ANNUAL REPORT 2019/20 Financial Year Contents Waroona - Past, Present & Into The Future 1 Environment 30 Shire President’s Message 3 Land Use 33 Chief Executive Officer’s Message 5 Society / Community Wellbeing 35 About the Annual Report 10 Asset Management & Financial Sustainability 43 Our Shire 11 Good Governance 49 Our Council 13 Murray-Waroona Resource Sharing Alliance 53 Our Staff 18 Future Projects 54 Vision, Mission & Values 19 Statutory Reports 55 Five Year Key Summary of Statistics 21 Grant Funding 59 Focus Areas & Aspirations to 2028 23 Risk Management 61 Local Economy 26 Reviewing & Reporting 62 Waroona - Past, Present & Into The Future Waroona has provided a home for generations, from the office, general store, blacksmith, a number of hotels come boarding days when Indigenous Australians roamed the coastal areas houses, churches, doctor and dentist. The farms supplied butter, in spring and summer, and the hills in autumn and winter. fruit and vegetables for the men of the mills, and chaff for the horse teams that hauled the logs. As in many of the small towns Settlers began to arrive in the area in the late 1830’s, although of the time, dances, picnics and football formed the core of social Drakesbrook (later to be known as Waroona) did not come into its life within the community and to this day Waroona still proves own until the Pinjarra to Picton railway line was opened in 1893. to be a successful sporting and extremely social community. The town catered to the needs of the mill workers with a post Page 1 Annual Report 2019/20 Today, agriculture, mining, manufacturing and tourism are important contributors to the local economy. Waroona is an evolving district that services the diverse, social and economic needs of a growing community. The strong agricultural heritage will continue to guide any future district developments, particularly in Waroona and Hamel, and its enviable location on The Shire of Waroona stretches the Indian Ocean and including the Yalgorup National Park, will from sea to scarp between the Indian influence future considerations for Preston Beach and Lake Clifton. Ocean and the Darling Scarp, featuring The population is expected to grow over the next thirty years. With pristine beaches, coastal lakes, fertile this growth comes challenges, but smart planning and a focus on farmlands and peaceful jarrah forests. broadening the economic base will open up significant opportunities for tourism, commercial investment, employment and education. Covering a total area of 835 km2, the Shire includes the localities of Waroona, The long term vision for Waroona is to create a district distinctive Hamel, Lake Clifton and Preston Beach by its creativity, liveliness, activity and vibrancy, attracting new investment, seizing opportunities to develop and expand its business sector, and encouraging innovation and collaboration, while providing an enticing array of lifestyle attractions. The Shire of Waroona is excited about its future. Annual Report 2019/20 Page 2 Shire President’s Message I am delighted and honoured to present our annual report Over this reporting period we saw the retirement of Councillors Craig this year. With the significant disruptions and unprecedented Wright and John Salerian. Both Councillors had served our community issues we have all faced, I am proud of our Council’s endeavour very well and their positions were taken up by equally valuable and management to not only deal with unforeseen challenges, contributors in Mrs Karen Odorisio and Mr Vince Vitale. These Councillors but to push positivity and efficiencies in times of adversity. have already displayed mature judgement and have complimented our strong community focussed council very well. To Deputy President Cr The past year, Council has embarked on more community consultation Naomi Purcell, Cr Laurie Snell, Cr Noel Dew, Cr John Mason and Cr Larry and investigation than perhaps any other period in its history. By Scott, can I sincerely thank you for your commitment to our Shire and for engaging in genuine dialogue with a broad range of our residents we the time and energy you all contribute in helping shape our community. have mapped out a vision to support and reinforce the areas we need to focus on in our communities across our Shire. Focus areas including To our very capable and hard working CEO, Mr Dean Unsworth, you have tourism, recreation, business retention and enhancement and economic been instrumental in guiding direction with your significant experience and development were key issues continually raised during consultation. I vision. Your oversight and management of two councils in the agreement thank everyone that gave input into the direction we needed and we share is a daunting position and the journey council has taken in the past for the support you gave in a constructive and collaborative manner. year has been particularly busy. Thank you for your energy and engagement. Our relationship with