Norm

Norm: Hello. My name’s Norm. I live in Helena Valley Lifestyle Village and I’ve been here just over five years. I was living in Collie about seven years ago and my family all live in Perth. I was feeling a bit isolated and I saw a seminar in Bunbury explaining lifestyle villages. And when I drove through the gate at this village, Helena Valley, I just fell in love with it.

There’s so much to do here. You can do as little as much as you like. I take part in the men’s swimming aerobics. I’ve been doing it two years now. I also play bush croquet, which is a real laugh. Everybody sort of just joins in and… nothing serious about it, it’s just good fun. Living here I’ve got so many friends, good friends. I feel like they’ve got my back, if you know what I mean.

So we all look after each other. In Collie I had quite an old asbestos style house coming up here. The house I’ve got now is vastly different because of the design of the houses and the way the roofs are sloping. It gives you a feeling of spaciousness and I don’t feel at all cramped.

I would advise anybody that’s thinking about downsizing to really consider this village in particular. And I think you’ll find that the natural bushland setting that this has got will sway it for you because it did for me.

Nancy and Steve

Nancy: Hi, my name is Nancy

Steve: And my name’s Steve. I’ve been living here for six months as well with my lovely wife.

Nancy: We literally lived about five minutes walk away from here for the last 20 years. So when we did decide to move, we wanted to live in the same area for lots of reasons. You know, social contact, church, shops, doctors, you know, we use the pool, we use the sauna, we use the spa, we play pool. Just two of us. We go down and have a game of darts, don’t we? If we’ve been out for a walk?

Steve: Really, it was a very easy transition for us. It almost feels in here like being in a country town. And if anything, if anyone sees anything that shouldn’t be happening, they’ll let other people know. You know, it’s almost like life is like what it used to be.

Nancy: You do feel secure, don’t you? You know, we can go out and leave the doors unlocked. For us, it’s worked really well. People tend to think a lifestyle village is a retirement village, and it’s not because there are a lot of people in, well, especially in this village that are still working. So it’s not like the end of your life. And for some people, it could be the beginning.

Des and Noel

Des: I’m Des.

Noel: I’m Noel.

Des: We’ve been at Helena Valley Lifestyle Village for seven years now. We came across Helena Valley Lifestyle Village in our hunt for looking for somewhere to downsize, and we heard that the Lifestyle Village was having a seminar. We did look at other villages as well to compare. But in the long run, this place was one hands down.

Noel: In the seven years that we’ve been here, we’ve met a lot of people. When we first came here, there was probably about 70 houses and now there’s over 200. We’ve now got this beautiful club room and there’s plenty of sporting facilities out there for everyone to play.

Des: We were the coordinators for the bus, the village board a bus. We would organise trips, go out for lunches. We still do those things and there’s a bundle of talent in this village. We have our own band here in the village that pay on a regular basis. Absolutely magic.

Noel: We happen to be very lucky that we could get rid of our furniture, which is very hard to do. And we bought new furniture to go in here. What I like about it is it’s clean in five minutes.

Des: For anyone that’s thinking about coming into or downsizing, now is the time to do it. The longer you leave it, the harder it is. So if you’re thinking about it, do it.

Noel: When you come to the Helena Valley Lifestyle Village, that’s perfect.

James and Faye

Faye: My name is Faye, and I’ve been in the village over six and a half years.

James: Hi, my name’s James and I’ve been here in Helena Valley Lifestyle Village for two and a half years. I absolutely love it here.

Faye: Why did I come into the village? Well, I needed somewhere to live. I knew I was at that stage of my life, I had to think for the future. So downsizing to a certain degree.

James: And why did I come into the village, a lifestyle village? At the time, I was single, retired male, looking for somewhere to live.

Faye: I chose Helena Valley Lifestyle Village because It’s very close to where I used to live. I’ve got a farming background. I need space and I could see space here and very much like-minded people are here as well. I’ve discovered I can walk anywhere. I walk down to the library, I walk to IGA which is a very good IGA, and we can get onto the highways very quickly if you want to get out to the city.

James: And I came to Helena Valley because I just didn’t want to be living in the suburbs. And here we’ve got lots of lovely trees and wildlife and it’s a great environment to live in.

Faye: And we just love the the the red earth look, the facilities we’ve been given. Well, we couldn’t ask for anything better.

James: I like the social interaction. The moment you walk through the front gate, you immediately have 100, 150 friends. You’re all like aged, similar interests. And as Faye was saying, we have a beautiful community garden, which is our common interest, which is where we met. And all these beautiful games and bowls and workshops and club rooms and the stage here is short of being open, is just absolutely fantastic.

Gaynor

My name is Gaynor and I’ve lived at the Helena Valley Lifestyle Village for 10 months. I came to Helena Valley Lifestyle Village because I was on my own.

