Darryl Simpson - Lockyer Valley Regional Council

Darryl Simpson, Senior Local Laws Officer, Lockyer Valley Regional Council

The Beginning:

My LGMA 2020 – 2021 Propeller Program journey started when I first saw an email come through asking for Lockyer Valley Regional Council employees to consider nominating to be a part of the LGMA Propeller Program.

My initial reactions were “why bother”, “I don’t have the time”, “it’s not for me”. Being honest, that had been my reactions in previous years when such an opportunity had arisen on many occasions.

This time was different, a chance run-in with a member of the 2019 LGMA Propeller Program in the LVRC staff lunchroom led to a conversation that intrigued me to the point of self-questioning “why not me?”. This led to my nomination being put forward and then a few later I received the news – The Lockyer Valley Regional Council representative for the upcoming 2020 LGMA Propeller Programme was ……….. ME!!!!

On 26 February 2020, the first get together of the cast of the then 2020 LGMA Propeller Programme gathered at the Shangri-La Gardens Motel & Function Centre in Brisbane.

We then numbered 15 in total, not including our intrepid Programme Guide / Host / Mentor and now good friend Lisa Hamilton.

From the first “how are you, I’m Darryl from Lockyer” the group of council officers that had travelled from Torres Shire Council in the far far north of the State, to the Southern Downs Regional Council and several councils in between got on well and despite a broad range of individual backgrounds, experiences, council roles and personalities that would be a strong point that stood the entire group in good stead for the remainder of what would be a very long journey.

During these initial few days, we were then selected by some strange, mysterious unknown method by Lisa and placed into 3 groups which were to become our separate teams for the entire Programme.

2019 LGMA Propeller Programme Originals

Task 1 – each team was to come up with a name that best described who they were. Easy task – or was it?? After much deliberation and discussion our fates were decided:

The teams were now to be known as the:

First Cabs

Derek, Brandon Maureen, Ethel & Mitch

BLT’s

Hayley, Karen, Tanya, Sean & Jon

AND

Last But Not Least

Country to Coast – OUR TEAM!!!!!

Brooke, Curtis, Darryl, Calum & Nicky

The Country to Coast team at that time was made up of Brooke (Isaac Regional Council), Nicky (Central Highlands Regional Council), Curtis (Gympie Regional Council), Calum (Tablelands Regional Council) and Darryl (Lockyer Valley Regional Council)/

We left that first Workshop with a plan of the future that included a calendar of dates for workshops that would have seen us travel to the six (6) Local Governments of:

Townsville City Council
Burdekin Shire Council
Longreach Regional Council
Barcaldine Regional Council
Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council
Noosa Shire Council

That plan included the outlines of themes for workshops to be planned, prepared and presented by each of the teams and our final forum in July 2020.

What that plan did not include, cater for and was expected was the rapid world-wide spread of COVID-19 that would have ever lasting effects on every person and country in the world in one way or another.

Our initial workshops were hoped to be able to go ahead by each team and individual taking part in the 2020 LGMA Propeller Programme but the realisation of having to postpone our schedule was soon upon us as Australia became another falling domino of the Covid-19 spread across the world.

Road / Rail / Air and Water Travel halted, work-places ground to a halt and seemingly new words entered our daily vocabulary – lock down, sanitise, face masks, quarantine, pandemic, job keeper, job seeker. News bulletins carried regular updates of world-wide and at home growing infection rates, death rates, growing numbers of hospitalisations, Covid variants etc. A new era of how we went about our daily lives had started.

The rise of the 2021 LGMA Propeller Programme:

In early 2021, the members of what had been the short lived 2020 LGMA Propeller Programme received an email from Lisa asking would we be interested in continuing our Programme Journey should it be possible – the response was an over whelming YES!!!!! Plans were made, fingers crossed, bookings made and then what had been considered an improbable outcome a few months earlier occurred. The Queensland lockdown and a large number of the pandemic restrictions were lifted, eased or ended.

Shortly thereafter we all finally met again at the George Williams Motel in Brisbane. It was with sadness that it announced that we had lost a member of the group, Calum Kippin from the Tablelands Regional Council as he was no longer working in the Local Government sector as a result of Covid-19 staff cuts.

