HammondCare will transform its Hammondville site with the construction of two new multi-storey aged care homes designed according to international best practice to support people living with dementia and other complex needs.

The Hammondville site, covering about 12 hectares in Sydney’s southwest, already is already home to the largest number of dementia-specific residential care beds in Australia.

The two new aged care homes, expected to cost more than $63 million, will turn the Hammondville precinct into a contemporary, integrated village.

HammondCare CEO Mike Baird, together with Liverpool Mayor Ned Mannoun, announced the 90-bed project to replace the older-style Bond House.

Mr Baird said the project was a continuation of the legacy of Rev Bob Hammond, a man of great courage and vision, who began development at Hammondville in 1932 with a housing project for destitute families.

Mr Baird made the announcement as he farewelled HammondCare staff after four years in the role. His last day with HammondCare was Friday, June 7.

“I am honoured to announce this outstanding, transformational aged care project for our Hammondville site as one of my final responsibilities as CEO” Mr Baird said.

“Bob Hammond launched an independent charity that was at the cutting edge of responding to community need in the 1930s. He did not wait for governments to act.”

“This project is part of HammondCare’s ambition today to set the global standard of relationship-based care, for people with complex needs and to increase our care for those that others won’t or can’t,” he said.

Mr Mannoun welcomed HammondCare’s investment in world-class aged care accommodation for Liverpool.

“Hammondville has an extraordinary history, special to the people of Sydney’s southwest, as a wonderful place for supporting people in need,” he said.

“First the need was housing for desperate families, then older people needing somewhere to live and more recently the focus was support for people living with dementia.

“Sadly, this is HammondCare CEO Mike Baird’s farewell project and I wish him well for his next big adventure,” he said.

The new eastern aged care home for residents living with dementia will be called Jones, named after former Director of Care services Olive Jones. The new western building will provide general aged care services and be called Bond, after former Director of Nursing and HammondCare Board member Rosemary Bond, who attended the announcement.

Each care home will have three apartments each with 15 ensuite rooms with a domestic kitchen and laundry based on HammondCare’s cottage model design, first developed in the 1990s. The apartments are intended to be familiar, comforting and homelike with easy access to the outdoors and balconies.

The project includes a new community hub featuring a general store designed for people with dementia, a hairdresser & barber, “The Watering Hole”, a men’s shed, community garden, kids’ playground and administrative spaces.

The Hammondville site has a rich legacy. On November 20, 1932, then Hammond Pioneer Homes opened the first of 110 rent-purchase homes to accommodate Sydney families evicted during the Great Depression.

Rev Hammond, using some of his own savings, acquired the land at Hammondville for the homes, a school, a general store, post office and a church in one of Australia’s most successful acts of personal philanthropy.

Notable children of families who pioneered the Hammondville settlement include former Independent MP John Hatton and his brother Geoff Hatton, both present for the announcement, and the late Jim Masterton of Masterton Homes.

Later, Hammond Pioneer Homes changed focus at Hammondville to respond to an emerging aged care need in the post-war years.

The Hammondville site presently offers residential care for nearly 300 residents, most living with dementia. Another 129 older people reside in independent living units. Around 500 staff are employed on site.

Construction of the two new aged care homes is expected to begin in 2025 subject to the planning approval of a modification to the current development consent by Liverpool City Council.