Growing old in style

By Emma Sun
The streets were decorated with marquees and a DJ played music while the staff offered a free sausage sizzle, tea and coffee and cupcakes to visitors.
There were bus tours to the nearby Wilson Botanical Gardens and tours around the village to see the village’s refurbished independent apartments.
The village also provides broadband internet to the residents, with the government providing a grant of $8500 to give the seniors an opportunity to use the internet.
Berwick Brae Village manager Arlene Coutts said the day was a huge success.
“It was a great opportunity for visitors to come in, have a look and talk to our residents to give feedback on what it’s really like to live in the village,” she said.
“It was a really good day with great weather, happy atmosphere and a good crowd.”
She said the residents were very pleased about the broadband internet.
“They’re over the moon with the broadband because we’ve got quite a few residents who use it,” Ms Coutts said.
“They’ve got their families overseas and they can use Skype to talk to them to make it seem like they’re closer and have better communication with them and they use the internet for all sorts of research and emailing family and friends.
“It makes the world a closer place for them.”
La Trobe MP Laura Smyth, who officially opened the apartments, said the government would continue to support seniors who wanted access to the internet.
“The government has committed $15 million over three years, 2008 to 2011, for the provision of 2000 internet kiosks to organisations that support seniors and want to host a Broadband for Seniors Kiosk and participate in this project,” Ms Smyth said.
“The government will invest a further $10.4 million to ensure that these local kiosks and kiosks across the country continue to run over the next four years to 30 June 2015.
“It was great to be out at Berwick Brae to hear from residents and answer their questions. I look forward to catching up with them again in future.”
To find out more about Berwick Brae Village’s new apartments, call Arlene Coutts on 9707 1261.