We were back and now known as the 2020 / 2021 LGMA Propeller Programme!!!!!

Changes had to be made to the original schedule and new Local Governments were now being attended. Visits were now going to be made to:

Burdekin Shire Council
Charters Towers Regional Council
Cook Shire Council
Mareeba Shire Council
Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council
Noosa Shire Council

Workshop 1 – Burdekin Shire Council – 21 April 2021

Workshop No 1 hosted by the Burdekin Shire Council. The honour, the prestige and the fear of presenting this very workshop of our journey was awarded to the First Cabs team of Derek, Brandon Maureen, Ethel & Mitch. The theme for this workshop was maintaining organisation wide leadership through learning.

The entire group made its way by road or air firstly to Townsville, home of the North QLD Cowboys. From here, the plan was bus south to Ayr, then west to Charters Towers and then east back to Townsville.

On arrival, the skies overhead were grey and rain showers were popping up everywhere. That evening we all met for dinner that night at the Cowboys Leagues Club. It was a great catchup for us all and an ideal start to our first series of Workshops.

The next morning, again grey skies and drizzling rain were evident as we loaded onto our bus for the trip down the Bruce Highway to the small township of Ayr in the heart of the Burdekin. The Workshop was to be held at the world-famous Burdekin Theatre and Council Library Complex in the heart of Ayr. The honour, the prestige and the fear of presenting this very workshop of our journey was awarded to the First Cabs team of Derek, Brandon Maureen, Ethel & Mitch.

The Burdekin Shire Council CEO, Terry Brennan and its Director of Corporate and Community Services, Nick O’Connor provided a warm welcome to Council to the Propeller Group and then undertook a very informative workshop on their Council and community.

The Burdekin Shire Council with an FTE of 253 employees is responsible for an area of approximately 5050km2 and a population of almost 17000 people.

This council places a strong emphasis on having a very strong workplace culture and have an on-going Culture Project (Staff Culture Action Plan). In the early stages of the project, the staff developed the Councils values which are: Honesty, Teamwork and Respect(ed), Community Focussed, Motivated and Supported.

As part of the culture project, they also place a strong belief in Employee Wellbeing which focuses on:

Employee on-boarding and training,
Reward and Recognition Program,
Leadership Development Program for existing staff,
Future Leaders Program “a grow your own” concept (succession planning)
Internal Communication and Consultation Program, and
Adequacy of resources Assessment (staffing and equipment) when developing their annual capital and operational budgets / programs.

Reference was also made to a $6.5 Million project involving Council and its efforts to remediate nitrogen, phosphorus and heavy metals from discharge effluent to prevent. This project is known as the Macro-Algal Bioremediation Project. Macro-algal bioremediation uses freshwater macro-algae to remediate nitrogen, phosphorus and heavy metals from discharge effluent which pose a significant threat to the ongoing health of the Great Barrier Reef which is in close proximity to the Burdekin region. This project is in collaboration with James Cook University, The QLD Government and private enterprises.

On a personal note, it was demonstrated to me first hand as to how small the Queensland Local Government Family really is when the Burdekin Shire Council CEO, Mr Terry Brennan, made it known to the group that his brother was employed by the Lockyer Valley Regional Council and in a side conversation later with the CEO, we discovered that his brother and I worked in the same department and compliance field.

After a great lunch in a local restaurant, a brief tour of the Burdekin Theatre was undertaken and this well worth the visit. The highly professional interior belied its low-key exterior and was totally unexpected.

The Burdekin Theatre Entrance

A short bus trip was then undertaken to a nearby Council work site which required the entire group to don safety helmets and hi vis vests before any onsite walk-around was undertaken. The site was part of a project to provide a long-term water storage and supply for the township as an upgrade to its current town bore water supply system.

The “work site” – The concrete pad is the roof of an underground water tank

Departure from Ayr led us north along the Bruce Highway before turning west and heading to Charters Towers, the venue for our 2nd Workshop of this trip. Again, grey skies were the norm as passing rain showers increased.

On arrival in “The Towers” our bus dropped us off at our accommodation for the night, a small number of us had chosen the “Kernow”. There was much laughter at our choice when it became known that it had been a mental asylum in its past. Comments about ghosts and tenant’s past were made and received in good humour.

