Services & Organisation Committee - 6 August 2024
Date: Tuesday, 6 August 2024 at 1:30PM
Location: Noosa Shire Council Chambers , 9 Pelican Street , Tewantin , QLD 4565 , Australia
Organiser: Noosa Shire Council
Duration: 00:54:27
Synopsis: Holiday Parks deliver strong revenue and plan expansion, Infrastructure program progresses, FireTech trials and supplier panel approved, Confidential tender awarded, Coastal nourishment adopted, Transparency improved.
Meeting Attendees
Committee Members
Nicola Wilson Frank Wilkie Jessica Phillips Non-Committee Members
Tom Wegener Amelia Lorentson Executive Officers
Chief Executive Officer Larry Sengstock Director Corporate Services Trent Grauf Director Strategy And Environment Kim Rawlings Acting Director Infrastructure Services Shaun Walsh Apologies (Did Not Attend)
AI-Generated Meeting Insight
Key Decisions & Discussions Nicolas Wilson: Appointed Acting Chair; meeting proceeded with full quorum except Cr Finzel on leave (00:09–01:06) (Attendance & Apologies). Robyn Mercer: Holiday Parks FY23/24 results: revenue $4.53m (+1.8%), visitation +5.6%, nights sold +1.35; 294 sites across three parks; strong FY24/25 forward bookings >$2.6m (02:44–05:02) (Item 6.1). Robyn Mercer: Business moving from “growth” (pricing/ops gains) to “expansion” (increasing inventory) as occupancy approaches ceiling; expansion options include adjacent parcels and other sites (05:29–06:40) (Item 6.1). Trent Grauf: John’s Landing was acquired using a mix of environmental reserves and general funds; intended blended use (environmental plus potential activation such as a holiday park); feasibility pending in Strategic Land Review and revenue diversification work (11:01–12:20) (Item 6.1). Council: Noted the Holiday Parks report; emphasis on low-cost family stays and modest profit assisting ratepayers (13:09–13:44) (Item 6.1). Chris Bowden: Approved refresh of Register of Prequalified Suppliers for FireTech trials; 8 new firms added to existing panel; CEO authorised to extend up to July 2027 (14:24–21:15) (Item 5.1). Chris Bowden: FireTech focuses on early detection, behavior prediction, responder safety (robotics), and safe drone use alongside crewed aircraft; funded by NEMA and QLD grants; “living lab” trials in Noosa (14:50–20:58) (Item 5.1). Chris Bowden: Drones used under trial SOPS in recent SW QLD bushfire; detection cameras effective but triage/characterisation is next focus; collaboration with QFES and CASA ongoing (21:43–27:55) (Item 5.1). Chris Bowden: Global interest (NASA/XPRIZE) in solving shared airspace problem; aim to set a national model (29:01–30:31) (Item 5.1). Infrastructure Team: Capital Program FY23/24: $45.9m budget (incl. $19.5m carryover); $33.2m expended (72%) + $5.9m committed; reseal program fully delivered ($5m) (31:14–32:23) (Item 6.2). Infrastructure Team: 146 projects with 53 multi-year; delivery impacted by many small projects, staff turnover, weather, and environmental/event windows; staffing now near full complement with strong grad pipeline (32:24–34:40; 36:49–38:34; 46:16–47:10) (Item 6.2). Mel/Team: Noosa Drive/Mays car park lighting and CCTV replacement completed; insurance recovery being pursued for accident-damaged assets (35:33–36:39) (Item 6.2). Infrastructure Team: Proactive asset inspections (stormwater CCTV, bridges, footpaths, roads) aim to pre-empt failures; some emergent works unavoidable (e.g., buried