Community News

Madison Nothrop is one of those essential community workers you don’t know you’ll need until you do.

An aged care clinical nurse, she’s often the last ‘family’ elderly people have, and closely tied to often-difficult life and health decisions they need to make.

“When you’re looking after someone else, especially when you’re optimising someone’s health and well-being, it’s quite rewarding,” says Madi.

“There’s a bond only a nurse will have when there’s no family members around and you need to make big decisions that will have a big impact.”

Madi’s relaxed and caring nature clearly holds her in good stead. It’s not so surprising to learn that in between aged care duties she’s been busy on the pandemic frontline working in vax clinics as well. She’s helped with more than 500,000 Covid vaccinations at the Adelaide Showground clinic at Wayville.

It’s a fair level of responsibility for a 21-year-old but Madi’s well studied, and well travelled. She moved all over Australia before settling with her family in Adelaide five years ago. Her dad’s in the army, hence the moves but also her desire to lay down roots.

Which is what she’s doing at the new St Andrews community by Villawood Properties at Andrews Farm.  A wise head on young shoulders, she’s the first person to utilise Villawood’s Care Worker Support Program in South Australia.

The award-winning national developer’s 700-lot St Andrews project opened to the market last weekend. It’s the first of five South Australian announced recently by Villawood, totalling 5000 lots and worth some $2 billion over the next 10 years.

The Care Worker Support Program sets aside lots for care workers with a $10K saving on their block. It’s open to nursing care workers like Madi, as well as paramedics, firefighters, police, teachers and personal carers. It’s aimed at helping them into the market as well as helping build strong community capital in their new neighbourhood.

The scheme, started by Villawood in Victoria four years ago, has to date helped more than 150 essential care workers access a property market many might not otherwise have been able to afford. It has been formally endorsed by Victorian Premier Dan Andrews. Villawood expects to introduce the program across five major new developments it is undertaking in South Australia.

For many, it’s the difference between make or break and as Madi says: “It was very important – $147K came down to $137K and I was able to buy the land on my own.”

Which is a good start to establishing your own financial security, a point Madi says had been on her mind for some time.

“The biggest thing about it was feeling appreciated, especially after such a really bad year, she grins. “I think this a great opportunity for anyone working in the front line.”

Villawood CEO Alan Miller congratulated Madi, saying the developer was “all about building communities, not just estates”.

“Housing affordability is a real issue and we’re concerned about our care workers. We need to make sure crucial care workers can live in our community,” he said.

“We want our nurses and emergency services workers, our firefighters and police, our teachers and nurses and carers to be able to build their family homes.

“These people want to contribute to the community and we want to make sure they can do that. Often they’re working for modest wages yet expected to care for our community health and well-being while faced with housing stress.

“We want to create an opportunity for those care workers currently being priced out of the market to buy in a prime location. We’re hoping other industries in Adelaide will also do what they can to ease the transition for these vital community contributors.”