the Shire of Murray has been based on trust and On this note I must compliment our Directors, Managers and goodwill. They have given our council valuable support since the inception administration staff on always remaining professional and serving our of our Resource Sharing Agreement and the benefits both financially and ratepayers and residents on any matters they may have with our Local professionally have placed our Council on a sound footing for the future. We Government. While council is looked upon for direction and strategy, have continued to explore more areas of efficiencies in this arrangement it also has a duty to deal with legislative requirements which can with Murray and will continue to do so. Councils have put in place a five year sometimes be frustrating and seemingly difficult to navigate. Council agreement to continue to deliver better outcomes for our communities. has a huge array of different aspects to deal with in its governance to Page 3 Annual Report 2019/20 the community and it is with a sense of pride that our capable and any opportunity we can for our community and will strongly continue courteous staff always uphold respect when dealing with our residents. to do so. Please enjoy reading this report and I thank all our council and the broader community for the support you give me in my role. Our Shire is starting to experience significant enquiry regarding areas of horticulture, renewable energy and other agricultural based industry. Cr Mike Walmsley Our council has advocated to all tiers of government on the significance Shire President of sourcing water as this is this basis for many avenues of growth. We need to help foster sustainable growth in jobs for our regions as we need to gradually grow our rate base to support our businesses. We have a significant position in the state in terms of locality. In order for council to capitalise on some of these opportunities, we need to have the resources and capabilities in place to deal with these circumstances when they arise. The very fundamental problem facing many Local Governments is that we are required to offer more support and services to our Shires and communities while experiencing declining revenue streams. This is paralleled by being constantly scrutinised and monitored by a barrage of standards we must comply with. The cost to council in officer time for the sake of compliance is significant but important to demonstrate that our council is functioning in an ethical and financial framework. The grant process for projects has become extremely competitive and arduous but particularly important if council is to drive some of the identified projects we want to deliver. We take advantage to advocate at Annual Report 2019/20 Page 4 Chief Executive Officer’s Message It is a privilege to present to Councillors and the community our 2019- Also in September, the Preston Beach Foreshore Management 2020 Annual Report. Plan commenced with the creation of a Steering Committee. At the start of the financial year, no one expected the great change and In October, we saw the re-election of Councillors John Mason and challenges the world and our own communities would face. The spread Laurie Snell, and welcomed new Councillors Karen Odorisio and Vince of Covid-19 brought the world to a shuddering halt almost overnight. Vitale all for four-year terms. Cr Michael Walmsley was re-elected as When this pandemic hit Western Australia we had to plan fast to protect Shire President, and Cr Naomi Purcell was elected as Deputy Shire staff and our community. Things were changing daily and sometimes President. Council farewelled long serving former Council John Salerian. hourly responding to this pandemic. Parks, playgrounds, public toilets, libraries, sports facilities and the Shire offices were all closed almost Also in October, Council embarked on an ambition ten-year Strategic immediately. However, through the great commitment of the Shire staff, Community Plan “Waroona 2030” as the blueprint to a bright future. we as an organisation were able to meet those challenges by having a majority of staff working from home and some were asked to take leave. Extensive consultation was conducted reaching over 400 community members across the Shire of Waroona. Consultation included a district Some of the highlights throughout the year included: wide survey, coffee conversations with 18 community groups and key stakeholders, a facilitated workshop with local businesses, a workshop In September 2019, both the Shires of Waroona and Waroona Murray with Councillors and key staff members, and five community workshops. further developed our successful resource sharing arrangement by Across these five workshops, approximately 1,000 ideas were sharing the CEO with the retirement of the Waroona CEO, Ian Curley. contributed and 280 were noted as being important to a community This has generated further efficiencies and also fostered a more strategic member in some way.