For Bob Buchanan and his family, moving into HammondCare Daw Park was not just about finding care, it was about coming to a place that felt like home. 

Bob was one of the first residents to move into HammondCare Daw Park after his dementia progressed and a series of serious falls meant he could no longer live safely at home.  

For his family, the decision was clear. 

‘We weren’t going to let him go anywhere else,’ his son Robert said. ‘He’s safe, content and healthy, and that is the most important thing.’ 

Bob’s story became a national example of what dementia care can look like when The Australian newspaper featured HammondCare Daw Park in its Think Again dementia series, describing the village as ‘a better way for people with dementia to live” and the care as “streets ahead of anywhere else’.  

While Daw Park has attracted attention as one of Australia’s few dedicated dementia villages, the model behind it reflects decades of HammondCare’s experience. 

HammondCare has pioneered the small household model in Australia for more than 30 years, beginning with The Meadows at Hammondville in 1995. Since then, each new development has refined the design and model of care across NSW, Victoria and South Australia, with plans well underway for a new dementia village in Curtin, ACT.  

The approach is deliberately domestic and familiar: homes that look, feel and function like homes, shaped by the communities around them rather than by an institutional model. Residents live in smaller households with communal kitchens, laundries and safe access to the outdoors, supporting choice, independence and meaningful participation in everyday life. 

That local experience is now part of a wider international movement. Through the Global Household Consortium, HammondCare is working with Belong Villages in the United Kingdom and The Green House Project in the United States to advance household models of care around the world.  

For Bob, it means comfort and familiarity. For his family, it means peace of mind knowing he is supported in a community where he can continue to live well.