Nine remaining residents at Feros Village in Byron Bay battle to stay put

The nine remaining elderly residents of an aged care home slated for closure might not look up for a fight – but vow they’re not going anywhere.

By the numbers it’s a grim yet determined picture.

On the anniversary of the region’s worst ever flood, 40 elderly residents of a North Coast aged care home were told they’d have to find a new place to stay.

Six of those who moved on have since died.

One resident, ‘Jason’, committed suicide after allegations he was pressured to leave the village.

Twenty-five residents were relocated.

Now there are just nine left – and they refuse to be driven from their homes.

“Roy, Janet, Joan, Peggy, Jason, and Nina have all died,” said Maree Eddings, whose dad Michael is one of the stubborn nine hanging tight in the village.

Pictured (from left, back) Dianne Brein, Bernie Dean, Maree Eddings, Kate Smorty, (front) Sybil Reddan and Michael Brereton at Feros Village in Byron Bay.

“They moved the most vulnerable out first, the ones that had no family,” Ms Eddings said.

“They told them they have to go because bulldozers are coming in tomorrow.”

Retired publican Bernie Dean, 80, said the whole ordeal stresses her “to the max”.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen from one day to the next,” she said.

“We found out today (July 25) that the guy that comes to clean our rooms is now only going to be here two days a week. He’s usually here six days a week.”

80-year-old former publican Bernie Dean said she has been pressured daily to move to Bangalow but refuses to leave her home for an alternative aged care facility that she says is not appropriate.

Ms Dean, who ran the Captain Cook Pub in Paddington, Sydney, said she tries to remain resolute in order to support her fellow residents.

She said Feros – the operators of the home – told them they would close the facility in February, then March, June and now July.

“They keep trying to push us out,” she said.

The group said it’s little “niggly things” which have rattled them – like reducing cleaning services, cancelling activities staff, removing onsite doctors, canning Netflix, and rerouting the town bus grocery trip to Bangalow instead of downtown Byron Bay.

“They would tell me I’m going to Bangalow … and I said I’m not going to Bangalow – you can’t make me,” Ms Dean said.

Residents and their families are distraught that Feros has not identified suitable accommodation as per their requirements under the residents’ contracts.

“As an example Bangalow Feros where they say the residents can move is an institutional aged care setting that is not suitable for these residents,” Ms Eddings said.

“Bangalow is a mixed care high care dementia facility that has had a noncompliance against the facility since October 2022.

87-year-old Henning Jensen, originally from Denmark who made his life in Australia as a TV technician, said it's unfair residents should be moved on.

“The most recent audit assessment in May 2023 has resulted in another noncompliance, based on the staff not being trained in being able to manage this level of mixed care. The residents know this is not a suitable environment and will not forced to be institutionalised.”

Henning Jensen, 87, was allowed to sign up to Feros Village after the announcement of intention to close was made.

“It’s unfair,” he said.

He has taken legal action against the care provider over the issue and the predicament he is now in.

The retired TV technician said he will stick with it til the end as he, like fellow residents, have no alternate accommodation to go to.

Feros cited the decision to close the Byron Bay facility was not motivated by financial imperatives.

“The Feros Byron village was specifically designed 33 years ago to meet the requirement of a low care hostel – but the distinction between high and low care no longer exists,” a Feros spokesman said.

Lawyer, and Byron Shire councillor Mark Swivel said the Feros property sits on Crown Land, and they hadn’t had to pay rent for 36 years.

“The village should remain in community hands. Feros can keep it that way or let someone else do it,” Mr Swivel said.

He said Feros invoke “Ageing in place” obligations as the reason for closing.

“But this is a policy aspiration not a specific legal obligation. The royal commission findings endorse places like Feros Village Byron Bay – a small scale, non-institutional home,” Mr Swivel said.

92-year-old Sybil Reddan worked her entire life with her family's businesses and wants to stay in her home at Feros in Byron Bay.

92-year-old Sybil Reddan got the ‘shock of her life’ when told she’d have to find somewhere else to live in February.

Working her entire life at her parents’ business in New Zealand, Ms Reddan said she couldn’t be expected to just up and leave after living at Feros Village for four-and-a-half years.