It was however, our chance to laugh when the standard of our accommodation and the hospitality of the motel management became known the next morning – very clean and modern rooms, ingredients for a hot breakfast in the refrigerators, golf cart conveyance to rooms from bus drop off point, free beverages at the Motel Pool for new arrivals and the hosts provided a free ironing service (pick up and drop off) when simply asked for an iron. Later that night, kangaroos and wallabies freely roamed the grounds without fear.

Workshop 2: Charters Towers Regional Council – 22 April 2021

The next morning which again started with rain showers, found the LGMA Propeller Group Workshop 2 being hosted by the Charters Towers Regional Council. This workshop was planned and organised by the BLT’s team of Hayley, Karen, Tanya, Sean & Jon. The theme for this workshop was Local Government from a Regional Perspective – Business & Industry.

Sonia Bennetto, the Deputy Mayor of the Charters Towers Regional Council welcomed our group to the region and provided a very good insight to the region, its history and where it wanted to go to.

A presentation by the Charters Towers Regional Council Regional Development Manager, Matt Kelly was equally well received by the group with a brief outline of the past, present and future of the region was given. Some of the history provided included:

In 1871, gold was discovered in the region,
In 1872, the population of Charters Towers was 3000,
In 1899, the population had ballooned to 25000,
At the height of the gold rush, there were 65 hotels in Charter Towers (today there are 9),
More than 65 million ounces of gold was mined in a 50-year time frame
Charters Towers was widely known as the “The World” due to the wide-ranging nationalities that flocked to the area in search of golden riches and no matter what you wanted you could get in “The World”,
Due to the large numbers of mine shafts in the area, Mine Shaft Search Documents are required to be provided as part of any building applications lodged within the township area today.

Today, education provides the highest % of income to the region at this time, closely followed by gold mining.

A discussion was provided on the issues facing the Charters Towers Regional Council in 2021 and as part of that discussion, a review of the issues faced in 2018 showed a very similar position.

One of the biggest issues confronting the local government and the region itself was identifying how to keep and attract the younger generation in the region. Currently they experience a large outflow of that generation in pursuit of higher education and careers and they do not seem to return till almost at the age of retirement. This is a common issue for all regional areas.

Late in the afternoon, a short and informative tour of Charters Towers was provided by “Gordo” our great bus driver. This included a drive to the “top of the world” which in reality is a large hill close to town and which provides a fantastic view overlooking Charters Towers itself and a stop off at a local historic arcade which housed a town museum and old shops made to look like new.

The stay in Charters Towers soon came to a halt as we again loaded onto the bus for the drive to Townsville and then onwards to our homes across the state.

Workshop 3 - Cook Shire Council – 12 May 2021

It was now the turn of the Coast to Country Team (Brooke, Curtis, Nicky & Darryl) to plan, arrange, conduct (and panic) Workshop 3 to be held in Cooktown and hosted by the Cook Shire Council. The theme for this workshop was “A day in the life of an ELT” with a bonus discussion on how Cook Shire Council battled Covid-19 and its effects on the community.

This was to be an epic planning exercise as the team had to ensure all members of the Propeller Group travelled to Cairns, met at the airport no later than noon so as to then catch a bus to Cooktown – only a 4.5 hour trip north from the Cairns Airport. To complicate the planning, the team had arranged for the group to take part in a sunset cruise of the Cooktown Harbour that departed the wharf only 20 minutes after the bus was scheduled to arrive there.

Acccomodation was also difficult as Queensland was starting to awaken from its Covid-19 slumber and many many travellers were heading north, far north, Cooktown in fact – the same location that the Propeller Group was travelling to.

Our group ended up scattered across 6 different accomodation venues which included 3 x motels, a B&B, a Caravan Park and a cabin outside of town. The range of accomodation provided a source of conversation over the next few days as we all compared who was lucky and those not so lucky.

The “low standard” of accomodation in Cooktown forced upon the author.

By some miracle, luck or simply excellent planning and time keeping, our bus did arrive in Cooktown (a few minutes early to be honest)

and we met up with Cook Shire Council CEO Linda Cardew and a number of Council Staff at the wharf before we boarded the boat for our sunset cruise. This was a perfect way to end a long days journey and to get to know our Council hosts before the Workshop the next day. The boat skipper was a wealth of knowledge of the Cooktown region and its harbour. On the return to wharf at the end of the cruise, we engaged in some croc spotting but unluckily for us, no crocs were sighted.

