Village with a view

We are still on the look out for retirement villages. This one, which we visited today, has a particularly interesting history, being located on land formerly belonging to the Sisters of the Good Samaritan and adjacent to the Wivenhoe Conservation Area.


The Wivenhoe Conservation Project is an ambitious project to restore 190 hectares of the endangered Cumberland Woodland ecosystem on the edge of Western Sydney. A property known as Wivenhoe was established here in 1837, on the land of the Dharawal people. It was used for cattle and vineyards. In 1910 Wivenhoe was purchased by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan, to run an orphanage and then a school for students with disabilities. In 2012 the Sisters partnered with the Biodiversity Conservation Trust (BCT) to allocate part of the property into conservation agreements. There are three areas where the land is protected for conservation into the future, and all three areas join each other, reaching the Nepean River. This means that the landscape can never be cleared and is conserved to help restore the threatened Cumberland Plain Woodland and its biodiversity.


The photo was taken from the edge of the Conservation Area, the air full of the sounds of waterfowl and frogs. The buildings in the background are part of the retirement village. A very pleasant location.