Aged care wait is over
$20 million facility focusing on ageing Croatian community gets green light
WORK will begin soon on a long-awaited new $20 million aged care facility in Geelong’s north.
Victorian Croatian Aged Care Services (VCACS) is celebrating after last week securing a planning permit to build the 100-bed complex on an old school site in Bell Park.
VCACS wants to start construction soon, with tenders already called. The building works will take up to 18 months, with the aim to allow the first residents to move in by the end of July 2019.
Brownbill ward councillor Eddy Kontelj said it was great to see the project gain approval after years of strong lobbying and discussions.
“We have an ageing population and many of the migrants who came to Geelong (in the post-war era) are at that age now where this type of care is required,” Cr Kontelj said.
It has been a long road to this point for the organisation, which first recognised the need for a Croatian-specific facility back in 1980.
While many ethnic communities built their own facilities throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Croatian leaders would only begin seriously pursuing the venture a decade ago.
VCACS gained licence approvals and then was gifted the former Western Heights Secondary School land in 2014, under a $2 million deal from the then-Coalition state government.
Public fundraising has also been required, with more than $50,000 raised at a dinner dance last year.
The development comes amid changing demographics in Geelong, with the region’s population getting increasingly older.
The latest census data show 18.6 per cent of residents were aged 65 or older. There are projections that figure will rise past 20 per cent by 2020.
The Geelong Advertiser revealed yesterday that the council would this week consider an application by Japara to build a $25 million aged care facility in Highton.
The proposed three-storey, 136-bed complex received 43 objections, with concerns around the impact on traffic and neighbourhood character.