Almost five years down the track, the spokesperson for a retirement village resident group involved in a year-long dispute with the village operator back in 2010-2011 has now published a ‘novel’ based on the story. He hopes it might be helpful to other retirement village residents who may find themselves in a similar situation.
John Cooper, a 78 year old resident of Queens Lake Retirement Village in the NSW mid-north coast town of Laurieton, was the voice and face of a dispute between the village residents and the village operator, Stockland (inherited from Aevum, when it was sold to Stockland) over two key details in its 2010-11 village budget.
The dispute, which the residents took to the media, was described by them as a ‘David versus Goliath’ battle and it seems the ‘epic’ nature of the episode has proved irresistible fodder for Mr Cooper’s literary interests.
Mr Cooper’s book, described as a ‘novel’, is called The Village, and has the portentous subtitle, ‘Don’t mess with old people’.
A David versus Goliath story
He says in his introduction, “This a story about a ‘David and Goliath’ battle between a group of elderly people living in a retirement village who were in the main aged pensioners, against one of Australia’s largest companies. It will never be a best seller because it does not have any romance, sex, violence or foul language.”
Despite the description as a novel most of the story is far from fictional. In fact, Mr Cooper has based the book “on transcripts of hearings and decisions of the Consumer Trader and Tenancy Tribunal, submissions, the summary and decision of the District Court and minutes of meetings and other records of the Retirement Village Residents Association and a retirement village associated with the case.”
Mr Cooper’s book, described as a ‘novel’, is called The Village, and has the portentous subtitle, ‘Don’t mess with old people’.
However, the events take place in the fictitious Pelican Waters Retirement Village and Mr Cooper says the number of characters has been reduced to simplify the story. In addition, the names of some of the characters have been changed, “to avoid embarrassment to any person or organisation” – and to prevent litigation in the case that he may have offended anyone.
“The names of the majority of the characters and companies have been changed in an effort to not show Stockland in a bad light, for after all they inherited the mess when they took over the former operator, Aevum,” says Mr Cooper.
His hope is that the information in the story might be helpful to other retirement village residents who may find themselves in a similar situation, “who have to respond to a tribunal application brought by a village operator or who may themselves be anticipating taking their operator to the tribunal.”
“My aim in writing the book was not to resurrect any ill feeling that may have existed in the past but rather to record in writing the historical facts of the matter, as I recall them, in an effort to give an example of what can be expected if a party were considering going down that path.
“I am sure that if the residents had been aware of the amount of work, heartache and trauma involved in such an action, they may have given way at the beginning,” he says.
Bridge building
At the time of settlement of the original dispute in April 2011, Mr Cooper said publically that he was, “hopeful that we can put this episode behind us and look forward to working in harmony with our management and Stockland with the view to making Queens Lake Village the village that a lot of people want to retire to.”
While this book certainly resurrects the episode, Mr Cooper says the relationship between the residents and Stockland since the court case has been good.
“In the early stages, there was a bit of bridge building by both parties,” he says. “During the 5 years there has been a change of personnel in the operator’s company structure relating to the village too – with some leaving for other fields of endeavour and others being promoted within the company.
“And of course there has also been a change in the residents too, with about 50 per cent of those who were residents five years ago, no longer with us; some having moved to assisted care and others having passed away,” he says.
Reflecting on the episode, Mr Cooper says, both residents and ‘some operators’ have learned from this case.
“It is my opinion that our village operator, Stockland (called Landbuild in the book), is now ranked among the top operators in the Australian retirement village industry. Although their ‘bottom line’ will always be their primary concern, they do have the interests of their residents at the forefront.”
While the book has not been written in consultation with Stockland, Mr Cooper says he gave the village manager a copy of the first draft when that was completed.
The book is available in print through Amazon for US$14.50 about AU$21.00 plus postage. It is also available in Kindle digital format for US$4.50 – about AU$6.50.
Order the print edition of The Village, by John Cooper, from Amazon here.
Get the Kindle edition of The Village, by John Cooper, from Amazon here.
