Dungog Shire Council’s new General Manager wants to get Dungog back on its axis – and she wants the community’s help to do it.
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Coralie Nichols took on the council’s top job on April 16 after the position has been temporarily filled since the middle of last year when the General Manager of 12 years resigned during a tumultuous time as the debate raged on whether Dungog should merge with Port Stephens Council.
Her first impressions have centred around the warmth of the shire.
“The welcome has been terribly kind,” she said of her first week on the job which included a council staffer baking her a cake and all field staff attending a welcome breakfast cooked by the Mayor Tracy Norman.
“The absolute highlight as I’ve moved about in the community and introduced myself to different people in the community, buying a coffee, is how kind people have been.”
Having relocated from a community of 2000 people (where she was Director Community Services at Sunshine Coast Council in regional Queensland) she is used to the dynamic of a small community.
“Already I feel really comfortable,” she said.
“I understand the dynamic of a small community and the need to be respectful of everybody because I have the lived experience of the decisions affecting the people that I will stand next to at the deli at the IGA on a Saturday morning.
“It’s almost a different level of decision making for local government in small communities because it is so personal.
“You can see the personal impacts of your decision and I kind of like that because it ensures you are a very responsible council that has a mind for the community and that was part of what attracted me here.
“When I met the mayor and the deputy mayor I could see that was what made them special as councilors, that they have that real eye for the community and at the forefront of the decision making is what is best for the community.”
Her husband, Peter and their three children plus “five horses, a kennel of bulldogs and a couple of cats”, are yet to relocate from their 20 acre property on the Sunshine Coast with the family still to decide on the perfect place to live in the shire.
“The beauty of this place is overwhelming,” she said.
The turbulent recent history of the council is something Ms Nichols was well aware of before accepting the position.
“(The) Time for being down about what’s going on, it’s almost like I feel it’s my role to draw a bit of a line underneath that.
“The story of Dungog and where it has come from resonates with me and I am really keen to be part of a community in terms of leading this council’s administration to get Dungog back on its axis and to provide that approach that helps Dungog council to become proud of who they are, proud of what they do, collaborative in their approach, innovative in their outlook and really start thinking outside of the square.”
Her research also pertained to the current councillors who she feels all “approach their role with good intention”.
There’s a few challenges she can name in the short term – most notable the council’s much publicised finances.
“Financial sustainability of the organisation is a big issue,” she said.
“I’m yet to fully review with the councillors the budget and to better understand the assumptions that form the base case for the long term financial plan.
“I’m keen to do that and to understand how that constrains or supports the council’s vision for going forward.”
The other big issue is around asset management – most notable the council’s ageing timber bridge network which Ms Nichols wants to look at as much from an economic perspective for council as an important regional route for transport.
“The other big issue is the notion that Dungog as a shire, not the town of Dungog, needs to come together with some really clear common goals about the future and find their place in those common goals,” she said.
“What’s the vision for this community over 10 years, how do they want to see this community from a town planning land use perspective through to what sort of schools do you want to have available here for your children, what sort of employment opportunities do you want for young people in the shire, how does tourism play itself out, what sort of tourism and business do you want to attract to the region?
“Those are big transformative decisions for a region that a community has to have input in defining and then have some skin in the game about making it happen.”
Ms Nichols also has a lived experience of working in a moribund town, when the bottom fell out of the sugar market affecting Nambour.
“There’s always a way forward, it just requires a different level of energy and sometimes I think a new person can just bring that energy that can help people to look forward instead of looking backwards,” she said.
She said she was impressed by the “capability, stamina and professionalism” of the council staff.
“They have really had a turbulent time as everything swirls around them… their resilience and their desire to go forward just in the way they have welcomed me has been outstanding and credit must be given to them for continuing to do what they do, and do it so well.
“These guys are churning through the work, for a small team.”
Ms Nichols said filling the council’s current staff vacancies was contingent upon the council’s financial circumstances and identifying gaps that exist against the vision the council is setting. She is happy to “be creative” and look outside the square to fill the gaps, looking at partnerships with universities, private business and the community.
She said what drives her in the role in the administration leadership is having a good relationship with the political leadership.
“(It’s) tremendously important to work as one team,” she said.
“That mantra needs to extend outside the council building and into the community so we are all on the same team here in Dungog in terms of taking this shire forward into the future.
“I’m keen to be a GM that is connected to the community and can walk in to a room and know who’s in the room and what the issues are for those people.
“I’m very very clear on one thing and that’s I leave the politics to the politicians.
“Council is the decision making body and it’s the role of the administration to implement the decisions of council in the most efficient manner.
“It’s really that simple and that hard at the same time.”