Bolton Clarke, Australia

Empowering active, independent living for seniors—where wellness, community, and support come together.

Bolton Clarke is Australia’s largest independent not-for-profit aged care provider, offering at-home support, retirement living and residential aged care in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. In early 2022, their newest retirement living facility, Europa on Alma, opened in St Kilda, Melbourne. Since its opening the site has filled up fast, with the residents happy to choose an active retirement community that has the purpose of supporting people to remain independent, active and fit.

The site, designed in accordance with the Liveable Housing Australia guidelines, is fitted for quality of life, including cinema, library, conservatory style dining as well as senior friendly gym. The gym was designed in collaboration with the Bolton Clake physiotherapy team, and is fitted with air-based HUR equipment, that provide safe, yet efficient and progressive training to everyone. Every resident can be booked in for an assessment with the physiotherapy team, leading to an individual health and wellness plan that will allow all to enjoy doing the things they like and live independently in retirement.

Be active, be well, enjoy life – that is one of the mottos of the site, with the staff helping all residents to remain independent and as active and fit as possible. The allied health team has consulting rooms on site, and all residents will be assessed and offered a training program. The HUR smart touch system allows all residents to train independently, yet supervised as the training programs are recognised by the equipment, providing automated, yet individualised programs.

The residents are keen to use the gym. Many live an active lifestyle and saw the inclusion of a gym as a great asset to the site. They have warmly welcomed the ability to train in their own building independently, yet knowing that the training is safe, prescribed and monitored.

The team of physiotherapists have enjoyed the inclusion of the gym. They all took part in the Exercise4Life training, given by Dr Jennie Hewitt on site at Europa on Alma. The practical knowledge from the researcher and clinician behind the Sunbeam protocol was an addition to the already knowledgeable team, increasing their knowledge on Falls Prevention as well as general health and wellness.