When Jim Spiers moved into Carinity Hilltop last year, it was a place he was very familiar with.
The 93-year-old had visited the aged care community on many occasions, both to visit family members and to tune the facility's pianos.
Jim was born in Kelvin Grove and has lived there his entire life, part of four generations of family which have called the inner northern Brisbane suburb home.
He has seen many changes in the area since the 1930s, when one could "walk down the street and not see a car go by".
Jim remembers when he was young, the area next to Carinity Hilltop - now known as the Kelvin Grove Urban Village - only had a scattering of houses.
"It was just bush when I was a kid, and we used the council tennis court that was up on the corner. There was also basketball. On a weekend the park was full of people playing sport," Jim said.
"At one stage there was a cycling track, a velodrome. We would be playing tennis and you would go to hit a ball and the bikes would go past the fence. So, one of our old blokes put hessian up so we wouldn't see the bikes and put us off our game."
Jim has also witnessed many changes to his current home, Carinity Hilltop, which is located less than 1km from where he previously lived.
Aged care history
The first home for aged persons on the Hilltop site in Rochester Terrace opened in 1923, under the auspice of Queensland Council of Churches. A newspaper report from the time stated that the home was "capable of accommodating from 25 to 30 inmates".
The seniors' accommodation was previously the Brisbane Industrial Home, a rescue home for young women and girls which operated on the site from 1887 until 1922.
The new home for aged persons was set next to a military reserve, in an area then known as Normanby. The home was later known as Sunsetholme, and by 1931 had a credit balance totalling around 513 pounds - equivalent to about $60,000 in today's money.
A newspaper report from 1932 quoted the Lord Mayor of Brisbane, John William Greene, who said that Sunsetholme was "helping to lighten and brighten the latter years of lives which have been spent in toil".
Demand for dedicated care homes for seniors increased after World War II. Sunsetholme had a long waiting list - but it suffered from labour shortages.
A news story from 1945 claimed Sunsetholme's matron "has had to do the cooking since the home lost its cook". In addition, "residents assist with domestic work, including a woman of 97, who helps to clear the meal tables."
A 1946 article noted Sunsetholme had such a domestic labour problem that "eight of the residents had to be asked to seek accommodation elsewhere."
In the mid-1950s, approval was given for a new accommodation block for male residents to be built. Half of the construction costs were subsidised by the Queensland Government. Many more upgrades would occur over the years.
Sunsetholme was taken over by the Baptist Union of Queensland (Carinity) in 1976. It became the organisation's third seniors' community, joining Clifford House (established in 1949) and Brookfield Green (established in 1972 as Resthaven).
The Baptist Union upgraded Hilltop almost immediately. Construction of a new three-storey residential building began in 1977. Built at a cost $950,000, it welcomed its first residents in 1978. A dozen independent living units were built in 1983 to complement the aged care centre, at a cost of $538,500.
Jim's connection to Hilltop
Jim Spiers worked as a piano tuner for almost 70 years. His work saw him visit Hilltop on many occasions, and he also tuned pianos at other Carinity aged care homes in Brisbane.
"I used to recondition old pianos and restore them. I think I had seven or eight in the house at one stage. One old couple that came here to Hilltop I sold a piano to. When they came here, they brought the piano with them into the nursing home area," Jim said.
Jim's family also had connections to Hilltop, including two sisters who volunteered there. Two of his sisters-in-law lived at Hilltop in their later years as did Jim's wife, Ruth.
"My wife was here a couple of years before me - she's sadly gone - so I knew the place and the people fairly well before moving here," Jim said.
Jim's elder sister was an organist and choir mistress who oversaw a chorale group comprised of residents. Jim recalls attending an "eventful" Christmas concert there in the early-1980s.
"One of the girls had a boyfriend from the Cook Islands who performed. He was a flame juggler and fire-eater and he set off all the alarms. They had to ring the fire station saying, 'don't come, don't come!'," Jim recalls.
Sunsetholme was renamed Hilltop Gardens in 1998 and later changed again to Carinity Hilltop. It is the closest Carinity seniors' home to the Brisbane CBD.
Celebrating 50 years
When Carinity celebrated 50 years of caring for seniors at Hilltop in February, most of the aged care home's residents joined the festivities.
One of the longest residing residents, Marjorie Blankley, has lived there for 11 years. She cut a special anniversary cake with long-serving staff members Ozelle Hutley, Janelle Steer and Ramandeep Gill.
Carinity CEO, Kevin Griffiths, was also in attendance at the celebration. Addressing the audience, he said Hilltop is "a powerful example of Carinity's broader mission".
"That mission began over 75 years ago with a simple but courageous idea: that vulnerable people deserve care grounded in compassion, respect and firmly anchored in Christian love," Kevin said.
"That mission continues today, not just through buildings or services, but through the everyday acts of kindness that happen within these walls."
A report on Sunsetholme written back in 1931 by its chairman, W.H. Green, echoes Kevin's sentiments: "Sunsetholme is not a charitable institution. It is a home. Those within its walls are not inmates. They are residents.
"In making this a home we must provide something more than bread and butter and a place of sleep. Each must be surrounded with love - a reflection of the love of Christ."
