About Us

Our story

A number of years ago Illowra’s Managing Director Owen Jourdian observed first hand the challenges facing a colleague who’s adult son was left with a permanent disability following an incident. A disability that left him requiring lifetime care and in desperate need of specialist housing. This experience, along with others, motivated Owen to learn all he could about accessible design and encouraged him to develop Illowra - where we focus on providing quality customised disability housing centred around the needs of the individual.

Illowra is indigenous for beautiful place and this is exactly what Illowra creates - beautiful places to call home.

Our team

Our team of highly experienced professionals have a passion for providing the best possible outcomes delivering disability accommodation.

Owen Jourdian | Managing Director, Deputy Chair SDA Alliance

Director, Deputy Chair SDA Alliance Owen is a highly experienced business manager with a passion for improving lives through accessible and smart building design, supported by more than 20 years experience in development and construction in Australia and overseas. Owen is a respected and active industry leader in SDA, and a founding board member and Deputy Chair of the SDA Alliance.

Rodney Smith | Design Manager

Rodney is an experienced design manager who leads the Illowra design team to create custom designed accessible homes. With over 25 years building design experience Rodney brings a wealth of practical construction knowledge along with a desire to help participants increase their independence through innovative accessible design.

Carolyn Dennis | Project Director

Carolyn is a highly experienced business manager and project director, delivering projects across government and corporate sectors. Carolyn brings a unique ability to manage highly technical and complex projects with firm direction, communication and accountability.

Gilda Riccio | Draftsperson

Gilda brings to Illowra experience not only as a Draftsperson using the latest 3D modelling software to design modern accessible dwellings but also as an Allied Health Professional. In her career Gilda has worked as a Speech Pathologist in a multidisciplinary environment with Occupational Therapists and Families developing strong communication and interpersonal skills to achieve positive client outcomes.

Anne Manis | Manager, Finance & Governance

Anne is a Chartered Accountant, highly experienced in the accounting and finance sectors. In addition to the managing the day to day financial obligations of the business, Anne is responsible for Illowra’s project feasibility modelling and investment, including compliance and reporting.

Kerry McCole | Client Relationship Manager

Kerry loves working directly with our participants to ensure they are supported in their homes. With an infectious smile and focus on exceptional customer service Kerry is the primary point of contact for participants and their care teams.

Grace Jourdian | Administration Assistant

Grace enjoys working in roles that help others. Grace supports the entire Illowra team with a wide range of administration, marketing and compliance tasks.

Shona Priest | Administration Coordinator

Shona is an experienced professional supporting the Illowra team in a variety of ways including executive support, marketing, event management and co-ordination of ad-hoc business projects.

Professional Partners

Supporting our in-house team, Illowra has established professional partnerships with other likeminded organisations in complementary fields such as:

Residential and commercial builders
Land development, infrastructure, built environment consultants
Land surveyors
Building surveyors
Commercial law
Buyers advocates
Quantity surveyors
Services consultants
Acoustic engineers
Fire engineers
Property maintenance

Accessibility statement

Illowra strives to ensure that its services are accessible to people with disabilities as we are of the belief that every person has the right to live with dignity, equality, comfort and independence. Significant effort has been made to help ensure that this website www.illowra.au is easier to use for people with disabilities, as we improve our compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1).

Accessibility menu

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The accessibility menu can be enabled by clicking the accessibility menu icon that appears in the top right corner of this page.

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Woman with no arms painting

Please note

Illowra continues to constantly improve the accessibility of this site and services as we believe that it is our collective moral obligation to allow seamless, accessible and unhindered use also for those of us with disabilities.

We have strived to make all pages and content on www.Illowra.au fully accessible, however some content may not have yet been fully adapted to the strictest accessibility standards. This may be a result of not having found or identified the most appropriate technological solution.

We are here for you

If you are having difficulty or require assistance with any of the content on this website please contact us during normal business hours as detailed below.