pipes) (47:33–48:59) (Item 6.2). Committee: Entered confidential session under s254J(3)(g) LGR 2012 to discuss tender pricing for CN00644 Pathways Package 3; awarded to The Trustee for Integral Concreting Services Family Trust; CEO to finalise; to be ratified at next Council meeting (50:55–54:01) (Item 7.1). Contentious / Transparency Matters Nicola Wilson: Proactively explained to public why Item 7.1 was confidential (commercial-in-confidence tender prices), improving transparency without breaching LGR 2012 (50:55–52:44) (Item 7.1). Discussion: Potential expansion of Holiday Parks to new sites (incl. John’s Landing) may raise environmental vs. commercial value trade-offs; officers flagged need for due diligence and strategic review before decisions (06:21–12:20) (Item 6.1). Councillor query: On operational integration of drones with frontline fire crews; Bowden emphasised “common operating picture,” unified comms, and CASA-guided incremental trials (25:24–28:16) (Item 5.1). Community impact: Staffing turnover and weather delays acknowledged; resequencing and multi-year profiling used to manage delivery expectations (32:24–33:13; 37:08–38:34) (Item 6.2). Legal / Risk Procurement law: Use of a prequalified supplier panel for FireTech fits collaborative R&D-style trials while maintaining probity via ITQ vetting and CEO extension authority (14:50–21:15) (Item 5.1). Confidentiality: Closure under Local Government Regulation 2012 s254J(3)(g) to protect tenderers’ commercial info; decision re-opened and resolved in public once discussion concluded (50:55–54:01) (Item 7.1). Aviation regulation: CASA oversight of drone/crewed aircraft integration; trials require strict SOPS, deconfliction software, shared comms; mitigates public safety and liability risk (25:24–28:16) (Item 5.1). Financial risk: Capital underspend vs. commitments managed; insurance claims pursued for accidental asset damage; emergent works funding balanced across depreciation, grants, and rates (35:33–36:39; 47:33–47:58) (Item 6.2). Environmental risk: Dog Beach nourishment chosen over hard structures; monitoring with trigger thresholds to prevent breakthrough and protect Noosa Sound/Main Beach (39:09–42:18) (Item 6.2). Environmental Concerns Infrastructure Team: Dog Beach nourishment uses river-mouth sand to reinforce the spit and reduce risk of breakthrough; ongoing maintenance preferred to rock walls; monitoring program in place (39:09–42:18) (Item 6.2). Team/Larry Sengstock: Acknowledge vulnerability to cyclones; adaptive management and periodic top-ups planned; channel changes communicated to boaters, though groundings persist in dynamic conditions (41:44–45:12) (Item 6.2). Programming constraints: Environmental windows (e.g., fish/birds) drive multi-year staging and timing of capital works (38:05–38:34) (Item 6.2). Short Stay & Visitor Economy (Holiday Parks) Frank Wilkie: Noted national trend of councils divesting campgrounds; Noosa’s parks provide affordable family accommodation and modest profits easing rate burden (13:09–13:44) (Item 6.1). Robyn Mercer: Noosa North Shore growth linked to 2019–20 $2.5m refurbishment and improved amenity; out-of-region visitation growing per postcode analysis (07:05–09:58) (Item 6.1). Trent Grauf: John’s Landing options will weigh financial, social, and environmental value via Strategic Land Review before any activation for tourism use (11:01–12:20) (Item 6.1).