She said she felt ‘very awful’ after learning Feros intended to close.

“After being here for a few years you’re not going to get up and change it.

“I got the biggest shock of my life.

“You don’t know what you’re going to do after that (shock),” she said.

“But we are hoping for the best.”

Ms Reddan feels like everything is ‘going along OK so far’.

“I’d like to see things end that way and we’re all back here again.”

80-year-old Michael 'Mike' Eddings, a truckie all his life, said he should be able to stay.

Originally from Melbourne, lifelong trucker, 80-year-old Michael ‘Mike’ Eddings, said he was “very disappointed” in Feros.

He said Feros had reduced cleaning services and no longer provide an onsite doctor.

“I’ve been out to have a look at a few of the other places,” Mr Eddings said, “you wouldn’t put a dog in them.”

Long time Byron Bay resident and retired producer for Byron’s community radio station 99.9 Bay FM, Michael Brereton, 75 said he is “with everyone 100 per cent”.

He doesn’t want to move.

“I feel comfortable,” Mr Brereton said.

“It’s the people I see every day.

“I want them (Feros) to let us stay.”

75-year-old Michael Brereton, who spent many moons with BayFM is 100 per cent all the way with the residents he calls family.

95-year-old Kate Smorty is a passionate advocate for her fellow residents, speaking up at rallies, protests, and vigils organised to raise awareness to keep Feros open.

Since the first announcement of impending closure Ms Smorty has suffered three cardiac episodes.

95-year-old Catherine 'Kate' Smorty has dug in her heels, saying “They’ll have to carry me out”.

“Mum was rushed to hospital after she had an Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT),” daughter, Dianne Brien said.

“She’s been hospitalised three times since February from unusual things.

“And mum’s never had a heart attack in her life,” Ms Brien said.

After being left with four children to raise on her own, Ms Smorty worked hard her whole life.

“I don’t want to move,” Ms Smorty said, “I’m 95 years old, I’m comfortable here, I like it here.

“I like the gardens and the room that I’m in.

“Just the effort (sighs) of having to move is upsetting.”

Resident of Byron Bay's Feros Village Kate Smorti, 95, at Marvell Hall in Byron Bay on March 12, 2023 speaking against the closure of the facility. Pictures: Jacqui Walsh.

“Mum’s worked hard her whole life to support us,” Ms Brien said, “And she still worked as a bookkeeper.”

Ms Brien said they have looked into alternate accommodation but it is either too demeaning or unsuitable.

“Here in Byron I can visit mum every day with my daughter – but not at their (Feros’s) place at Kingscliff – we’d be lucky to get up there once a week.”

Ms Smorty wants Feros to remain open and feels very sad that so many of her fellow residents were “bluffed” into leaving when they didn’t have to.

Ms Eddings said Feros should maintain its Byron Bay footprint.

“In January 2023 there were three residents who were in the 100th year and older. Feros refer to the ‘Byron Method’ as their care method as it has been so successful,” she said.

70-year-old Rhonda Strand, who worked in the aged care industry prior to retiring, knows her fellow residents and herself can stay and should be able to stay in their own homes in Byron Bay, close to family and their community.

Originally from Sydney, retired aged care worker Rhonda Strand has lived at Possum Creek with her husband for over 30 years.

Ms Strand has been a resident at Feros Village for the past four-and-a-half years and said ‘they have no right to do this to us’.

She is ‘shocked and angry’.

“It was a big shock to think they could do that to us, you know?”

Ms Strand said in the beginning residents were pressured to move.

“They were saying things like we have to move because they’re closing and we might not get a bed if we don’t go now – that sort of thing. But that’s waned off.”

Now she just wants the conflict to end.

“I don’t think you’d get anything like this anywhere else, the setting and all that.”

Mark Swivel is acting on behalf of Feros Village residents as their legal representative.

Mr Swivel said there is a shortage of suitable accommodation across the region.

“In the end, the community here and across the country needs more aged care places and not less,” he said.

“The sector is in strife as closures show around Australia but this is a good example of how aged care needs to be managed and regulated so that community needs come before the commercial preferences of operators.”

It is understood the Minister’s office is aware of and monitoring the situation. Aged Care Minister Anika Wells has been contacted for comment.