I needed company. I needed something to stimulate my life when I retired. I feel safe in here. So that was another reason that I came here and all the activities: you don’t really have to leave the village and you can be busy all the time. The location was a big attraction. You feel like you’re in the country. It’s all very natural. The trees, the bush and also the facilities. Everything is here. It’s all brand new.

What do I like the most about Helena Valley Lifestyle Village is the people, the people make the village, Helena Valley has the most wonderful sense of community spirit. We’re all safe in here, we’re all like-minded people and we look out for each other and do things together. I never felt safe at home when I was now living on my own, so I feel safe now. My neighbours are very close. We walk to events together and even if I’m walking back from an event on my own, from the clubhouse, I feel safe.

It’s all well lit and well looked after. One of the great things about Helena Valley Lifestyle Village is we can have friends and family to stay and most importantly, our grandchildren or great-grandchildren. They love to come and spend a few days with us here. My choice to come and live in Helena Valley Lifestyle Village has been the best thing I’ve ever done and I’ve got no regrets with my choice. I’m having a wonderful life here.

Ray

Hi, I’m Ray Bradshaw.

Beginning of last year I lost my wife and living on your own has got knobs on it, to be honest. So I look throughout for somewhere that suited me, somewhere that I could meet people and coming to Helena Lifestyle Village is one of the best decisions I’ve made. This village is really good for me, there’s a lot of people here and there’s a lot of activities here. I like playing darts, I like swimming. I looked at other lifestyle villages but this one suited me, it felt more homely, I like the trees and it’s more of a relaxed style. I used to live in Jarrahdale which is out in the bush and this is more of a bushland setting. It’s a really good community feeling, if you like, and I love it here.

Bev

My name is Bev and my husband and I have been in Helena Valley Lifestyle Village for six months.

We came here to meet people. It’s the best thing we ever did. We didn’t have much support around us in the way of neighbours and family.

Now we’ve got this beautiful big extended family and lovely neighbours that pop in every day for a coffee or just to say hello. It’s wonderful. We liked the ethics of the recycling.

They they do a lot of recycling here. We’ve got a beautiful veggie patch that I go to once or twice a week to take my veggies down,and I also work in the garden. And just the location really, it’s quite close to Midland, Midland Hospital and all the other facilities. And there’s everything here. You can you could just not leave the village if you wanted or else, you know, you’ve got all the other places around you.

The thing I love most about Helena Valley Lifestyle Village is I can go for a walk. I can just walk around the village. I walk down here at night and walk back and feel quite safe. If we were living somewhere else, I wouldn’t be so keen to walk the streets at night. Just got everything here. The gym, the pool, the garden. Just all there for you.

Helena Valley Lifestylers

– I love the Helena Valley Lifestyle Village library, because of its well-equipped books and it’s a very popular place for people to come and sit and relax.

– I love Helena Valley Lifestyle Village for their range of amenities

– We love the Helena Valley Lifestyle here, the kitchen that we use here is absolutely brilliant.

– And we use it all the time for community functions, so, enjoy it.

– Love a good game of lawn bowls.

– I love a good game of darts!

Sue and Geoff

S: Hi, I’m Sue Worth.

G: And I’m Geoff Worth.

S: We’ve lived at the Helena Valley Lifestyle Village for the past five years. The main reason for Helena Valley was we know the area, we have friends just living about a kilometre away. The countryside of the Helena Valley area, that’s Kalamunda, Midland, has always appealed to us.

G: I’m a sports man, I play a lot of golf and the golf course is close by, that I play at. I enjoy pool and darts and the facilities in the lifestyle village are great to use.

S: We just enjoy we’ve got some great fiends, brilliant neighbours, we just love it. Just love it. We’ve just come alive since we’ve been here, it’s been the best thing. We can just lock up and leave, we’ve had some fantastic holidays, we just live with great people in this village and we’re just very, very happy. It’s made a huge difference to our lives and I dread to think what would have happened if we hadn’t moved in.

Jenny

I’m Jennifer Crosston and I’ve lived in the Helena Valley Lifestyle Village for four years.

I came to the village because, after my husband died, I was living in a big house, on my own, and I was rattling around in it. I just didn’t know what to do! But my daughter was building a house further down near Guilford and I used to drive up to Guilford to see how the house was going on, and drive past this village, and one day we decided to come in and have a look, and as I came out I thought: “That’s where I want to be”. So the people were lovely, the village was lovely, and it went from there. I love the village because I’m never on my own, if I need friends I just go out the front door. I don’t have to walk around and there’s somebody to talk to, somebody to have a laugh with, somebody to have a cup of tea with, there’s just lots of things to do. Being here in the village has not only given me peace of mind, it has also given my family peace of mind because they knew I was nervous in the house on my own. I’ve never been nervous in the house on my own here, I just leave the doors open, go to bed at night and I don’t even think about it, I just get into bed, fall asleep, that’s it. Love it, absolutely love it. It’s happy village.