Kangara Waters seniors living opens

Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot, and Australian Capital Territory Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, opened IRT’s Kangara Waters seniors living facility yesterday in a ceremony that celebrated the new home to about 250 older people living in Canberra.



The $99 million lakeside development has been a success for the company, Australia’s largest not-for-profit community based retirement living and aged care provider, selling 104 villas and units in its first release in just over six months.



Kangara Waters was initiated from a 2005 landmark Australian agreement, encompassing Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government development approval via tender to develop a seniors’ living facility on 7.47 hectares of land at Lake Ginninderra, Belconnen, with Federally-funded residential aged care places already guaranteed.



IRT chief executive, Nieves Murray, said the streamlining of Government approvals and funding support was reassuring to the company, which then began the hard work of not just creating the “bricks and mortar” but a new community that older people would like to call home.



“IRT already had a presence through our community services work but this project provided us with the opportunity to address some of the needs of the ageing population in the region – the result was overwhelming with more than 600 people registering for the first information session,” Ms Murray said.



“We then set about facilitating the opportunity for interested locals, their family and friends to get to know each other through our Circle of Friends social gatherings which were a huge success,” she said.



Initial Kangara Waters residents, Peter and Diana Huddy agree, the strength of Kangara Waters’ success is the strong sense of community, which began with a head nod and led to four people from their Cook neighbourhood joining them in the village.



“We were at Cook for 39 years and loved it but we now have a better social life and more friends than we ever did in the suburbs,” Mr Huddy said.



“We’d experienced the trauma of seeking aged care on short notice with both our parents and I was adamant we wouldn’t put our daughter through that. Plus here we have the reassurance that the progression of care is in place right here should we need it.”



“I turned 75 this year and I still play tennis twice a week, do weights twice a week and swim daily.”



Ms Murray said IRT shared the joy of its Kangara Waters residents such as the Huddys.



“Kangara Waters is an ideal example of IRT’s aim to create villages where our ageing population can maintain their independence, vitality and their ability to maintain connections in the community, with the peace of mind that more care is close at hand,” Ms Murray said.



“This is evident by the residential component of this development.We hope Kangara Waters helps set a high standard for our industry where seniors long to live happily.”