Heritage Nanango Community Fund director Jane Hodgkinson with former South Burnett CTC CEO Nina Temperton who guided much of the Heritage Lodge project over the years

October 18, 2023

Skyla House – a new group living home for South Burnett residents living with disabilities – was officially opened in a small ceremony on Wednesday afternoon.

It is the final stage of South Burnett CTC’s Heritage Lodge complex in Dalby Street, Nanango.

The group house consists of four bedrooms for residents plus a bedroom for a live-in carer.

It joins four other standalone duplexes in the complex, each containing two two-bedroom units, which provide long-term housing.

CTC CEO Jason Erbacher said the latest addition had cost more than $500,000 to build and had taken more than three years to complete, due to delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and related building supply shortages.

He said all the Heritage Lodge units in the complex were tenanted by people who live with a disability and often found it hard to find a home through mainstream rentals.

“We have created quite a lovely community here and have staff on site 24/7,” Jason said.

Former CTC CEO Nina Temperton said the opening of Skyla House was the culmination of a huge number of years of effort.

It took five years from the turning of the first sod to the construction of the first of the duplexes in Dalby Street.

Initially, it was a solo dream of CTC before the Heritage Nanango Community Fund came on board with generous support.

Nina said she hoped the “good neighbour” model of Heritage Lodge could now be copied in other communities across the country.

She said the project was a really good example of what communities could achieve if they worked together.

Heritage Nanango Community Fund director Jane Hodgkinson congratulated CTC and all its partners on the amazing project.

“We are working together to make our world a better place,” she said.

“We are honoured to be a part of it.”

Skyla House is named after a former CTC client whose family made a very generous bequest towards the project after she died.

Related articles:

Skyla House consists of four bedrooms at one end of the building and a bedroom for a carer at the other, as well as large living areas, bathrooms kitchen and laundry … a large deck at the rear overlooks bushland
Heritage Bank Community Branch staff members Tina Hemmons, Pania Heyer, manager Lochlan Ezzy, Deb Maller and Evelyn Green
South Burnett CTC CEO Jason Erbacher with staff members Matt Kenny and Shaun Bliesner and CTC Board chair John Box, second from right
FLASHBACK: Then-South Burnett Mayor Wayne Kratzmann, Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington, SB CTC CEO Nina Temperton, SB CTC chairman Howard Leisemann and Graham Archdall (Heritage Bank) watch as Treasurer Tim Nicholls drives in the new ownership sign at a key milestone at the start of the Heritage Lodge project in 2014 … although planning had started at least two years earlier (Photo: Nanango Electorate Office)

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