A Queensland community is preparing to decide whether to hand control of its only residential aged care home to a national operator, with locals questioning whether an institution built through generations of community effort should remain locally owned.
The proposed transfer of Proserpine Nursing Home to Respect Group comes after the facility’s management agreed to a deal with the Tasmanian-based not-for-profit provider. The agreement still requires approval from members of the Proserpine Nursing Home Association, who will vote on September 7.
The stakes are particularly significant in Proserpine, a town of about 3,600 people where the 103-bed nursing home is the only residential aged care facility.
The home has been part of the community for four decades.
Its origins date back to the 1980s, when local sugarcane farmers, community groups and residents contributed money and resources to establish a nursing home in the town. Farmer Edward Dray donated the land, while local fundraising efforts helped turn the project into a functioning facility.
When the home opened in 1986, older people in the area no longer had to leave Proserpine and travel around 90 minutes to access residential care. For some of the families involved in creating the home, the connection has continued across generations, with people who helped establish it later becoming residents themselves.
That history has made the proposed ownership change particularly contentious.
More than 100 people attended a community meeting in July as rumours of the proposed transfer circulated. Since then, hundreds of signatures have reportedly been collected on a petition opposing the move.
There has also been a dramatic increase in membership applications to the association that will ultimately decide the home’s future.
The association had around 30 members, but more than 160 applications to join were received in recent months.
The level of interest reflects the strength of feeling in a community that has historically regarded the nursing home as its own.
For families with loved ones living at the facility, the concern is not simply about who holds the title to the property.
One Proserpine resident, whose mother lives at the home, told the ABC he was worried that a change in ownership could eventually affect the culture and quality of care that residents currently experience. The Australian Workers’ Union has also argued that the facility should remain under local control.
The nursing home’s management has pointed to the increasing pressures facing smaller regional providers.
Rising costs, tighter compliance requirements and difficulties recruiting senior staff to regional areas were among the reasons given for pursuing the transfer.
Those pressures are not unique to Proserpine.
Aged care consultant Allira Griffiths told the ABC that the number of residential aged care providers nationally fell from 807 in 2018 to 636 in 2025, reflecting an industry-wide shift towards consolidation. Smaller providers can also struggle to fund the capital investment required to maintain and modernise their facilities.
That makes the proposed deal less straightforward than a simple story of a community losing an asset.
The home is facing the same financial, workforce and regulatory pressures affecting providers across the sector, while Respect has the scale and resources to undertake a major redevelopment.
The controversy has also centred on what will happen to the nursing home’s existing assets.
Community members have raised concerns about the transfer of millions of dollars reportedly held by the organisation, including around $5 million in cash reserves.
However, Respect has stressed that the arrangement is not a conventional commercial sale.
Proserpine Nursing Home is a registered charity and its constitution means it can only be transferred to another charitable organisation. As a result, no purchase price is changing hands.
Instead, Respect has committed to investing in the facility, with the total redevelopment expected to cost between $10 million and $20 million. The provider has said at least $5 million would come from its own funds.
The proposed investment is one of the key arguments in favour of the transfer, particularly given the facility’s need for refurbishment.
Respect has also said existing staff will be offered continuing employment.
Respect operates 47 residential aged care homes across Australia and has expanded rapidly in recent years, including acquiring eight Queensland homes last year.
Chief executive Jason Binder has acknowledged the strength of the community’s attachment to Proserpine Nursing Home.
The organisation has positioned itself not as taking the facility away from the community, but as becoming the custodian of an institution created and supported by generations of local residents.
The argument is that bringing the home into a larger provider could ultimately protect its future rather than undermine its community role.
But that has not eliminated concerns about what happens if circumstances change down the track.
Questions remain around safeguards against a future sale of the facility, as well as mechanisms to ensure the promised redevelopment is delivered.
Those issues are now being worked through as the September vote approaches.
The dispute highlights a broader tension facing regional aged care.
Community-owned homes can have a level of local connection that is difficult for larger organisations to replicate. At the same time, they can face the same financial and workforce pressures as larger providers without having access to the same capital or operational scale.
Rejecting the transfer could preserve local control, but leave the existing organisation responsible for navigating increasingly complex financial, workforce and regulatory pressures.
Approving it would bring the resources of a much larger provider and a significant redevelopment commitment, but would also mean relinquishing direct community ownership of an asset generations of locals helped establish.
Members of the Proserpine Nursing Home Association will decide whether to approve the proposed transfer on September 7. If approved, Respect has indicated it could take over operation of the home by mid-December.
