East Sydney Aged-Care Project Under Review

Uniting NSW.ACT is planning a “welcoming urban oasis” for seniors at its War Memorial Hospital in Waverley. 

If approved, its site, which has frontages to Bronte Road, Birrell Street, Carrington Road and Church Street, will be redeveloped into an aged-care facility with hundreds of independent living and aged-care units.

It is being assessed via the NSW State Significant Development pathway and is now on exhibition.

Uniting, the largest not-for-profit provider of aged-care services in NSW and the ACT, was gifted part of the War Memorial Hospital site more than 100 years ago to provide community services. 

Its latest plans adaptively reuse three heritage buildings onsite, the 1885 residential Ellerslie building, the 1882 Banksia and Wych Hazel cottage, and the 1906-built Church Street Cottages in designs from Welsh + Major.

It will develop a new six-storey residential aged-care facility with 105 beds, consulting rooms and administration areas as well as a salon, gym, cafe and chapel. 

Independent living units are also planned, with 231 apartments planned in six new buildings that will range from four to seven storeys.

Of those, 23 units would be affordable, Uniting said. 

▲ The Banksia and Wych Hazel cottage built in 1882.

The gross floor area of the entire new Architectus-designed site would reach 43,127 square metres. 

The capital investment value of the development is about $376 million. 

Uniting said it wanted to expand its aged-care and community services “to meet the changing needs of the community”, according to the development application from Willowtree Planning. 

“The focus is on person-centred care that fosters health, connection and wellbeing,” it said.

Uniting NSW.ACT’s director of property and housing Simon Furness said in a media statement, “With onsite support services and amenities, the redevelopment will enable residents to continue to live at home as their care and health needs change, while remaining active and connected to their surroundings”.

▲ Visualisation of the proposed rear additions to the heritage-listed cottages, including accessible lift access and shared outdoor spaces.

Australia’s ageing population is expected to significantly increase over the next decade.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, it is projected that by 2066 Australians aged 65 years and over will make up 21 to 23 per cent of the population.

But operators and developers have been scrambling to keep up, bolstering new development pipelines as well as redeveloping existing sites that are no longer deemed fit for purpose, such as the United Protestant Association’s Upper North Shore facility’s $178-million facelift.