In other towns they queued from early morning but in Bendigo they came the night before, made an evening of it and slept in their cars.
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American burger chain Carl's Jr was opening its doors in Epsom on Wednesday, October 18, and as part of the fanfare were giving away golden tickets.
The first 50 people in the queue would receive a voucher book entitling them to a year's worth of free burgers - or 52 free menu items, to be exact.
As it turned out, while the car park was full not too many people missed out.
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Daniel Foster, who was number one in the queue, arrived at the Midlands Highway location at 5pm on Monday.
"I've been to the Carl's Jr in Ballarat and it was good," he said.
"I thought what better way to support CJ in Bendigo than come out and camp here."
A self-employed automative worker, Mr Foster was a fan of the "tradie deal".
"And it's just pretty good food, cheap and has free drink refills," he said.
Sleepover in quest for free feeds
As well as the competitive lure of a regularly repeating free feed, people were attracted to the strangeness of spending a night in a suburban carpark and came ready to enjoy it.
![First in line Daniel Foster was a fan of the Ballarat restaurant. First in line Daniel Foster was a fan of the Ballarat restaurant.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/166161973/fcb52670-1c3c-439d-9ba4-0a89dc0f27f7.JPG/r0_23_5184_3456_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Rachel Brown, whose daughter Georgia wanted to be first into the new store, said the night had been "a little bit rowdy for a while, just with people having a laugh".
Mother and daughter had planned to arrive at the crack of dawn on Wednesday but decided to sleep over after seeing the queue at 10.30pm.
Lara Collins came because her friends rang and suggested it.
"It's fun just to go out on a whim and do something different," she said.
She took the pot of noodles she had just cooked with her.
Others had gone to more trouble.
"Someone rocked up with a TV, generator and a Play Station and hooked it up and played Tour of Duty," Ms Collins said.
While Mr Foster "slept like a baby", not everyone was so lucky.
Zac Watson said spending the night in a hatchback with three other people and a dog was "hectic".
"I was in the back, in the middle, in the front," he said.
And what a night it was
Leanne Allan agreed the sleepover had been lively.
"We saw someone do a doughnut on an old person's scooter and a full-on love story happened here," she claimed.
Her daughter, 15-year-old Jaida, was working her second day at the fast food restaurant on Wednesday and the family "thought they'd come along for a bit of a laugh".
Jay Harte was cold, had a sore back and couldn't sleep. His partner, Carmen Cola, had taken a melatonin and slept fine.
One couple had called in sick for work after deciding to stay.
"We drove past three times last night and in the end just said, 'Stuff it, let's do it, and we set up camp, watched all the shenanigans of the night and ordered some Uber," they said.
Doors open and creating jobs
By 9am manager Domit Makhoul and staff were starting to serve up the burgers.
The new business had hired 60-70 people, many of them teenagers who were in their first job, Mr Makhoul said.
The new jobs were appreciated by City of Greater Bendigo mayor Andrea Metcalf, who was on hand to launch the new business.
"It's great for the town," she said. "It's not in the city centre, it's out here in Epsom. "There's a growing population in Epsom, White Hills and Huntly, and it just adds more to Epsom village.
"It's great for jobs and clearly people were keen."
According to the company, Carl's Jr has 4000 restaurants around the world and is known for its "chargrilled burgers, hand-scooped ice cream shakes, hand-breaded chicken, waffle fries and bottomless drinks".
The 42nd Australian outlet is located at the corner of Howard Street and Midland Highway, Epsom.
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