Official Meeting Minutes
MINUTES Services & Organisation Committee Meeting Tuesday, 6 August 2024 1:30 PM Council Chambers, 9 Pelican Street, Tewantin Committee: Crs Karen Finzel (Chair), Jessica Phillips, Frank Wilkie, Nicola Wilson “Noosa Shire – different by nature” SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES 6 AUGUST 2024 1. ATTENDANCE & APOLOGIES COMMITTEE MEMBERS Cr Nicola Wilson (Acting Chair) Cr Frank Wilkie Cr Jessica Phillips NON-COMMITTEE MEMBERS Cr Tom Wegener Cr Amelia Lorentson EXECUTIVE Chief Executive Officer Larry Sengstock Director Corporate Services Trent Grauf Director Strategy and Environment Kim Rawlings Acting Director Infrastructure Services Shaun Walsh APOLOGIES Cr Karen Finzel (Chair) Committee Resolution Moved: Cr Frank Wilkie Seconded: Cr Jessica Phillips That Cr Nicola Wilson be appointed as Acting Chairperson for this meeting. Carried unanimously. 2. CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES Committee Resolution Moved: Cr Frank Wilkie Seconded: Cr Jessica Phillips The Minutes of the Services & Organisation Committee Meeting held on 9 July 2024 be received and confirmed. Carried unanimously. 3. PRESENTATIONS Nil. 4. DEPUTATIONS Nil. SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES 6 AUGUST 2024 6.1. NOOSA HOLIDAY PARKS UPDATE Committee Recommendation Moved: Cr Frank Wilkie Seconded: Cr Jessica Phillips That Council note the report by the Commercial Business Advisor to the Services and Organisation Committee Meeting dated 6 August 2024 providing an update on operations of the Noosa Holiday Parks Business Activity to 30 June 2024. Carried unanimously. 5. REPORTS FOR CONSIDERATION OF THE COMMITTEE 5.1. CONTRACT NO. T000078 – REGISTER OF PRE-QUALIFIED SUPPLIERS FOR PROVISION OF FIRETECH SERVICES {REFRESH} Committee Recommendation Moved: Cr Frank Wilkie Seconded: Cr Jessica Phillips That Council note the report by the Director Digital Hub and Innovation to the Services & Organisation Committee Meeting dated 6 August 2024 and A. Approve the award of Contract No. T000078 for the Register of Prequalified Suppliers for the Provision of Firetech Services {Refresh} for a period of twelve (12) months effective 1 August 2024 to the following suppliers that will be in addition to the existing list of suppliers on this ROPS: Australian Uav Technologies Pty Ltd Covey Associates Pty Ltd Cwift Pty Ltd Fliight Technologies Pty Ltd Kablamo Pty Ltd TTF Richlauren Trust t/as Larnach Ventures (Apac Surveillance) RPS AAP Consulting Pty Ltd MS&C Group Pty Ltd t/as Watchtowers Networks B. Subject to satisfactory performance of the suppliers, authorise the CEO to approve the option to extend the contract at the expiry of this term for a further two (2) terms of up to twelve (12) months each ending on 31 July 2027. Carried unanimously. 6. REPORTS FOR NOTING BY THE COMMITTEE SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES 6 AUGUST 2024 6.2. CAPITAL PROGRAM 2023/24 DELIVERY STATUS Committee Recommendation Moved: Cr Frank Wilkie Seconded: Cr Jessica Phillips That Council note the report by the Infrastructure Planning Officer to the Services & Organisation Committee Meeting dated 6 August 2024 providing an update on the delivery of the 2023/24 Capital Program as at 30 June 2024. Carried unanimously. 7. CONFIDENTIAL SESSION 7.1. CONFIDENTIAL - NOT FOR PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION - CONTRACT NO. CN00644 – CONSTRUCTION OF PATHWAYS - PACKAGE 3 CLOSURE OF THE MEETING TO THE PUBLIC Committee Resolution Moved: Cr Nicola Wilson Seconded: Cr Jessica Phillips That the meeting be closed to the public pursuant to section 254J(3)(g) of the Local Government Regulation 2012 for the purpose of discussing potential commercial negotiations in relation to a contract for Item 7.1 - Contract No. CN00644 – Construction of Pathways - Package 3. Carried unanimously. RE-OPENING OF THE MEETING TO THE PUBLIC Committee Resolution Moved: Cr Nicola Wilson Seconded: Cr Frank Wilkie That the meeting be re-opened to the public. Carried unanimously. Committee Recommendation Moved: Cr Nicola Wilson Seconded: Cr Frank Wilkie That Council note the report by the Graduate Engineer to the Services and Organisation Committee dated 6 August 2024 and A. Award Contract No. CN00644 for Construction of Pathways 2023-24 Package 3 to The Trustee for Integral Concreting Services Family Trust as outlined in the report; and B. Authorise the CEO to negotiate and finalise contracts on Council's behalf with The Trustee for Integral Concreting Services Family Trust. Carried unanimously. 8. MEETING CLOSURE The meeting closed at 2.40pm.
