1985
In 1985, Bill Dartnall started River Import Co. and imported 10 mobility scooters from Canada. These were Australia’s first electric mobility scooters and were known as Fortress. Bill sold these scooters from his family garage and delivered them to his customers in a trailer he borrowed from a family friend.
1990
Bill worked very hard selling scooters locally. By this time, he was selling an average of 26 mobility scooters per month and saved up enough to set up a shop. He started a shop in Bentley and registered it as River Abilities. Motivated by his little successes in selling mobility scooters, Bill started to dream big and looked for ways to market Fortress scooters interstate. He also started specialising in custom electric wheelchairs for the local disability market.
1995
In 1995, Bill semi-retires due to illness and hands over the management of River Abilities to his 3 sons – Greg, Nick and Sam, who had been helping him since young.
2006
Overcoming the harsh trials and tribulations of business ownership together, the brothers continued their fathers pioneering spirit and kept the business focussed on meeting customer needs. After 16 years of continuous hard work and turning failures into success, River Abilities achieves ISO Certification in 2006.
2008
Passionate staff and appreciative customers were a testament to River Abilities continued growth and success. To provide a personal level of service required by a fast-growing customer base with different needs, a portfolio of brands including Cura, Rehab Rental, Rehab Repairs and Fortress was developed to meet customer expectations more effectively.
2013
Under Greg’s management, River Abilities was rebranded as Unicare Health in 2013, with a new vision, mission, and values to embrace new growth and opportunities. A soft nurturing palette of colours was chosen to reflect the comforting nature of the brand, delivered by thoughtful and caring staff.
2020
Fast forward to today, the team at Unicare Health still share the same energy Bill had when he started the company in 1985. The energy that is focussed on meeting customer needs and delivering the good old fashioned family friendly service from our shop in Bentley.
We might be a very much larger company now with a much larger workforce, adopting the latest technologies to deliver better solutions for our customers across the state, but all that growth has been singularly focused on the same thing all these years: matching optimal equipment solutions to our customer’s specific needs.
The concept of family has always been important to us and we continue to extend this attachment to you, our extended family of customers and suppliers.
Your memories bear witness to our history and make up the fabric of our journey. Whether you know us as Unicare Health or formally as River Abilities, we would love for you to celebrate our 35th anniversary with us by sharing your most cherished memories of us from the past.
Posted on 26 November 2020