THE ink was still wet on the contract, and already the bricks were crashing to the ground as the re-build of Taree’s 31-year-old Bushland Place nursing home began this week.
The $4 million project will see the former 89-bed nursing home off Bushland Drive converted into a 40-bed dementia-specific unit, and so strengthen Taree’s status as a leading aged care provider on the Mid North Coast.
The current project is the first of five planned by the locally owned Bushland Health Group Limited over the next five years at its various aged care sites including Karingal Gardens at Taree North, Warrana Place off Wingham Road, Banyula Lodge at Old Bar, and Bushland Place hostel.
Overall, the projects will add around 150 new aged care accommodation places and provide around 60 new jobs for the Manning area.
Bushland Health Group executive met on Monday afternoon to sign the contract for the Bushland Place project with Taree builder Chris O’Neill, successful tenderer for the conversion of the former nursing home to a purpose-built, first-class dementia unit.
The proposal attracted interested tenderers from a wide area, and eight - from Taree, Forster-Tuncurry, Port Macquarie and Kempsey - were shortlisted before the final decision.
Bushland group chairman of directors Graham Brown expressed delight that the contract had gone to a local firm, which has always been the group’s desire through its many development projects, he said.
Builder Chris O’Neill, who heads a company with currently seven employees, expects to employ another 12 tradespeople for the duration of the project.
His company, operating for 30 years, was last involved with Bushland Health Group when it completed construction of the CC Drury units in Taree’s Jacaranda Place many years ago. It has completed more recent projects including St Clare’s High School multi-purpose hall, new classrooms and additions, also the Taree Christian College/Baptist Church hall at Kolodong, the aged care facility at Bulahdelah, and other projects at Gloucester, Gateshead and Shortland.
Planned for completion in May next year, the Bushland Place nursing home conversion will be an environmentally-conscious project, favouring re-use and recycling rather than total demolition.
It will re-use the exact footprint of the former nursing home, with the addition of an attached bathroom for each of the 40 dementia-specific bedrooms.
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While the interior of the current building will be totally re-fitted, and a new roof will be installed, there will only be cosmetic changes to the remainder of the exterior, along with specially designed all-new pathways, walkways and landscaping to suit the residents’ living environment.
Architects for the project, Wayne Ellis Architects of Port Macquarie, also created Bushland Health Group’s newest complex, Karingal Gardens at Chatham, which opened in October 2008.
One of the firm’s architects, Chrissie Armstrong, who attended Monday’s contract signing, said her company had been working on the Bushland Place conversion project since 2009.
The old nursing home became vacant when its remaining residents transferred to Karingal in 2008, and the Bushland board of directors explored several options for its re-use before deciding to continue its core business of providing aged care.
The new dementia unit will be operated in conjunction with the existing and adjacent Bushland Place hostel, which has 43 beds. Once the dementia unit is completed, refurbishment of the rest of the hostel building will be carried out.
Along with its nearby self-care villas, Bushland Place will then be able to provide a comprehensive ageing-in-place unit.
“It means that once people come to us, there is no need for them to more elsewhere to continue a high level of care,” Graham Brown explained.
The current project is the first part of a $15 million expansion announced by the heath care group last year, which will include continued development at Warrana Place off Wingham Road, Taree, construction of 14 self-care villas at Karingal Gardens and construction of an additional 30 beds at Banyula Lodge, Old Bar.
Together, the projects will boost Bushland Health Group’s total aged care bed capacity from its current 450 to about 600 across the Manning Valley, cared for by a total staff of about 200.
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