There were four special people in attendance when Bolton Clarke’s Bongaree Retirement Village on the western side of Bribie Island celebrated its 30th birthday earlier this month.
Norma Collins, Bill and Daphne Eaton, and Heather Patterson are original members of Bongaree Retirement Village.
Norma said after 30 years she still thinks the move to Bongaree was the best decision she and her late husband ever made.
“My husband chose the unit off the plan and we came down after church every Sunday and watched it being built,” she said.
“We have been in the same unit ever since and even now at 93, I’m still in love with it.”‘
Daphne said it was a visit from the RSL Bribie Island Women’s Auxiliary that convinced her and her husband to move into the retirement village.
“At the time we had come to Bribie and we were living in a caravan park,” she said.
“It doesn’t seem that long ago! I can still remember every detail from the day we moved in.”
Daphne’s husband Bill said Bongaree is the place he wants to be when he joins the Centenarian Club.
“I could get to being 100 here! I’m 98 now and we will be celebrating it here,” he said.
Village manager Sharon Rodgers, who was this year named a finalist in Leading Age Services Australia’s Retirement Village Manager of the Year Awards, said it was a pleasure to be able to celebrate with her residents.
“Not only to acknowledge 30 years since stage two was completed, but to be able to celebrate with existing residents who are still living independently in their units,” she said.
Members of the RSL Women’s Auxiliary, which funded the building of the four first homes in the village, were in attendance to cut the cake. Today, Bolton Clarke Bongaree has 50 homes, a community hall, swimming pool, and caretakers unit.