Te Anau’s first retirement village known as The Murchison Villas, was officially opened yesterday (2nd December) by Southland District Council (SDC) mayor Gary Tong.

A large group of residents, their families, friends, and those involved in bringing this project to completion gathered on a sunny warm afternoon to celebrate this occasion.

The original seed of this idea was planted 30 years ago when Te Anau nurse, Marion Davenport, went to what was then the Wallace County Council (SDC predecessor) with a proposal to set aside some land in Te Anau for a retirement village.

The Council agreed to allocate a block next to the Fiordland Medical Centre, where it sat for the next thirty years.

Te Anau Retirement Village sign honouring nurse Marion Davenport. Photo: Alina Suchanski

In recognition of Mrs Davenport’s achievement, the village has Davenport Place named after her.

The project was initiated 8 years ago with the formation of a Steering Committee made up of community-minded people who conducted invaluable market research into how a retirement village could be paid for in a small place like Te Anau.

The project was too small to be of interest to commercial developers.

A year later the Steering Committee set up the Fiordland Retirement Housing Trust (FRHT) with Brian McCandless as its chairman and Glenys Johnstone as the secretary. Johnstone Court was named in recognition of her forbearance.

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FRHT developed a business case and the land originally earmarked for retirement housing 30 years prior was subsequently sold by the Southland District Council to the trust for $1.

The development had an edge over other providers of retirement village housing because buyers would own their property 100 per cent freehold, with a body corporate maintaining the site on behalf of the trust.

Mr McCandless said that “this was a $7-million project we did for $2-million”, and added that “Keeping builders to budget is hard. Keeping them to schedule is pretty much impossible, particularly when you have a global pandemic to contend with”.

The official opening ceremony was delayed because the trust wanted to have the grounds finished, grass sown and plants planted. The result was rather impressive, with the village looking tidy and elegant, with colourful plantings gracing the green spaces. 

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Today all but one of the 23 north-facing units with mountain views, on a block of land adjacent to the Fiordland Medical Centre, have been sold.

In his speech, Mr McCandless thanked all those who played a part in this project, including the trustees, developers, builders and subcontractors. He thanked the project manager Doug Riley for delivering to budget, and Gareth Davies of PR Law for providing his legal services to the trust pro bono.

‘‘This has been a truly collaborative project, built by the community for the community,’’ he said.