We were again tested following the forecasts of catastrophic weather conditions with a mini-cyclone that hit Sydney’s North Shore and Northern Beaches. I drove through the damage myself from a meeting in Sydney back to Allambie Heights. The damage was pretty excessive in certain areas, whole streets were affected in some instances and others untouched.

‘We were tested, we were resilient and my staff and management did a great job’

Our residential aged care facility was without electricity, internet and landline phones for 30 hours as was William Charlton Village, Retirement Village and half of Allambie Heights Village, Retirement Village. Residents from the other part of the Village had to endure for a total of 57 hours.

Our staff and a range of our contractors who when called upon to assist us, responded immediately and were all absolutely fantastic. We opened our Allambie Heights Village Community Hall once power was reinstalled there for use by Village residents who had no electricity, provided teas/coffees, a place to socialise and we offered hot showers to them in our residential aged care facility. Our dining rooms remained functional for any resident to enjoy meals there. It was wonderful to hear that the Community Hall became a focus for a resident get-together and a resultant party-type atmosphere. Over the 3 days of 26, 27, 28 November 2019, our management and staff visited our village residents whom we thought might need checking. Services were offered to them caringly.

We were tested, we were resilient and my staff and management did a great job.

Management arranged a de-briefing on 10 December 2019 and we will take from it a number of observations and lessons.

Ciarán Foley
Chief Executive Officer

Read more articles in our December 2019 / January 2020 Newsletter (PDF) »