Warramunda farewells dedicated leader

Mrs Hunter’s path to leadership began when her husband was approached to see if he would be interested in joining the board, and while he declined, Mrs Hunter expressed her interest.

After serving as a board member for about two years, she stepped into the chair’s seat 29 years ago, even acting as chief executive for eight weeks in the early stages.

Reminiscing on the past, Mrs Hunter remembers a time when the facility housed only 40 beds and watched as it evolved to about 90, with a more recent vision of reaching 130 beds in the next five years.

She played a major role in the development of the Rockman and Saunders wings, even travelling to Sydney to research designs that would best serve Warramunda residents.

While she admits her dream of bringing the community-run aged care facility upstairs never came to fruition, she oversaw its growth as it became one of Kyabram’s largest employers.

“I think that’s something that we can be really proud of,” she said.

Warramunda Village chief executive officer John Clark said Mrs Hunter’s contribution had shaped the organisation through some of the most significant decades in aged care history.

“Her leadership ensured that Kyabram retained a community‑owned aged care service at a time when many regional facilities were absorbed into large corporate groups,” Mr Clark said.

Over the years, Mrs Hunter has worked up quite the experience in leading meetings and administration work, while supporting the chief executive officer.

“I learned a lot about the clinical care side of it and every meeting that I sit in, I am astounded at the level of detail that goes into caring for people and recording everything,” she said.

Although she is retiring from the board, she is hardly slowing down.

Mrs Hunter spent some years in Melbourne working in a microbiology laboratory before she moved back to her hometown of Kyabram and began working at Stone’s pharmacy.

Mrs Hunter continues to work occasional Saturday mornings at the pharmacy, now TerryWhite Chemmart, and looks after administration tasks for the family dairy farm and runs a family church.

But as she prepares to hand over the lead, Mrs Hunter is reflecting on the things she will take away from her time as chair and what has kept her passionate all these years.

“In lots of countries, if you go back over history, you’ll see that its churches and people with Christian backgrounds who have started schools or hospitals or aged care and so there’s that ethos ... underneath it of respect and honour for older people.”

“So I’ve been glad to be a part of that.”

Mrs Hunter will remain on the board until the annual general meeting before she steps down from her leadership role at the end of the year.