General News
28 November, 2023
Aberlea Timboon plans to expand
ABERLEA Timboon is looking to the future, with plans unveiled for potentially up to eight more units. At a community briefing last week, Aberlea board chair Mick Murphy OAM unveiled the proposal. He said $300,000 would need to be raised to see the...
Expansion on the cards: Aberlea CEO David Knight, board chair Mick Murphy OAM and Aberlea board treasurer and chairman of the Timboon Aberlea Advisory Committee Martin Van De Wou announced plans for further developments at the Timboon site last week.
ABERLEA Timboon is looking to the future, with plans unveiled for potentially up to eight more units.
At a community briefing last week, Aberlea board chair Mick Murphy OAM unveiled the proposal.
He said $300,000 would need to be raised to see the project progress to the next stage which would include designs and full project proposals.
Mr Murphy OAM said “things are going to get exciting” and revealed Aberlea had secured the block to the left of Aberlea Timboon which would allow the additional independent living units to be built.
“We think we’ve got something amazing that will start to unfold in the next few months,” he said.
Aberlea chief executive officer David Knight said the project would be a staged development.
“The site lends itself…very nicely to an expansion,” he said.
“With scales comes the opportunity to provide more services for the community.
“The demographic statistics shows us that this area of the shire is an ageing population.”
Mr Knight said the existing units on site were 125 to 150 square metres and the proposed new units would be about 80 square metres.
He said the next part of the project – which can’t move ahead until the funding has been secured – would involved detailed design drawings as well as the town planning process.
Mr Knight said the idea had been in development since last year with work going on to secure the land.
“The key for us was the acquisition of the land next door,” he said.
“It’s time to come together and understand we have a plan and a vision for the site but we can’t do it on our own.
“We’re looking to have a conversation with the community on how we can move forward.”
Mr Murphy OAM said it was “imperative for Aberlea to grow”.
“The challenge we have to be frank…is we’ve got to invest a fair bit of money to develop plans,” he said.
“We need to pull together about $300,000 to do the next step. “
Mr Murphy OAM said he was excited for the future of Aberlea Timboon and what it could bring to the Timboon community.
“I’m excited about it,” he said.
“We all need to be committed to doing that. I don’t want to create false hopes.
“We are very keen to progress, but we need to pull some funds together to start.”