The sunset harbour & river cruise with Riverbend Tours

The next morning dawned and it was “D” Day or should that have been “W” for Workshop Day?

By the end of the day, the Country to Coast Team would know if all of their planning, stress and panic had been successful or not.

The day got off to an epic start, the bus driver took a short cut and needless to say, we had to ask a local where to go and surprise surprise, we had picked probably the one local who did not know where our destination was.

We were soon back on the right track and our venue was found – The local Police Youth Club. The venue was excellent and more than filled our requirements.

Our companions from the harbour cruise the evening before arrived and we then settled in for the day.

A personal highlight was the presentation by CEO Linda Cardew which started off not too well when she pointed out that her name was not Linda Curlew as proudly displayed on our Power Point – the gremlins had gotten into our usb overnight!!!!

Linda Cardew (aka Linda Curlew) CEO Cook Shire Council

Linda’s passion for her Council and her community was highly evident as she firstly discussed her role being the CEO of a remote rural Council, the day to day requirements of that role and the difficulties faced by her Council and her community during the lockdowns of Covid-19 to this point.

Her openness in her presentation to our Workshop was refreshing and at times, no holding back as she discussed the way that she and her team had to fight bureaucracy at both Federal and State Level to ensure that her community was not forgotten and treated equally by those high levels when they made decisions that really did not work anywhere outside of the “big smoke”.

Information was then shared by Lawrence Booth, Heather Kelly and David Kyle (the three members of the Leadership Team of the Cook Shire Council) with the group which further showed that Linda’s passion for her community was shared equally by all of her team.

The Cook Council area is larger than more than 90 countries across the world but only has a population of approximatley 4500 with less than 2500 ratepayers.

This results in the local Council being land & environment rich but $$ poor and being heavily reliant on Grant Funding to simply exist. More than 10% of this funding comes from the work of the Council road crews that maintain the Cape Peninsular Road (mostly dirt) that runs to through the region to the Cape. Concern is increasing as to what will happen to this large portion of funding once the road is fully bitumened and there is less maintenance required. Also of concern is that with the encroaching bitumen road through the region, is the expected influx of tourists and other travellers into the region. Although this will result in benefits to the local community, it will also result in issues for the community due to the lack of infrastructure to support the influx of visitors.

Following lunch, it was time to board the bus and head off to the Cooktown Botanical Gardens. The grounds were well laid out and the plant specimens stunning to look at.

But the Propeller Group was not there to take in the sights but rather to take part in a Team Well Being exercise. What took place over the next couple of hours was something that most of the Group had experienced before – Yoga in the Park!!!! The session was led by an experienced instructor, later identfiied by the author as a Cook Shire Council employee and resulted in what we all found relaxing, energising and an incredible experience.

That evening, the group relaxed at a dinner at the River of Gold Motel and exchanged stories of the last couple of days.

Our Group dinner at the River of Gold Motel (with our bus driver – in white T Shirt)

The concensus amongst the Group was that we had accomplished our mission to provide a well planned, structured Workshop that flowed naturally and the pre-workshop tour (the Sunset Cruise) and the Team Well Being Exercise (Yoga in the Park) were fantastic inclusions.

Workshop 4 – Mareeba Shire Council - 13 May 2021

This workshop was planned and organised by the First Cabs team and the theme was Governance.

The morning after the Propeller Group Cooktown dinner started with an early wake-up for a 3.5 hour bus trip south to Mareeba.

The sun had not fully risen when we boarded the bus for the trip from Cooktown to Mareeba

The aim was to leave early, drive to the Palmer River Roadhouse and refuel the bus and ourselves for breakfast.

Right on time we arrived at the Road House and had time for breakfast, stretch the legs and take some photos before continuing our Mareeba bound journey.

Palmer River Roadhouse

Enroute, was another quick stop at Desailly for a photo of a stunning view just before we dropped down onto the Atherton Tablelands.

