KFC first came to Australia in 1968 , when the first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant opened in Guildford, a suburb of Sydney in New South Wales.

Quick Scoop

KFC’s Australian story kicks off on 27 April 1968, when the original Kentucky Fried Chicken store opened in Guildford in Sydney’s western suburbs, employing about 25 staff. The launch was driven by Canadian entrepreneur Bob Lapointe, whose franchise became the starting point for KFC’s rapid expansion across the country.

How fast did KFC grow?

  • The first Australian KFC opened in Guildford, NSW, in 1968.
  • Between about 1970 and 1971, roughly 75 KFC outlets were opened around Australia, helping drive a big jump in national chicken production.
  • By 1995, there were around 452 KFC outlets in Australia, employing about 12,000 staff and generating a significant share of KFC’s international earnings.

A few extra nuggets of context

  • The original brand was fully called Kentucky Fried Chicken before being shortened to KFC , part of a broader shift away from emphasizing the word “fried.”
  • The opening of KFC in 1968 is often cited as a key moment in the arrival of American-style fast-food chains in Australia, preceding the local rollout of several other big US brands in the early 1970s.

So if you’re wondering “when did KFC come to Australia?” — the answer is: it officially landed in 1968, with the first store in Guildford, Sydney, lighting the fuse on Australia’s fast-food era.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.