RSL ANZAC Village at Narrabeen, known to generations of northern beaches families as “The War Vets”, has lodged a State Significant Development Application for a $772 million Village Renewal masterplan, launching a 10 to 15-year staged transformation of one of Australia’s most historically significant retirement and aged care communities.
The application, filed through the NSW Planning Portal in April 2026, marks a defining moment for the village that two World War One veterans established on Anzac Day 1939 to care for returned military personnel.
86 years later, the site supports 1,600 residents in 700 homes and four nursing homes. While keeping its veteran focus, the village now welcomes the wider public and employs over 800 staff at the Narrabeen Lagoon site.
The masterplan’s scale reflects how dramatically the ambition for the site has grown. In 2018, RSL LifeCare lodged a development application to demolish 15 single-storey buildings and replace them with 86 two-bedroom units at a cost of $47.8 million.
That application was withdrawn just four months later when a new CEO arrived and a more comprehensive vision was developed. What has now been lodged eight years later is an entirely different proposition: five stages, nearly $800 million, and a complete reimagining of how the village functions.
RSL LifeCare CEO Drew Pearce described the project as a once-in-a-generation commitment to the community’s future.
“This renewal is about caring for what already exists, while planning responsibly for the future,” Pearce said. “It’s about strengthening what makes RSL ANZAC Village special, lifting accessibility, wellbeing and care outcomes, while protecting the character, history and purpose that has shaped this community for more than eight decades.”
A Village of Villages
The masterplan’s central design concept is what RSL LifeCare calls a “village of villages”: a series of walkable neighbourhoods, each with modern homes, green spaces and shared amenities, built around the principle that residents should be able to remain in familiar surroundings as their care needs change rather than being relocated to an entirely different facility.
That shift in philosophy reflects the broader transformation happening across the aged care sector in Australia, where the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety has pushed operators toward ageing in place, greater resident choice and more integrated care delivery.
RSL ANZAC Village’s current stock of buildings was not designed with those principles in mind. Many no longer meet modern accessibility or safety standards, and the range of housing types available does not match what today’s residents and incoming veterans are looking for.
The masterplan addresses that directly. The project will provide a net increase of roughly 430 retirement homes and 50 aged care beds. This figure accounts for the removal of older buildings as the village expands beyond its current 700 homes and 300 nursing places.
Two entirely new precincts would also take shape: a Lifestyle and Wellness Precinct and a Main Street and Health Precinct, giving residents access to health services, community facilities and social spaces within the village itself.
All five stages are designed to be delivered while residents remain on site. Any relocations required during construction would be managed within the village and planned in consultation with affected residents before each stage begins.
Eight Decades of History, and a Broader Community Connection
The village’s place in Australian cultural life extends well beyond its care function. It became widely known nationally when the ABC series Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds, filmed at the complex, first went to air in 2019, and the warmth and character of its community came through in every episode.
Today the village welcomes not only veterans from conflicts across Australia’s military history, including Afghanistan and Iraq, but also civilian retirees across a full spectrum of independent and supported living options. It sits on Golf Avenue overlooking Narrabeen Lagoon, one of the northern beaches’ most valued natural settings, and its long-term future as a community asset has significance well beyond its residents and staff.
The Community Has Already Been Consulted
Unlike many large-scale applications that arrive with minimal prior engagement, this SSDA has been shaped by an extensive community consultation process running since February 2025.
RSL LifeCare recorded more than 18,574 individual engagement touchpoints across that period, including four resident workshops, two dedicated veterans’ workshops, a veterans’ survey, more than 500 conversations through an onsite Community Information Hub set up at the village, and online engagement.
Letters were also distributed to neighbouring residents, and the Community Information Hub remains in operation for anyone wanting to learn more about the renewal plans and the planning process.
The consultation record is significant because it will form part of the Environmental Impact Statement that accompanies the SSDA through the NSW assessment process.
Have Your Say
As a State Significant Development Application, this proposal is assessed through the NSW Planning Portal. The full application and supporting environmental impact studies will be publicly available for review and submission during the formal exhibition period, which has not yet opened.
To view the application, track its progress and register to be notified when the public exhibition period opens, visit the NSW Planning Portal.
The public exhibition period is the formal opportunity for neighbours, community members and interested parties to lodge a submission either supporting or raising concerns about the proposal.
For more information about the Village Renewal masterplan, click here.
Published 26-April-2026