Roadside view at Desailly

Workshop 4 was hosted by the Mareeba Shire Council with the theme of the workshop being Governance. Due to Covid-19 restrictions and the difficulty in finding a suitable venue for our Group and the number of presenters being provided by Council, the workshop was held at the local Mareeba Leagues Club. The number of presenters was an incredible 7 – we all wondered how could that large number be fitted into the few short hours available to us? Not a problem due to the organisational skills of the First Cabs!!!!!

Luckily for the clock watchers, the list of presenters was down to 6 by the start of the Workshop as Peter Franks (Mareeba Shire Council CEO) had to send his apologies but an unexpected matter had arisen on the day.

During the workshop, Jennifer Mccarthy, Glenda Kirk, Anthony Archie, Glenys Pilat, Amy Yates and Jacquie Perkowicz (the various presenters on the day) spoke with a passion for their community, region and council that was similar to that experienced during the Cooktown Workshop the previous day. This passion was supported by the fact that most had been with the Mareeba Shire Council from Day 1 “post de-amalganation” and had witnessed first hand the struggles to have a Council - that State Treasury had deemed unlikely to succeed and with a “poor outcome” rating – survive and improve its financial sustainablity levels.

Faced with funding problems and a poor outlook forecast by the QLD State Treasury, the Council had worked with the community to prove the naysayers wrong and were now going strong several years later and looking to the future.

Mareeba Shire Council with a workforce of almost 230 staff has an area of responsibility in excess of 53000 km2 with a population of approximatley 23000 and less than 11000 ratable properties. Although the region has more than 2300 km of roads, more than 1640 km of these are unsealed.

We were provided an overview of the Workplace Efficiency Review undertaken by the Council which resulted in all staff (inside and outside workers included) being interviewed to obtain their input to identify how Council could improve by improving their processes.

Discussion was provided on how the Council had then provided a 15% reduction in their operational budgets with no lowering of service standards as a direct outcome of suggestions / comments / feedback from across the entire workforce.

An unknown fact that was surprising to our group was the community of Chillagoe (known world wide for the Chillagoe Caves) had been on Level 3 Water Restrictions for the last 3 years. A recent discovery of a potable bore water supply will, in the near future once the necessary infrastructure (pipeline and storage) in in place, allow this small but well known community to survive without such water restrictions.

Water Shortage in Far North QLD – who knew????

The time spent here in Mareeba was short due to the travel requirements of the Group and a longer time to spend with the Council representatives would have ideal. To round out the time in Mareeba, a short visit to the Mareeba Heritage Museum had been planned. I can honestly say that many did not expect this to be a highlight of our trip and how wrong we were.

Our guide of the musuem complex provided many humerous insights into the early days of the Atherton Tablelands lifestyle and activites as well as being a wealth of knowledge and history of the area from being a born and raised resident of the region of more that 70 years.

Our Cooktown and Mareeba journey was coming to a close as we headed down the range, back to Cairns on the coast to allow our Group members to head back to their homes and families. Some (Jon will remain nameless) was on a deadline and had to be at the Cairns Airport that afternoon, the majority were flying out at various times the next day. All made it home safely and on time!!

Life was hard in the early days of Mareeba

Workshop 5: Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council – 8 June 2021

This workshop was planned and organised by the BLT’s team. The theme for this workshop was leadership and aspects of an indigenous council.

For the first time since the start of the Workshop Visits to other local governments, I had no pre-dawn wakeups to travel to an airport and for that matter no flights at all. In fact, the day of travel to attend Workshop 5 started just like any other workday – up at 540am, leave for work at 620am and drive to Gatton to start work. By 1pm however, I was driving to Murgon in the Brisbane Valley in readiness for the LGMA Propeller Programme visit to the Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council the next morning.

I had heard many stories about Cherbourg, some good, some not so good, some fanciful but I had never had the opportunity to visit this area.

I drove from Murgon into Cherbourg and on the side of the road, a very large colourful sign welcomed me to the region. I was intrigued by the motto: Many Tribes – One Community

The other thing that stood out was the lack of roadside litter from that sign into the township area itself. I could not recall ever seeing such a lack of roadside waste in any local government area I had ever been to, including that of my own Council.

First stop was the Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council Materials Recycling Centre (The “MeRF”) on the outskirts of Cherbourg Township.

