After nearly a decade of planning and mounting local opposition, a $481 million redevelopment of the historic Uniting War Memorial Hospital site in Waverley has been approved. It is the largest seniors housing project Uniting has ever undertaken, and one that has been in the pipeline since 2017.
Read: Uniting Pushes Plans To Redevelop Waverley War Memorial Hospital
What’s in the approved plans
The approval authorises aged care provider Uniting to construct several buildings of up to seven storeys on the 3.5-hectare block between Carrington Road and Birrell Street.
The completed development will include 231 independent living apartments, 23 of which are classed as affordable, along with between 105 and 114 residential aged care places depending on the source, a seniors gym, café, salon, landscaped sensory gardens and multi-purpose community spaces.
According to Uniting’s planning documents, the number of residents aged over 65 in Sydney’s east is expected to double by 2040, and the organisation says the project directly addresses that growing demand.
The masterplan also preserves heritage-listed buildings on the site, including the Edina building on Carrington Street. Built around the 1860s by merchant and philanthropist Ebenezer Vickery, the building was donated by his family in 1919 to serve the community in honour of those who served in the First World War. Other existing structures will be demolished to make way for the new development.
Uniting says the finished estate will offer double the amount of useable landscaped space currently available, with publicly accessible gardens and outdoor areas for both residents and the broader community. Simon Furness, Uniting’s Director of Property and Housing for NSW and the ACT, has described the project as an opportunity to create an integrated seniors precinct that conserves the site’s Victorian heritage while delivering modern aged care and wellness services.
He also said the organisation had worked closely with both Waverley Council’s heritage team and descendants of the Vickery family throughout the planning process, and remained committed to honouring the site’s history for the next century and beyond.
Residents pushed back
The approval comes after years of community opposition. A petition organised by the group Friends of War Memorial called for the site to be listed on the NSW Heritage Register and for any new development to be capped at four storeys. Petitioners raised concerns about the proposed removal of significant fig trees, the loss of heritage gardens and the historic sweeping entry driveway, and argued the redevelopment would erode the health care values and services that have defined the site for over a century. The petition gathered more than 1,000 signatures.
Broader community objections also centred on the scale and height of the proposed buildings, the planned uprooting of 95 trees, and the required relocation of the Waverley Community Men’s Shed, a registered charity that has operated from the hospital grounds for more than 12 years at a peppercorn rent, with Uniting covering utilities.
Peter Black, vice president of the Men’s Shed, told City Hub the group had carried out extensive community work from the site, supporting local hospitals, service clubs, schools and kindergartens, and that the location had been well suited to its members, being central, peaceful and sheltered from street noise.
With the redevelopment of the Waverley War Memorial Hospital now approved, the shed faces a displacement that could stretch six to eight years before a purpose-built replacement space on the estate becomes available. Randwick Council has indicated it will build a dedicated shed in the Botany area, though that too is estimated to be five to six years away. In the meantime, Black said the group was actively searching for an interim space in the eastern suburbs, ideally an empty building of between 200 and 400 square metres with power and water connected, at a peppercorn rent.
Read: Waverley Set for $500 Million Seniors Precinct to Support Ageing Community
Uniting points to community benefits
Uniting has pointed to a range of community benefits it says the redevelopment will deliver. On the tree removals, Furness indicated the completed site would have more publicly accessible greenery than exists today, while the masterplan also promises to double the amount of useable landscaped space available to both residents and neighbours.
The Men’s Shed, Uniting has said, will eventually return to a new purpose-built space on the estate, designed with direct input from the group and offering more functional facilities than its current home. A confirmed timeline for that space has not yet been provided.
Construction of the entire redevelopment is expected to take approximately four years, though the Men’s Shed has been advised it could be six to eight years before its new permanent home on the site is ready.
Published 21-February-2026
