Howard Salkow

Senior Journalist

Port Douglas’ vision of a retirement resort has received a new lease of life courtesy of renewed interest in a potential development by a seniors’ property specialist.

And Trevor Elburn, who is based out of Adelaide and spends considerable time at his property in the port, hopes to achieve what developer Steve Thomas failed to do.

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It’s Elburn’s ambition to create a resort on 3-5 hectares on the land lease model and following the Universal Design Principles.

Elburn is a director of MyHouseMyHome and a Seniors Buyers Agent associated with Seniors Real Estate Services (SRES).

MyHouseMyHome provide property agents who specialise in offering expert service to people over 50 years of age; while SRES assists mature home owners when they are ready to ‘right size’ and re-locate from their current property.

In 2017, Thomas pulled his plans to develop a retirement village on Ferrero Road after failing to obtain Council support. With the exception of Cr Michael Kerr, the majority of the councillors argued that if the retirement village was approved, it would have opened a can of worms for more development from Craiglie to IGA in Port Douglas, which would have gone against the traditional green values of the Shire.

“I would like to model it on the Savannah Lifestyle Resorts Mareeba, the only lifestyle resort north of Bundaberg which continues to raise the benchmark for over 50’s lifestyle resorts,” said Elburn.

Savannah offers brand new, affordable housing in a tropical garden setting, within a safe and secure resort, all in the glorious warmth of Northern Queensland.

Although he has the support of Douglas Shire Mayor Julia Leu – with whom he met 12 months ago – Elburn’s major objective is to secure a suitable location, for a project he says will cost in the region of $30 million.

“Despite looking at possible locations and whatever land is available in the town, I will not be taking this any further until after the March 28, 2020 Local Government election.

“I wish to work with whoever is elected to the new administration,” said Elburn.

The recent sale of land between The Oaks and Reef Resorts may be good timing for Elburn, although the site, which currently includes a 25-metre lap pool, two tennis courts and a gym, sits on only 1.7 hectares.