There we were met by an extremely proud, determined, energetic Andrew Beckett who clearly showed the pride he had in the “MeRF” and what it meant to the community of Cherbourg.

Andrew’s smile was infectious and as big as the man himself as he spoke about the beginnings of his dream for the “MeRF”, from being a disused farm to now providing the epi-centre for waste recycling for Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council, South Burnett Regional Council, North Burnett Regional Council, Gympie Shire Council and the Fraser Coast Regional Council.

His pride in their achievements was evident as he spoke of how the “MeRF” was creating employment in the region, helping to turn the lives around of many workers and how plans were in progress to create a an IT based industry linking back to the waste industry, and the revenue being raised for his Council and his community -

The few short hours spent here went far too quickly as the entire group absorbed the freely shared information from Andrew. He did not hide the problems that they had had had to overcome in the journey from a disused farm to a Recycling Powerhouse.

The next part of the Cherbourg Workshop was a trip to The Ration Shed where we were provided a valuable insight into the history of Cherbourg, the meaning of the Many Tribes – One Community motto and the not wanting to hide the history of Cherbourg but to ensure that the truth was known to ensure the future was different. Our guide here was Uncle Eric, a former mayor of the Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council, retired schoolteacher/principal and now a much respected elder of the community. I can still recall the rules of Cherbourg told to us by “Uncle Eric” – Rule 1: Don’t pat the dogs of Cherbourg, Rule 2: Don’t pat the dogs of Cherbourg and Rule 3: Refer to Rule 1.

As part of our tour, it was discovered that our groups 2 representatives from the Torres Shire Council had a community link to Cherbourg in that a former Torres Strait Islander had been a well-known and respected school teacher at Cherbourg and he was being commemorated by the rebuilding of an area of one of the former dormitories into a small museum of his time at Cherbourg.

The walk through this dormitory was a very sobering and eye-opening time for me. Reading the stories as told by current and past residents of Cherbourg of their childhood memories of the region, of how they were separated from family, friends and their way of life at the apparent whims of law administrators and yet the way they were then able to forge new friendships, new families, new lives in a strange place.

The last part of our time here at Cherbourg was spent at the Council Depot itself where seemingly “off the cuff” presentations were made by the Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council CEO Chatur Zala, Corporate Services Manager Sam Murray, Economic and Community Development Manager Sean Nicholson.

It surprised many of us to learn that the Council only operated on Grant Funding in the main and rental monies raised from the Council owned properties in the region. In fact, all buildings in the Council area except for some state-owned facilities are owned by the Council and all residents of the area are their tenants.

It was with pride that information was shared as to the plans to rebuild, modernise and create a new main street in the town and have a brand new, purpose built Council Administration Building erected as the “jewel in the crown” of the new project. The Planning and Development background team members of the Propeller Group all expressed envy at what one described as being the dream of all planners, another described it as “a once in a lifetime experience” – both were referencing the opportunity to plan the entire main street of a town.

For a small council with limited funded, the recent works completed to upgrade all connected sewerage lines in the community AND to also provide the same connected sewerage lines to a planned future doubling of the current community residential areas – was outstanding.

The simple logic employed by this Council is what is behind the success of this Council in my opinion. As it was explained, they had problems with the roofing of houses, and many wanted roof repairs. But inspections of the houses showed issues with the foundations and floorings of the same houses and it was found that be repairing from the ground up, many other problems were resolved far more quickly and for less cost than by applying an ad hoc repair / replace process.

Another area where simple logic was applied was in relation to dogs – they had experienced numerous issues arising from straying dogs including dog attacks. Simple logic identified that if the dogs were confined to their properties by good fencing, a large number of straying dog issues were rectified without the need to separate owners from their dogs. As a result, every residence in the Council area was provided upgraded fencing to the same standards.

It was with a sad heart that we said goodbye to our hosts and departed late afternoon in convoy for the drive to our next destination – Noosa for Workshop 6.

Workshop 6: Noosa Shire Council – 9 June 2021

This workshop was planned and organised by the Country to Coast Team. The theme of this workshop was Community Engagement at Noosa Shire Council.

Early the next morning, my day started off with a breakfast of champion (or should that be surf board carrying tradies??) and shared with giant red headed sparrows at the local Golden Arches.

