Mark McGowan’s Government will contribute land in isolated Westonia, 312km west of Perth, to the Central East Aged Care Alliance (CEACA) to develop independent living units for a retirement village.

CEACA is a not-for-profit association that has a six-year program to build 187 units across the 11 Wheatbelt shires in order to keep elderly people living within the region.

Initiated by local Labor member for Kalamunda, Matthew Hughes, the WA Government set up an aged care working group made up of representatives from the Departments of Health, Planning, Lands and Heritage, Local Government and Communities to identify under-utilised state-owned land and infrastructure that could be used by aged care providers for new aged care facilities.

Historically Western Australia has always had fewer aged care beds than the rest of the states and territories so this is a welcome development for the state.