Aberlea Inc, formerly known as The Abbeyfield Society was formed in 1984 to address the need to provide aged care facilities to people in Mortlake as well as surrounding communities.

With strong support from the Municipality, church, community groups and service clubs, Abbeyfield Mortlake was able to make an application for capital funding to the Commonwealth Government under the Aged and Disabled Persons Homes Act.

A fifteen bed hostel was constructed at a cost of $892,000 with $386,000 assistance from the Commonwealth, and received the first residents in 1990. The community has supported two extensions, one in 2001 at a cost of $2.3 million and another in 2009 at a cost of, just over $2 million.

Aberlea currently delivers a full range of residential care with nine dementia specific suites and ageing in place through the whole facility. Aberlea is governed by a Board of eight persons drawn from the Mortlake and district community, and employs a Chief Executive Officer, a Director of Care and Operations and a large number of employees who work in the areas of nursing, personal care, cooking, hospitality services, maintenance and administrative roles.

Aberlea's facilities in Mortlake enable people to remain in the district, provide an employment base and maintains the threshold of community relationships and structures that keep a rural community economically and socially viable.

Aberlea Inc. fills a gap in community support services, of which residents and their families have expressed a high level of satisfaction.