The Walgett community is mourning the loss of a crucial facility, following the announcement that aged care facility ‘Kookaburra Court’ will permanently close at the end of March after 18 months of decline.

Built by the local community in 1992, the Whiddon Group took over management of the facility soon after when the expenses of constant upgrades to meet safety regulations became too much. 

Walgett Shire Council Mayor Jane Keir has been employed by Kookaburra Care since 2014. 

Angered and saddened by the closure, she said that there are many contributing factors and people to be held to account for the Walgett facility's downfall, as well as other facilities across the state. 

“The board of Whiddon came to Walgett on that day (they took over management). They made a commitment to Walgett that they would provide the service and manage the facility, knowing that it would never be a profitable venture,” Mayor Keir said. 

“They were providing a service to a disadvantaged community, a commitment they made over 12 years ago,” she said. 

The closure, she believes, is born of a number of challenges compounding on the facilities' already low income, including a lack of funding from the federal government, the perceptions arising out of a Royal Commission that grouped disgraced facilities with those who were innocent, and the effects of COVID-19. 

“Three years ago there was a waiting list. It’s been slowly declining over the last few years to the point where we haven’t had more than 50 per cent for the past two years,” she said. 

“The Royal Commission Inquiry into aged care was hugely damning of nursing structures, ratios of residents to staff and to education…it was totally damning of the providers of aged care,” Mayor Keir said. 

The closure of Kookaburra Court will see eight aged care beds lost, with another eight remaining at the local hospital across the road, which are currently filled. 

Mayor Keir said that due to different funding structures, Kookaburra Court could never compete with the hospital facility. 

Whiddon Group Executive Officer Chris Mamarelis is hoping that with homecare nurses and the aged care facility across the road, the town might be well served.

“If people are able to stay at home longer due to good local services that’s a good thing. Unfortunately, it means that there’s less demand for residential aged care,” Mr Mamarelis said. 

When residency started falling short, Mr Mamarelis himself called out to the Walgett community for support, but realistically, there was little they could do.

“We went to the community around September last year and I conducted an appeal asking for people who were thinking about going into aged care. We put some advertisements in the local paper and also did some things on social media,” he said. 

“We still have a very low number of residents there. Given the huge subsidies we’re putting in there, which is around a quarter of a million annually, we just can’t keep doing it without additional government support, which is not coming,” Mr Mamarelis said. 

With the facility’s closure fast approaching, Kookaburra Court is in the process of finding facilities to move the current four residents to, which Mr Mamarelis said is looking positive. 

Left with an empty building, Whiddon Group will return the facility back to the hands of the community where it began. 

“We’re really keen to leave the home and the property as a community asset. We don’t want to sell it, we think it belongs to the community so we are going to be looking for a good community organisation to donate that property to,” Mr Mamarelis said. 

Over the coming months, Whiddon Group will reach out to the community for proposals of how the building could best be used. 

Mayor Keir said that despite the loss, it’s useful to think that it could be turned into something positive for the community. 

“We wouldn’t want to see it sold off…that’d be diabolical. The council is interested, certainly, but it’s a massive building and it does need a coat of paint." 

As both Mayor, employee, and secretary treasurer for Walgett’s Aged Accommodation Association, Mayor Keir said that the process would need to be completely open and transparent. 

Still, she’d prefer if it could have remained in use for aged care, something that Kookaburra Court is unlikely to ever return to. 

“I do think that the federal government has let down Kookaburra Court.”