Date: 5 January 2018

The Whiddon Group are delighted to announce that as of 1 March 2018, Whiddon will expand its aged care services into Queensland with the purchase of Star Gardens’ aged care home and Star Community Care in Beaudesert, a rural town in the state’s south east.

Star Gardens and Star Community Care will become Whiddon’s first locations outside of New South Wales. The purchase will see 78 additional residential places for Whiddon, along with plans for expansion of the aged care home to include additional residential places in the near future.

It also provides an exciting opportunity for Whiddon’s community care services to establish and grow in the Logan River Valley, with established service hubs already across the NSW Far North Coast, including in Kyogle and Tweed Heads.

Whiddon CEO Chris Mamarelis said he was pleased to further extend the organisation’s strong presence in the Far North Coast and Northern Rivers region of New South Wales across the border.

The expansion of Whiddon’s care services into Queensland is strongly aligned with the organisation’s growth strategy. In recent years, this has included the acquisition of two residential homes, the construction of close to 350 new residential places, and the expansion of Whiddon’s community care business and geographic footprint.

“This is a very exciting and historic moment for our organisation. We have a long and proud history of caring for older Australians and are thrilled to extend the quality care we provide to the Beaudesert community.”

“Our commitment to providing aged care services in regional, rural and remote locations, along with our existing network and strong infrastructure in the far north of New South Wales, has made this step to provide aged care services in Queensland an easy business decision to make,”

“We also have a strong alignment with the current aged care provider and owner, Star Aged Living. We share a similar history, strong benevolent histories and have closely aligned values and purposes. Whiddon and Star Aged Living are both founding members of the Masonic Care Alliance and have worked together over the past four years”.

“We look forward to offering Whiddon’s creative ageing programs such as HenPower, Chat Stories and Tea and VintageBites to the Beaudesert community, along with our MyLife relationship based model of care.”

On 4 January 2018, Star Gardens’ and Whiddon Chief Executives, Nigel Faull and Chris Mamarelis informed residents, clients, volunteers, employees and families about the sale and the transition period to Whiddon ownership on 1 March.

“We are delighted to welcome the Star Gardens’ aged care home and Star Community Care to our family and look forward to getting to know our new residents, clients, employees, families and friends. Working in partnership with our regional, rural and remote communities is at the heart of our organisation and we are genuinely excited about the opportunity to build new relationships within the Beaudesert Community”. Mr Mamarelis said.

 

The Whiddon Group’s CEO, Chris Mamarelis, and Star Gardens CEO Nigel Faull