While the institution of Resthaven was worthy of praise, the situation at Shirley Gardens was found, as the late Rev. W.J. Mortimer predicted, to fall far short of the mark.
Shirley Gardens, for all its finer points, was not the Garden of Eden that Rev. Charles Schafer had promised. There was little room to extend the house, the old building was barely adaptable for modern needs, white ants had become a large problem, and, by 1944, the situation was too close to the newly launched Adelaide Central Mission scheme for a village for elderly men at Felixstow.
If Resthaven was to expand in congenial surroundings, there was a need for change.
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