top of page
Our Story
We adopted our intellectually disabled son, Mark, in 1989 at age 7 while we were living in England. He subsequently moved with us and our two biological daughters to California in 1993. He lived with us full-time until age 14, when we could no longer meet his full-time care needs, at which point he moved into residential care.
Since then, Mark has remained in full-time care in California, choosing to remain in his home with his familiar community rather than move with us back to Australia. He has a sister who lives nearby and visits him regularly, often taking one or two of her children with her. Mark enjoys garden activities with his fellow clients at his group home.
It had been a dream of ours for many years to return to Victoria upon retirement and buy some acreage. The question of what we would do with this land gradually morphed into gardening of some description. From there, it was only a short step toward fulfilling our passion for leaving a legacy by providing facilities for people like Mark. This idea expanded to include people of all ages, abilities and disabilities.
Over the years, we have been very aware that there is a shortage of suitable, safe places that we could take Mark for an outing or entertainment. Residential homes, day programs and families are sometimes limited by the lack of appropriate recreation spaces for their clients or relatives.
It could be argued that taking intellectually or physically disabled persons to places such as a shopping centre helps them to learn interactive and socialisation skills. While interaction and socialisation are important, from our personal observation of such groups in shopping centres, this seldom happens.
This may be for many different reasons. Reluctance on the part of the general public to engage with the disabled, and many times, the disabled themselves lacking the physical, behavioral or intellectual capacity to engage with strangers.
Through conversations with other parents and relatives with intellectually disabled or special needs family members here in Australia, we found that there is a lack of appropriate recreational facilities in our country.
Thus was born the idea of creating Mark's Country Place. A garden sanctuary suitable for people of all ages and abilities to enjoy, rest, learn and connect.
bottom of page