00:00Heath Stewart is back in the bush, reunited with his loved ones in Cunnamulla.
00:08The family had to travel a long way to get there, so they had to come and see me.
00:12So to get back in Cunnamulla was good.
00:15The 66-year-old had a stroke last year and moved 600 kilometres to Toowoomba for medical care.
00:22Every two weeks I think I went down to visit him, so I wasn't letting him go there by himself.
00:28Cunnamulla's only dedicated aged care facility closed in 2020,
00:33until mates Daniel Manley and Brett Sandy decided to revive it,
00:37transforming the Yapunya Lodge into a disability support service.
00:41That's one thing that we've noticed is the community been screaming out for something like this.
00:45Mr Sandy entered the care sector after his own experience raising a child with a disability.
00:51Very, very hard when you go through it and realise how hard, but it is great and it's rewarding.
00:56Since its reopening, Mr Stewart has returned to his hometown as the centre's first resident.
01:02He is a completely different person now that he's in this place, like, he's alive again.
01:08This place saved my dad.
01:10Combining disability and aged care is a common model in country towns,
01:15but experts say even the shared approach can struggle.
01:18Up to half of aged care services in rural areas operate at a deficit year on year.
01:26The Cunnamulla Centre will need significant funding to operate long term.
01:30Out here, it doesn't unless you're fully federal government funded, you have to be to make it work.
01:36For Mr Stewart, keeping the doors open would mean more of the things he loves most.
01:41Footy, fishing and his family.
01:43But now, he's back. We've got our poppy back.
01:46No, he didn't. Oh, I've got a catwalk.
01:49Now I'm gone.
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