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Catholic Diocese of Sandhurst
Year in Review 2016
IDENTITY & COMMUNITY
Bendigo Plans 150 New
Retirement Units
M
ercy Health has lodged a $44 million planning application with the City of Greater
Bendigo to construct more than 150 Retirement Living Units during the next decade.
Mercy Health is a Catholic not-for-profit organisation grounded in a 2000-year tradition
caring for others. Founded by the Sisters of Mercy, Mercy Health currently employs more
than 7,000 people to provide acute and sub-acute hospital care, mental health programs,
aged care and home and community care throughout Australia.
Mercy Health is proposing to build up to 176 Retirement Living Units on vacant land
surrounding the organisation’s newly redeveloped aged-care home, Bethlehem Home for
the Aged, at 36 - 42 Specimen Hill Road, Golden Square.
Mercy Health Group Chief Executive Officer, Adjunct Professor Stephen Cornelissen, said
the organisation has close to a 20-year history with Bendigo and was looking forward to
strengthening its association with the city.
“In 1997, the Catholic Diocese of Sandhurst appointed Mercy Health to manage Bethlehem
Home for the Aged and, in 2006, it was gifted to the Sisters of Mercy,” said Adjunct Professor
Cornelissen.
“As our ageing population increases, Mercy Health wants to be able to provide suitable and
affordable accommodation options to assist Bendigo’s older citizens to live life easily and
safely.”
According to the government’s Victoria in the Future 2016 Report released in July, 16.6 per
cent of the greater Bendigo population is aged over 65 and this is expected to increase to 23
per cent by 2031.
Mercy Health’s Retirement Living Unit development would be completed in eight stages over
10 years and include access roads, walking paths, extensive landscaping and a designated
forest area to protect existing native trees.
“The development would be unique in that it would have street frontage and the one and
two-bedroom units would largely blend into the neighbouring community,” explained
Adjunct Professor Cornelissen.
“The units would also have multiple access roads to ensure the impact on local traffic would
be minimal.”