$180m Melbourne development will focus on wellbeing

A new seniors living precinct planned for the inner-city suburb of Carlton will provide services to enhance social connecticity as well as care and accommodation.

Australian Unity will develop a $180 million seniors living precinct as part of the Carlton Housing Redevelopment in inner Melbourne

The planned precinct will feature 180 retirement living apartments, 130 aged care and assisted living places and a community wellbeing centre in three five-storey buildings.

The aim of the precinct is to foster wellbeing and social connectivity, according to the company’s group director for retirement living, Derek McMillan.

“Wellbeing covers a range of different aspects of quality of life, including health, future security, relationships and community connection,” he said. “We feel this development represents pretty well what quality of life means.

“It’s more than just a co-located aged care facility and retirement village. It’s an integrated site with additional community infrastructure and a public open space in the middle of the whole project.

“We also want to provide meeting places that local groups, such as the bridge club, can use.”

The wellbeing centre will be the focal point of the development, housing a day-respite centre, a seniors-friendly gym a pool and consulting suites that senior members of the local community can access.

It will build on the services offered at other Australian Unity communities, such as the Constitution Hill development in Sydney’s northwest which is part of a National Respite for Carers Program pilot program.

“What we have learned from that is the huge value of respite services are and how they work well in conjunction with aged care facilities,” said Mr McMillan.

“We are seeing that [family] carers are tremendously burdened by providing 24/7 care to their relatives and the NRCP is a really valuable service for supporting them.”

The precinct is part of a broader joint venture project between Australand and St Hilliers to update social housing options in Melbourne’s inner city.

Recent reports have identified community health and aged service facilities as priorities for Carlton in the next ten years.

It currently has the highest number of people receiving home and community care services (HACC) in the City of Melbourne and strong growth is projected in the area’s older population in coming years.

Australian Unity has applications in the current aged care approvals round (ACAR) and work on the wellbeing centre and the aged care facility will begin when the bed licences are approved.

The development of the retirement village will commence later on.

“This is an expensive project and it will need to be staged and consistent with the funding availabilities,” Mr McMillan said.

It is expected that the precinct will create about 150 jobs.

Tags: australian-unity, community, respite-care, retirement-village, wellbeing,

Leave a Reply