Mayor's Message – 9 January 2025
Published on 09 January 2025
Happy New Year, everyone! I hope your festive seasons were lovely and 2025 has started well!
A lot has happened over the last couple of months, so I thought I’d use the January Mayor’s message to catch us up.
The previous Council went into “caretaker mode” at 12.00pm on 16 September (the last day for candidates to nominate) and remained that way for the rest of the election period, until 26 October. At our last meeting, we had the opportunity to farewell the Councillors who had decided not to run again – Gary McClure, Stephen Gardner, and Christine Henderson – and reflect on the four years we’d spent together as a Council.
Meanwhile, the election process continued. Mount Alexander Shire’s wards had been changed due to a State Government initiated electoral boundary review. Seven wards became eight, and the Castlemaine ward (previously represented by three Councillors) was cut into four: Barkers Creek ward, Forest Creek ward, Campbells Creek ward, and Moonlight Flat ward. When nominations closed, five wards were uncontested and three contested.
When the results were declared, on 8 November, it was exciting to find the new Council made up of four new and four returning Councillors, and to start getting to know each other as colleagues.
Since then, we’ve spent a lot of time together, undertaking our induction program, meeting Council officers, beginning regular briefings and meetings with the Executive Team, and gradually getting into the rhythm of Council and being a team. It’s been a busy time, but it’s been great to see everyone’s energy and drive, learn more about my new colleagues, and begin thinking about the four years ahead of us.
On 26 November, we had our first Council Meeting to elect a Mayor and Deputy Mayor. At that meeting, I had the honour of being elected Mayor for the next year and Councillor Toby Heydon was elected as Deputy Mayor for the same term. It is a privilege and a pleasure to be elected as Mayor for the first year of the new Council term and I am very excited for the year ahead!
My first outing as Mayor was to the 2024 Mount Alexander Shire Youth Awards on 29 November, which was a lovely way to start my Mayoral year. As always, I was inspired and heartened by the award nominees and winners – an incredible bunch of young people doing great things in our community. Please do yourself a favour and read more about them here, and don’t forget to support and celebrate the young people in your lives whenever you can!
The following week, we marked International Day of People with Disability on 3 December, with a community celebration, barbecue, silent disco, and a speech from the wonderful Jasper Peach.
On 6 December, Council launched its new Economic Development Strategy with a screening of the documentary, PURPOSE, at the Theatre Royal, introduced by Dr Katherine Trebeck. We are very proud of this strategy, which focuses on building a wellbeing economy: one that benefits local people, the local area, and the local environment. You can read more about it here!
The next week was a VERY busy one, starting with the official opening of the new All Gender (Female Friendly) Facilities at the Bill Woodfull Recreation Reserve, in Maldon on 9 December. This project is the latest in a big cluster of projects addressing aging and appropriate sport and recreation infrastructure in the shire, and aims to make our local reserves more inclusive for users of all genders!
On 11 December, the Deputy Mayor, CEO and I continued to celebrate amazing young people by attending the Castlemaine Secondary College awards ceremony. Again, it was lovely to hear about the students’ accomplishments and to see the acknowledgement of so many different types of abilities and successes.
Just after, the Deputy Mayor and I zipped over to Ten Foot Bridge (across Forest Creek) to attend a funding announcement by Lisa Chesters MP: just over $2 million dollars of Federal Government funding for projects to help restore habitat and create wildlife linkages in Forest and Campbells Creeks. Congratulations to everyone involved in making this happen!
The Deputy Mayor and I then spent two days in Melbourne, undertaking our Mandatory Mayoral Training (a new requirement after an amendment to the Local Government Act 2020). It was amazing to meet so many Mayors and Deputy Mayors from the seventy-eight other Councils across Victoria and to learn more about the roles with such a wealth of knowledge in the room.
We rounded out a big year with a final Council Meeting on 17 December – itself a big one! On the agenda: Councillor appointments to committees for the year ahead, new appointments and retirements from our various Community Asset Committees, a progress report on the Annual Plan for 2024/2025, a Finance Report for quarter one of 2024/2025, the Council Meeting schedule for 2025, and many other items.
The meeting was well-attended, with a number of community members speaking during Public Time, some raising concerns about changes and calling for support of CSC’s FLO program, and others advocating for a shire-wide Biodiversity Strategy. It was lovely to see former Councillor, Christine Henderson, in the audience!
The construction of a new retaining wall at the Castlemaine Transfer Station was also approved – a much-needed intervention to ensure the site remains safe and fit-for-purpose.
Councillors also faced their first planning application decision of their term – a subdivision on Camp Crescent, in Castlemaine. Despite objections from some community members, and concerns raised by some Councillors (largely due to the heritage overlay over that precinct), Council resolved to issue a Notice of Decision to grant the planning permit.
It was a wonderful meeting for our first as a Councillor group and I was impressed by everyone’s passion, enthusiasm, consideration and professionalism – a great start!
From there, everything started to wind down for the festive season. I had some lovely time off with my kids – one of whom is starting high school this year (eek!) – and we’re heading to the beach for a few days now.
Council will begin to ramp up for the year again soon, with briefings and meetings resuming in February. It’s going to be big! We’ll be developing our new Council Plan, our new Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan, and our 2025-2026 Budget over the next few months – so watch out for opportunities to contribute to these!
Otherwise, please reach out to your ward Councillor (or myself) if you have any questions, concerns or ideas. You can find all of our contact information here, and we will begin listening posts again soon, as well!
If you’re looking for something to do on 26 January – why not come along to our Australia Day – Survival Day event in Victory Park and help us celebrate some amazing local citizens, and enjoy a Survival Day concert, programmed by Dja Dja Wurrung Elder Uncle Rick Nelson! I acknowledge that the day can be divisive and bring up different feelings for different people, but I really encourage you to attend, if you can – it’s a very special event.
I hope you’re all staying cool, connected, and well! Good luck to those returning to work after a break and students returning to (or starting!) school in a couple of weeks – we got this!
Over and out, for now!
Rosie
Mayor Rosie Annear
Mount Alexander Shire Council