Over 60 Years of History
mecwacare is an organisation founded by a group of volunteers concerned about the elderly and vulnerable in their local area, and is a unique story of a community caring for itself.

First steps
In the 1950s councillors at the City of Malvern came up with the idea of providing the first senior citizens’ centre in Malvern. The councillors ran dances at the Malvern Town Hall to raise funds to build the centre on a site at the south-east corner of the Malvern Cricket Ground. The new centre was completed in 1958, and the City of Malvern invited members of the community to be directly involved in caring for their relatives and friends. This voluntary committee looked at other needs for older people in the community, and formally became the Malvern Elderly Citizens Welfare Association (MECWA) in 1959.

In 1960 MECWA began our meals-on-wheels service, and we opened our first Opportunity Shop in Malvern in 1964 to raise funds to support our services. This important source of fundraising was expanded with the opening of our Malvern East store in 1969 and our Windsor store in 1996.

Diversifying our services

Independent living units were opened at MECWA House in Warner Street, Malvern in 1973 and demand in the area continued to grow. The 1970s also brought about the acquisitions of what is now the Barry Fenton Centre in Bowen Street and a property in Fisher Street, Malvern East – at the time a base for the meals on wheels service and later becoming a day centre for people with disabilities.

By 1991 MECWA House had been extended significantly and renamed the Olive Miller Nursing Home. In 1998, MECWA opened an aged care facility in Prahran, the Sir Donald and Lady Trescowthick Centre, and community housing units in Glen Iris. In the same year, its head office relocated to Waverley Road in Malvern East.

In the early 1990s, the organisation moved into the provision of care and services in clients’ homes and by the mid to late 1990s, had expanded services across Melbourne and grown client and staff numbers enormously, including the establishment of an office in Pakenham to accommodate the increasing need for care services in the Cardinia Shire region. In 1999, Rivendell House Community Centre was established in Pakenham, providing social and activity programs to older people and people with an acquired brain injury living in the region.

New millennium brings big changes

In 2001, to further accommodate increasing demand, MECWA constructed a brand new aged care facility – the Noel Miller Centre in Glen Iris. This resulted in the sale of Olive Miller Nursing Home, with all residents moving to the new facility. In 2007, construction of the mecwacare Malvern Centre aged care facility began, with the centre opening in 2010.

MECWA’s oldest landmark, the original Malvern Elderly Citizens Centre, was marked for demolition by Stonnington Council to make way for a larger Malvern Library, which opened in 2005. In 2009, a decision was made to close the first day centre and consolidate the services it provided to older people into the Bowen Street site.

In 2007, MECWA changed its name to mecwacare, which was representative of the organisation’s focus as it grew into a larger care services provider across Melbourne and into regional Victoria.