[6] In 1993, McLachlan starred as Danny Zuko in the West End revival of the musical Grease alongside Deborah Gibson and Sonia Evans.
He played Jeff Kennard in the Australian film Hating Alison Ashley, worked alongside Benjamin Bratt and James Franco in The Great Raid, and starred with John Jarratt in Savages Crossing.
McLachlan appeared regularly in the Network Seven TV series Packed to the Rafters as ageing rocker Steve Wilson and was cast in the fourth season of Rescue: Special Ops as Hayden Bradley.
He played the role of Steve, the handsome gay gardener, in the award-winning production At Home with Julia and appeared in the ABC comedy Lowdown.
McLachlan returned to Australia in 2012 to work on a new TV series, The Doctor Blake Mysteries, a period crime drama set in Ballarat in 1959.
[7] In December 2014, McLachlan revealed that he was unable to return to Neighbours for the show's 30th anniversary celebrations owing to scheduling conflicts and his involvement in The Doctor Blake Mysteries.
[11] On 8 January 2018, a joint investigation by Fairfax Media and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that McLachlan had been accused of sexual harassment by several actresses during his performing career.
[12][13] Three actresses from the 2014 Australian production of The Rocky Horror Show – Christie Whelan Browne, Erika Heynatz and Angela Scundi – made allegations against McLachlan.
[16] McLachlan's defamation case was due to be heard in the Supreme Court of New South Wales from 4 February 2019;[17][18] however, the suit was postponed pending the outcome of the related criminal proceedings.
The programme showed ABC journalists (off camera) appearing to coach the accusers by offering specific words and phrases for them to say in their interview, such as "predatory" and "power imbalance".
[29] McLachlan filed a defamation suit against the ABC and Nine newspapers over media reports of the 2014 Rocky Horror Show tour allegations for which he had been tried and acquitted.