Kate Smorty 25.02.1928 – 20.02.2025
The spearhead in the fight to save Feros Village, and five days shy of her 97th birthday, Byron Bay resident Kate Smorty passed away last week at George’s Cottages.
Kate was born in Paddington, raised in the Sydney suburb of Auburn, and was an army wife in Ingleburn, Sydney and Ipoh, in the Malaysian state of Perak.
Kate was a single mother of four and lived in the eastern suburbs of Sydney through the 1960s and until 2017. At that time, she moved north and began living at Feros Village, near her daughter Dianne who lives in Byron Bay.
Kate was determined that she and her fellow residents would not be moved from Feros Village when service provider Feros Care gave them all an eviction notice in early 2023.
Just prior to the notice, Kate had written a letter to The Echo in support of the facility. ‘Some people would complain if they lived in heaven. As a resident of Feros at Byron Bay for the last five years, I can assure you, we are all cared for very well.
‘The only problem we have is shortage of permanent carers/staff. That shortage is because of greedy real estate agents and landlords exploiting the shortage of property for purchase or rent, which makes living in Byron Bay too outrageously expensive for would-be carers to come to live and work here.’
As it turned out, it was apparent greed from within that threatened to see the residents of Feros pushed out when the Feros Care board decided to redevelop valuable Byron Bay land as an ‘intergenerational community’.
Kate and many other residents held on, literally for their dear lives, and were determined not to budge even after eviction notices to Feros residents had long passed their final date – Kate was one of the famous Audacious Eight, the resident remnant, who stood strong and lived at the facility under very trying conditions when they were all but abandoned, and who were still there to celebrate the victory when the facility was taken over by St Andrews.
‘I feel like we’ve been waiting and holding our breath,’ Kate said at the time. ‘Now I can breathe and hope we have someone running our Byron Village who really cares about aged care and those who live here.’
Kate was able to live in peace at Georges Cottages for more than a year at the end of her life.
Kate’s daughter Dianne, a stalwart support to Kate and the other residents during the fight, said Kate passed peacefully into a new chapter on her soul’s journey last Thursday. ‘She was surrounded by love at George’s Cottages, the place she loved and where she was determined to stay.’
A community celebration of Kate’s life will be held on Sunday, March 16, at Marvell Hall in Byron Bay at 10am.
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