new Maccas will complement the Northcrest development, which is slated for expansion after builder DCOH lodged the Territory’s largest ever development application last month.

The latest proposal for the estate’s southern precinct would deliver 935 lots including 909 residential, 24 open space and one community purpose and one tourist commercial.

When completed, Northcrest will deliver 1500 residential lots, with 300 houses already built and another 200 lots currently under construction.

He said the anticipated 20-week McDonald’s build was about two-months completed with the slab laid, the walls being raised and the roof expected to be in place within weeks.

He said the first burgers would be flipped by the second week of December.

Billings Long has a southern workforce of about 80 including 10 apprentices and Damien hopes at some point to have an NT-based team based here for future projects.

“It would be great to have a reliable team here to do more jobs if the opportunity ever comes up.”