Internally refuelled, I joined my team at the Noosa Shire Council to prepare for the final Workshop of the 2020-2021 LGMA Propeller Programme.

We must admit however that our efforts at this Workshop was assisted by the insider / employee knowledge of First Cabs team member Mitch who as an employee of the Noosa Shire Council was invaluable to our Workshop. Thanks Mitch!!!!

The first part of this Workshop was presented by the Noosa Shire Council CEO, Brett de Chastel, who firstly pointed out to a certain un-named member of the Propeller Group that ties were not an option at Noosa. Sean quickly took up the suggestion provided 😉

This presentation provided an overview of Noosa that not many of us were aware of and we greatly appreciated this candid look at the region.

Presentations were then provided by the Noosa Shire Council Communications and Community Engagement Manager Ken Furdek and Councils Community Development Manager, Alison Hamblin.

Ken provided a brief overview of the essentials for community engagement (from the Noosa perspective) and how they were applied in the region.

Alison provided an in-depth discussion on the Noosa Experience with Bushfire Recovery and Resilience Engagement following several large back to back bush fires in the region a couple of years prior.

The return of the CEO to provide an insight into the Noosa Shire Council’s usage of a Community Jury concept in relation to 2 decisions of action by that Council was very received by the Group.

Many of us had never heard of this concept or had very little knowledge of the Community Jury process and all absorbed the presentation.

Could such a concept work in our Councils was the question we were left thinking?? One will never know unless it is given a trial.

The final session of our workshop in Noosa was a guided tour of the Cooroy Library, voted as “one of the coolest libraries in the world in 2016”. It’s incredible to think that a small-town library in Queensland would be awarded such a title but a quick google search will confirm this claim to fame.

The efforts to provide a community hub in this small town are incredible – with many aspects of modern technology being available for use by the public right from outside the front door where a “smart litter bin” is strategically placed, to a 3d printing room to an outside reading space.

The “Smart Litter Bin” self-compacts its held waste so that the bin can hold up to 7 x’s the amount of waste of a standard litter bin cutting down on the number of times the bin has to be emptied.

The 3D Printing Room provides access for the public to experience and use up to date technology.

The Children’s Section of the library includes train with carriages of books. The Train was donated by a local wood working group.

The entire library building has been constructed to be eco-friendly and “green”. Internally, the air-conditioning comes up through the floor forcing warm air upwards towards louvered windows high up on the walls, the louvers themselves are controlled electronically to take advantage of temperatures and local weather ranges, rain water is collected from the building roof area and recycled to water the libraries gardens.

The roof area (pictured) itself is a large green space with public access. Underneath the grassed area is a special membrane that drains away water from the roof area for re-use on the gardens of the complex.

The End of the Journey

The drawing to a close of the Noosa Workshop brought the 2020 – 2021 LGMA Propeller Programme to all but the end of our journey that started back in February 2020 on the day when we all met for the first time.

In the time in between, we had started, stalled, experienced the beginning of a new era in World Health concerns and then re-started an epic journey.

We have all gained differing insights into how councils big, small, remote, not so remote, well-funded, grant funded and have learnt a great number of different facts.

I am taking away the understanding that regardless of where or who the local government is, they all share similar problems but tackle them in very different ways to achieve success. Passion, pride, respect and transparency are of the upmost importance to all Councils and having all of your workforce working on the same page at the same time is achievable.

The final goodbyes were said at the end of Final Forum (surely there could have been a better name for this Forum???) in early July 2021. What had started as awkward hello’s and “I’m from …….. “ended with hugs and don’t be a stranger from one and to all.

I am also taking away with me the friendship of people who were literally unknown to me before February 2020, friendships that would not have been possible without us all being part of the LGMA Propeller Programme.

Checklist of undertaken tasks and random facts:

Propeller Programme Starting Forum attended
Restarting of Propeller Programme attended
6 x Workshops attended
Final Forum attended
4996 Air Kilometres travelled by air
2420 Kilometres travelled by road (car / bus)
10 motels stayed in during Programme
14 friends across gained the state
Immeasurable amount of experience gained
Value of LGMA Propeller Programme to self – incalculable

Darryl Simpson

Senior Local Laws Officer

Lockyer Valley Regional Council