The joint project between Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative (BADAC) and the Victorian Government has opened in Ballarat Central, the central business area of the city, 110km northwest of Melbourne's CBD. 

There will be room for 16 elders aged over 50 to live on site in eight self-contained one or two-bedroom units, with a central hall for shared meals, managers’ quarters, medical treatment rooms and a vegetable garden. 

BADAC Community Home Support Program and NDIS manager Melissa Bray said in the context of the Stolen Generation, it is important to provide elders with a comfortable place to live. 

“We found a need that a lot of our elders were isolated, living on their own and being part of the Stolen Generation a lot of our elders do not have families there to look after them and support them,” she said. 

Pertema and Southern Arrenta elder Doreen Abbott has followed the construction of the village closely and said its design was exactly what their community called for.  

"It is somewhere where we will be comfortable," Doreen said.  

"With our elders, nowadays, we are all spread out. In a place like this we are all together.  

"You can come out and have a cup of coffee without going miles and miles just to visit someone.” 

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