Homegrown success story celebrates 70 years with release of a new book

Homes were allocated to the workers and older people who did not have family in the national capital faced sometimes dire living conditions.

"It was terrible for seniors, for older people in the ACT," researcher Margaret Findlater said.

"They lived in appalling conditions in huts and in tents because if you were old in Canberra, there was nowhere for you to live. The houses were for working people.

"So if you didn't own your own house and you didn't have anywhere to live, you were on your own."

A true community effort sought to rectify that situation, led by the National Council of Women, who wanted to provide houses for older people in Canberra, doing it one bake sale or gala event at a time.

In 1954, The Canberra Times founder Arthur T. Shakespeare was elected the first president of the Goodwin Centre Development Association to guide the fundraising efforts.

It was the foundation of Goodwin Aged Care Services which this year celebrates its 70^th birthday and this week published an account of its fascinating history.

The local not-for-profit aged care provider now has facilities across Canberra as well as in Batemans Bay, with the first sod recently turned on its latest residential development being built in Downer.

"Goodwin was created by community," current chief executive Stephen Holmes said this week.

"A small group of community-minded people who saw a need and did something about it. In doing so, they created an organisation that supports happy and healthy ageing."

The committee led by Arthur Shakespeare had to raise 5000 pounds itself to build the first Goodwin cottages, small, one-bedders that still exist in Ainslie.

It seemed an almost impossible task, but it instead united a city in a common goal.

"Raising the necessary funds for construction inspired people from all walks of life to come together, organising raffles, competitions, markets and holding parties in their own homes. Every penny counted," the new history book, Celebrating 70 Years of Goodwin, read.

As part of the fundraising, Dame Pattie Menzies had launched a sticker campaign and Prime Minister Robert Menzies even put a Goodwin sticker on his car to show his support.

One of the most effective fundraisers was the Civic Centre Stall, which operated from 1956 to 1991, by the Thursday Club, operating every Saturday morning selling home-made baked goods and preserves and donated second-hand items.

Goodwin got its name from Lt. Col. John Thomas Goodwin, a renowned public servant and tireless advocate for the needs of the growing Canberra community.

"[He] was seen as a 'father figure' of Canberra," the history read.

Goodwin Village Ainslie was officially opened in 1959 by Lady Slim, the wife of then Governor-General, Sir William Slim.

Upon inspecting the houses, Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies remarked: "It is a great pleasure for us to go around and see homes that strike one as not being the least that can be done but it is the best that can be done. There is such a difference, isn't there? The atmosphere of it all.

"Not something done grudgingly but something done with a full understanding of human beings and of human values."

At a function this week to celebrate Goodwin's 70^th birthday, board chair Liesel Wett said those were still the guiding principles of the organisation.

She also praised the National Council of Women and others who worked hard to fix that glaring problem 70 years ago- that Canberra the planned city had not planned for its older residents.

"We're named after a man but it was a group of women who came together to form Goodwin," Ms Wett said.

"It wasn't driven by politics, religion or profit. It was driven by those women in their community who asked, 'What can we do to help?'."

The history of Goodwin was written by Ashley King, who is also the marketing coordinator for Goodwin.

"I spent a lot of time in the National Library and in the Archives and it was just so interesting," Ms King said.

"It was really such an eye-opening experience to go through all these old documents and photographs and diaries and notes and it really gave us such an understanding of all the parties and fundraisings and affairs that went into creating this."

She was aided by researcher Margaret Findlater, who said Arthur Shakespeare's secretary was a sorotimpist and made sure records were kept and fundraising events were supported in the newspaper.

"It's incredible to see what Goodwin has come to," Ms Findlater said.

Retired public servant Paul Taylor, 75, is a former Goodwin board member, now living at Goodwin Village in Farrer with his wife Sue, a retired social worker.

"We love it," he said. "I was on the board at the time that the decision was made to knock down the old village and build this new one, never knowing at the time I might be living here.

"It just suits our needs unbelievably because my wife is in a wheelchair and finds it easy to get around and still have her independence and get involved with other people and it's just a wonderful place to live."