Most days of the week, somewhere across Juniper’s Rowethorpe’s village, a small buggy called the Junibug is making its rounds, carrying residential aged care residents, retirement living customers, staff and visitors to the cafe, the chemist, or wherever else they need to get to.
Home to four residential homes, three retirement living villages, a catering centre, and day and therapy centre, there’s always something happening Rowethorpe and always someone who needs to get somewhere.
The Junibug runs on volunteers, a roster of drivers who each take a shift, some mornings, some afternoons, so that between them the buggy is out and about most days of the week. Margaret, a former financial counsellor, is one of them, driving her Thursday morning shift alongside fellow volunteer Jean, a former primary school teacher. Both are residents of Rowethorpe themselves, and part of a wider roster of locals who know the village and its people just as well as they do.
For many of the drivers, getting behind the wheel started as a way of settling in themselves. “When you move into the village, you don’t know all the places within the village. You don’t know the size of it, and you don’t know a lot of the people,” Jean said. “My thinking was, well, if I drive the buggy, I get to know the village, and I get to know different people.”
That’s proven true for Margaret too, in ways she didn’t expect. She still remembers meeting one retirement living resident not long after the woman’s husband had entered residential aged care at Hilltop, at a time when she was learning what it meant to be on her own again after decades of marriage.
“We sort of chatted and bonded about what it’s like now cooking for one, those sorts of things,” Margaret said. “Every Friday now she phones up to come on the buggy. I consider her a friend.”
Fridays are the busiest day for the drivers, thanks to fish and chips being served at the cafe. Residents book a lift down, order lunch, and either stay for a coffee or head home to wait for a second pickup once the order’s ready. It’s also become something of a tradition among the regulars to pay the drivers in kind.
“I always get given chips on a Friday,” Margaret laughed. “That’s my payment.”
Among the buggy’s most familiar regulars is Cilla, who’s black labrador Khaleesi has become something of a village celebrity, riding alongside passengers.
Beyond the driving itself, the volunteers say the real value of the Junibug is in the conversations that happen along the way.
“It’s just nice having a conversation with them and finding out about them,” Jean said. “Sometimes they don’t see a lot of people so it’s about chatting to them and showing that you’re interested, so that they’re not alone, that’s one thing I’ve hoped to get through to people. I think it’s important to remember their name, and their story.”
That same care follows the volunteers off the buggy and into everyday life in the village, where they naturally keep an eye on a neighbour without intruding.
“Sometimes it’s just nice that people knock on the door,” Margaret said. “Not to intrude, but just to see how they are.”
The volunteer’s hope is that more people come to know the Junibug is there, both residents wanting a lift and locals with a spare morning who might consider giving driving a go themselves. Asked what she’d say to someone thinking about volunteering, Jean said: “It’s well worthwhile,” she said. “It’s the best thing to do.”
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