noosa-heads

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6.11                  ST VINCENT’S AGED CARE NURSING HOME
LOCATION                    0 Cooyar Street, Noosa Heads

TENURE                      Freehold. 9RP225312

DATES                       1997

DESCRIPTION                 Stage 1 of the Aged Care facility for St Vincent’s Community Services was constructed in
                            1997. It consists of an Administration building linking a Nursing Wing, which
                            accommodates thirty beds, and a Special Care (or Dementia) Wing, which
                            accommodates twenty beds.
                            John Mainwaring, the architect for the project, was aware of the need to blend the large
                            complex into the existing urban background rather than have it exist as a monument or a
                            building icon. In fact he believed that his ‘...major challenge was to reconcile the client’s
                            requirements for a large scale facility with the need to provide a legible, human scale
                            environment for the residents, especially in the dementia ward which, because the
                            patients have to be contained, can be very claustrophobic.’66
                            The architect believes that the whole facility has the feel of ‘...a beach side convalescent
                            home with open space clerestories and verandahs.’67 The variation in form, structure and
                            materials gives the building its overall character and a type of village atmosphere rather
                            than the more usual somber tone of similar complexes. An unusual feature throughout
                            the whole complex is the use of natural light and a variety of different views to the
                            existing Park landscape, which give a range of visual interests and stimuli.
                            The design of the whole building complex allows cross ventilation or what the architect
                            terms ‘passive air conditioning’ by the use of verandahs and courtyard spaces. The fully
                            screened verandah spaces allow sleeping and relaxing in ‘...true Australian style within a
                            National Park setting.’68



6.11.1      BRIEF HISTORY
Stage 1 of St Vincent’s Aged Care Nursing Home was designed by internationally known local architect John Mainwaring
as a large-scale local facility, and was built in 1997 on a large block of land on the edge of the Noosa National Park.
Mainwaring has been recognised for his work by being awarded the Queensland Robin Dods award on several
occasions, the National Robin Boyd Award, the National Sir Zelman Cowan Award and the National Commercial Award
for various buildings within the Shire.
The building won the Queensland State Awards Commercial Award, and an Environmental Citation (National) and
Commercial Commendation both in 1997.
6.11.2       HISTORICAL THEMES
This place illustrates the following historical theme in the Noosa Shire based on the Environmental Protection Agency’s,
Guidelines for Historical and Indigenous Cultural Heritage Management, dated 2001
8(b) Providing health and welfare services – caring for those in need: community care accommodation (aged housing
and nursing home; and
4 (f) Establishing and developing towns - developing a regional style of architecture.
6.11.3      POTENTIAL SIGNIFICANCE
The complex is a place of cultural heritage significance because of its association with the commercial building industry
in Noosa and the development of the regional ‘Sunshine Coast School of architecture’ 69. The building is a unique
structure and one of a few such facilities offered to the Aged population of the Shire
The facility represents ‘...a positive approach...[using] a palette of light, shade, space, tactile materials and colours
evocative of “coastal architecture” developing in the Noosa region.’ 70 It is the only large-scale non-domestic commission
of this well-known architect in the Noosa Shire.71


66
     John Mainwaring in Peter Hyatt, Local Heroes Architects of Australia’s Sunshine Coast, Craftsman House, Sydney, 2000, p. 156.
67
     Mainwaring, pers. comm., 2000.
68
     Mainwaring, pers. comm., 2000.
69
     See Peter Hyatt, Local Heroes architects of Australia’s Sunshine Coast, Craftsman House, Sydney, 2000.