Orana Origins Story

Origin Stories is an initiative by the LCAQD and Lutheran Services – in consultation with Lutheran Services’ Director of Chaplaincy & Ministry Development and LCAQD First Assistant Bishop Ben Hentschke – to commemorate and celebrate the congregational and community origins of our Aged and Disability Care services.

Hi Rodney,

I am emailing you to introduce you to Kathy Matuschka, LCAQD MnM Assistant Director. She is working with Lutheran Services who wish to gather origin stories relating to the establishment of these facilities by the local congregation. Together we wish to celebrate their history.
David Schmidt

That was my introduction to a most pleasurable process that has culminated in the “Orana Origins Story” being collected and collated and soon ready to be released to the public.

Orana is an aged care and retirement living community established in Kingaroy through the vision of a woman who saw the need for such a facility. The vision has grown into a very successful facility that has a great reputation in the South Burnett and across the State. There were many people involved along the way to what has evolved into Orana, picturesquely situated on the hill in Kingaroy.

Personally, my wife Bev and I moved to Kingaroy 5 years ago from Wandoan, and prior to that, Dalby. While a member of St Mark’s in Dalby, I did serve time on the management committee of Waminda, a facility built from the dream of one man to provide help and improved life quality for disabled folk. Following our move to Wandoan I was fortunate enough to serve as chairman of the Steering Committee to investigate and provide guidelines for the formation of the three-pastor South Western Queensland Lutheran Parish. Both these positions gave me an appreciation of the amount of work involved – all of it by volunteers – to establish such structures.

Following the invitation from David Schmidt for me to consult with Kathy, I was introduced to a team of people from Lutheran Services whose aim it was to gain a complete history of Orana. I, along with the present Director of Orana and a former Management Team member sat down in the Orana boardroom and conferenced with the team to come up with the best way to get a broad overview of the “story”.

An invitation was extended to all interested folk from Kingaroy and beyond to attend a meeting at St John’s Lutheran Church, Kingaroy to meet the team and share their stories of the history of Orana. Unfortunately there were some folk who couldn’t join us on that day. The team connected with them through details shared at the meeting for their input into the story as well.

The outcome of this consultative process is a book which will be released at a special service at St John’s to which all contributors and team members will be invited, with a celebratory brunch following the service.

The Orana Origins Story will be available to the public electronically through the Lutheran Services website. Commemorative plaques with a code to scan and gain access to the story will be placed at Orana and at St John’s church in Kingaroy.

This whole process has been great to be a part of and I gained a deeper understanding and appreciation of the fulfilment of a single vision that has become almost as famous, when conversing about Kingaroy, as the Peanut Silos!

Pictured: Members of St John’s Lutheran Congregation – Kingaroy, First Assistant Bishop Ben Hentschke, Orana Service Manager Kym Zischke, and members of the Lutheran Services Origin Stories working group.

Have a story to share about the origins of Trinity Community Services or Tabeel Aged Care? Read more/click here!