Week one in Spencely: CHIRP moves in

Week One Milestone: CHIRP director of Healthy Communities and Social Support Services, Grant Hamilton, overlooking part of Spencely House, the new home of Castlemaine Community Health (CHIRP) situated within Castlemaine's main hospital campus. Photo: Eve Lamb

Eve Lamb

After sitting vacant for about two years, the former Spencely House aged care house tucked deep into Castlemaine’s main public hospital site is again full of activity.
This time, though, it’s busy in an entirely different guise as the new permanent home for Castlemaine Community Health (CHIRP) that’s just completed its first entire week of being fully shifted into what’s now been re-invented as its custom-refurbished site.
It’s an exercise that’s involved shifting all of its 25 or so staff – plus all of its services and programs – ranging from housing and family services to exercise physiology to the new location at 142 Cornish Street.
And if there was one message that CHIRP’s Healthy Communities and Social Support Services director, Grant Hamilton, was keen to convey when the Mail visited to record the first-week milestone in residence, it’s that all of the CHIRP programs and services remain otherwise unchanged.
“No services have ceased,” he said.
“They’re all now… Read more in today’s Mail

Eve Lamb
Journalist and photographer Eve Lamb has a Bachelor of Arts (Journalism) degree from Deakin University and a Master of Arts (Professional Writing) from Deakin University. She has worked for many regional newspapers including the Hamilton Spectator and the Warrnambool Standard, and has also worked for metro daily, The Hobart Mercury, and The Sunday Tasmanian. Eve has also contributed to various magazines including Australian Cyclist.