INSPIRE
John Caruso discovers the magic in building a brand-new coastal community from scratch.
Start It’s a special feeling to be part of something before the story has been told and the narrative established; to literally build a community from the ground up. At Sunrise Beach Village that means the paint is still fresh, daily life is still establishing a rhythm, nobody’s claimed a favourite seat in the communal lounge and that fresh ‘new car’ smell lingers. Everything is ready for new experiences and memories to be made. As Village Manager at Keyton’s newest community, Sunrise Beach Village, Carrie Woods is in the middle of it all. She didn’t arrive to maintain something another person had spent years establishing. She arrived to a fresh start. For her, it’s a meaningfully different job, and one she chose deliberately. “There’s a very relaxed coastal resort feel about this place, that’s the first thing you notice,” she says. “Then the wonder and excitement of discovering and defining what we want the community to be.” It’s an observation echoed by the first residents who agree that Sunrise Beach Village offers new beginnings, full of possibility - somewhere you choose to be, rather than somewhere you land due to circumstance. For Carrie, that atmosphere isn’t just a backdrop, it’s a foundation to build on. Before arriving at Sunrise Beach Village, Carrie was managing an already established community at a Keyton Village in Brisbane, complete with all the processes, rhythms and rituals that years of settled life bring. The contrast between stepping into something that has already found its stride and stepping into a brand-new village was a fundamentally different experience.
Carrie Woods talks with a resident “Opening a new location along with those foundation residents mean you grow it together, you’re not just stepping into an established community,” she explains. ‘Growing it together’ is a phrase that sits at the centre of what makes Sunrise Beach Village’s current chapter exciting. The residents living at Grasstree Court haven’t arrived at a community with its habits already formed and friendships already cemented. They’ve come in alongside a team that’s also finding its footing, learning the building, working out the ropes in real time. This is the part that rarely gets told. We hear about what retirement living can look like once it’s humming - the social clubs, the morning teas, the rhythms of a community that’s had years to settle. We hear less about the blank canvas stage: where new discoveries are made en masse and the relationships and rhythm that will define the place are still in their first steps. At Sunrise Beach Village, that canvas is taking shape quickly. A residents’ committee has formed and meets monthly, something Carrie speaks about with genuine enthusiasm. “We assisted them with getting that underway and developing that, which is exciting,” she says. “I also meet with them to talk about village life, things that are happening and things we can work on together.”
becomes for the future. That thread of being part of something from the very beginning is one Carrie keeps returning to. It’s not hard to understand why. There’s a belonging that comes from having been there when something started. Foundation residents here aren’t arriving to join someone else’s story. They’re writing their own. What tends to get overlooked in conversations about retirement villages is that the staff are on the same foundational journey. Carrie didn’t just arrive to open a building. She arrived to build an operations team from scratch, a group of people charged with running a location that was still working out, day by day, what running it looked like. “Building the team is a journey in itself because we’ve all come in fresh to establish processes and procedures and put everything in place,” Carrie says. “You need to know and understand the differences between village designs. How do we conduct a fire evacuation? How does the lift work? How does the key system work? There’s a lot of things to plan, discover and tune.” Everyone is writing the reference points in real time and fit-for-purpose. This is what a legacy looks like in its earliest days. Not a plaque on a wall or a name above a door.
Week by week, the village is growing. The arrival of new residents is a nearweekly occurrence, and with Stage 3 yet to launch, the community is still very much in its opening chapter.
A group of people, staff and residents alike, who will one day be able to say they were there when it all started. When the first friendships were struck. When the residents’ committee held its first meetings. When the team learned the building and the building began, slowly, to feel like home.
The friendships forming now, the habits taking root, the small rituals being established, these are the things that will define what Sunrise Beach Village
At Sunrise Beach Village, the paint is still fresh, the lawns are green and gardens are blooming, and the story is well and truly underway.
173
WINTER 2026
PHOTO: IAN WALDIE
A FRESH