On a terrace overlooking the Logan River and green pastures, Len Gray looks under the cushions of a chair.
“Oh, there he is,” he says of a green frog that seems to have made himself at home.
In the distance, a hare jumps across the paddock, just beyond a community garden which is accessible to the 295 residents at Ingenia Lifestyle Bethania.
Len and wife Jenny find it difficult to articulate a typical day in their home of four years to the day.
In the morning, they might go for a swim or go to the gym. In the afternoon, there are options to play snooker, cards, lawn bowls, bingo once a month.
“And the clubhouse is always open for coffee,” Len says.
Len knows the timetable well, as he heads up the village social club – a $1 lifetime membership fee from each of the residents ensuring them a higher quality of life.
The facilities at Ingenia are high class. Next to the pool and gym, there’s a working shed, and there’s plenty of effort going in to encourage women to join the activities.
The village has a fair depth of knowledge – carpenters, cabinet makers, accountants, all sorts of professions each carrying with them 40 or 50 years of working experience.
“Yes, it’s true. If something’s not working in the house, we’ll probably ring somebody we know, and they’ll offer to come around and have a look,” Len confides.
One of the residents still owns a bus company. That’s well-priced mystery tours and day trips taken care of.
“I probably haven’t been so busy in all my lifetime,” Len, a former member of the New Zealand navy, farm manager, business owner and Bunnings jack-of-all-knowledge, says.
The Grays say they were lucky to get a corner block overlooking the river, but they say the lifestyle is what really attracted them to the village four years ago.
It wasn’t long after arriving that they formed a group tasked with reinvigorating the social club.
Now, there are dinner nights, monthly bingo, a barbecue on the first Friday of every month, and a rather well patronised happy hour three days every week.
“It used to be 4pm-5pm, or 5pm-6pm, but now it seems to start at around 3.30pm and finishes up when the last person decides to leave,” Len says.
“Just turn the lights out when you leave, which is usually around 9pm. There’s so much life experience in here, and with it so many great yarns to tell.”
The social club has a committee of 11 and has monthly themes. Over Christmas, many in the village decorated houses with lights and trinkets.
Events can be as small as Pictionary, or as large as a formal dinner subsidised by Ingenia.
Len has had a triple bypass but Jenny says it hasn’t slowed either of them down.
“That’s one of the great things about living where we do,” they said.
“People don’t live on your doorstep, but they’re always looking after you. If you’re not feeling too good, you’ll always get a phone call. That’s just the way it goes.
“It’s like living in a world of it’s own.”
