Jill and Steve Westby are good friends.

Despite divorcing a decade ago, the couple are now neighbours in Stockland Halcyon’s Nirimba community on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.

Jill moved into the community two years ago with her mother, for whom she was the primary carer.

“I had bought a little Maltese Cavalier-cross puppy,” Jill says, “But my mother has dementia. It soon became apparent Rosie made her feel unsettled.”

“Steve and I were still in touch regularly as we have two children together. He could see the challenge I was dealing with and offered to take Rosie for me.”

“I called her ‘Two Weeks’ initially because that’s how long I thought she would stay,” says Steve, a former police officer who was living in Hervey Bay at the time.

“I’m six foot two so she’s not the sort of dog you’d expect to see me with but she ended up staying longer and won my heart.”

With the couple's two adult children living on the Sunshine Coast, Steve would visit regularly and bring Rosie down to spend time with Jill.

“Steve realised how nice it was at Halcyon Nirimba when he came down and eventually decided to buy a place here too,” Jill says.

In October 2023, he and Rosie moved in and the timing was perfect.

The brand-new Aura Brook Dog Park, adjacent to the community, opens in November, providing a new social outlet for both the pooches of Halcyon Nirimba and their owners.

The 690sqm fenced off-leash area set within a 3,500sqm park overlooks views of Aura Brook, where owners can relax at picnic tables while their pups run and play on the agility equipment.

Jill’s mum has now moved into a nursing home.

“Though Steve still has chief responsibility for Rosie, it will be nice to spend more time with her,” Jill says.

“When I walk around, everyone knows her. They never say ‘Hello Jill’,” she says, “it’s always ‘Hello Rosie’.”

Jill is an avid participant in almost everything on offer at Halcyon Nirimba.

“It’s ridiculous how many things there are to do. I’ve done Zumba, pickleball, aqua aerobics, been on the bowling green, and I’m about to try bingo.

“I play cards one morning a week and sometimes think I haven’t got time to go to work as there is so much on every day and I don’t want to miss out,” she laughs.

Jill enjoys working two days a week as a volunteer at a local low-cost supermarket that offers help to people who are struggling.

Steve had already tested a few of the leisure facilities on his visits before moving in.

“The facilities are amazing, first-class. I’ve been to the Clubhouse and a happy hour, enjoyed the pool, had a bowl on the bowling green and I'm keen to check out the cinema,” he says.

In addition to making new friends, Steve brought some old friends with him.

“I went back to Hervey Bay and told my neighbours I’d bought the place and showed them the brochures. They bought the place across the road and even moved in before me!”

“It’s good having Jill nearby too as I have a caravan and like going away from time to time.

“She is happy to have Rosie to herself while I’m away and I don’t have to worry.”