Meeting Transcript
Larry Sengstock 00:07.340
Okay, it's on. Okay? Welcome all right, welcome everybody to the Services & Organisation Committee Meeting on the 6th of August. I'm firstly obviously opening the meeting because our Chair Councillor Finzel is on leave. So I'll start the meeting. I'd firstly like to acknowledge that we are meeting on the traditional lands of the Kabi Kabi People and I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging. All committee members are in attendance except for Councillor Finzel who's on leave. So we elect a Chair for this meeting. Frank Wilkie 00:46.124
I nominate Councillor Nicola Wilson. I second that. Larry Sengstock 00:49.704
So we have a, nomination and a seconder. Put it to the vote. Unanimous. That's sherry. So Councillor Wilson, I'll let you take over. Nicola Wilson 01:06.428
Thank you. Welcome everyone to the SMO committee meeting today. We'll move straight to the first item of business which is the confirmation of minutes from the last minute, all the right, last meeting. One thank you, Councillor Wilkie, and Councillor Phillips, thank you. I will put that to the vote. Carried unanimously, thank you. Item number three, we have no presentations today. And number four, no deputations. So this brings us to item five on the agenda, which is under the Reports for consideration of the Committee. Contract number T, lots of 078, register pre-qualified suppliers for provision of fire tech services. Larry Sengstock 01:57.762
Yeah, right. Kim Rawlings 02:01.358
And we have Chris Boden. Yeah, good afternoon, Councillors. About three or four minutes away to walk in the room if we wanted to wait, otherwise I'm happy to proceed. Unknown 02:20.320
We yeah. You'd like. We can wait and move to the next item. Thank you. Thank you. Nicola Wilson 02:27.774
Item number six, reports for noting by the committee is 6.1 Noosa Holiday Parks update. I believe we have Robyn Mercer online with this report. Robin. Yes, good afternoon. Thank you. Robyn Mercer 02:42.384
Could you please give us a summary of the report? Certainly. Good afternoon all. Excuse some coughing, I've come down with the flu that's doing the rounds. This report provides an update on the Noosa Holiday Parks business unit for the period from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024. The Noosa Holiday Parks program consists of three camping and caravanning locations at Boreen Point, Noosa North Shore and Noosa River. Overall, the program offers 294 camping and caravanning sites in accessible locations across region with high quality natural amenity. The program delivered pleasing results during financial year 23/24. This is reflected in year-on revenue growth of 1.8%, visitation growth of 5.6% and an increase in the number of nights sold by 1.35%. These metrics are all able to be viewed within the report. Our forward bookings the current financial year are strong, sitting at over 2.6 million. And we are keenly aware that there may be some business impacts arising from macroeconomic conditions and contracting consumer discretionary spending. So we are keeping a close eye on forward bookings. While we have seen revenue visitation and nights sold moving up and to the right over time, a little caveat that we may start to see some flat flattening in coming years, as we are realising most of the upside or inventory available the program. And this is a natural outcome of the growth period over the past three to four years, which has been characterised by investment in capital works, management services, operating systems and facility maintenance, and does indicate that we are ready to transition from a growth phase into an expansion phase. I will note that there is a typing error within the section 1 one financial performance of the report. The first bullet point should read the revenue of $4.53 million achieved in financial year 2023/24 is an increase of 1.8% from the previous financial year period and the word million should not be there. Thank you very much. Frank Wilkie 05:03.948
Any Thanks, anyone have questions? Thank you for the report, Robin. Excellent report. Really good news. Just curious to get a clarification around what you mean by to move from a growth to an expansion phase. Could you, for the benefit of those who might be listening and for me, just clarify what that might look like, please. Robyn Mercer 05:29.482
Sure. So what we're seeing is, as I said, we've got just over 294 camping and caravan sites, so that's our inventory, and we're starting to see that we're tipping out on our uptake on our occupancy levels, so there's not a lot more to sell each year, which means that our revenue growth isn't delivered by selling more. Rather only by any price increases that we put in place, so I guess naturally within a commercial program if you wanted to continue to grow your revenue we would look at expanding on the 294 sites and creating more inventory as part of an expansion rather than growing what we've already got. Frank Wilkie 06:13.656
And which campgrounds are they likely to take place at? We're maxed out within our current campgrounds so strategically we would start to look at alternate sites where we could expand into. So is that you mean adjacent to the existing sites Robyn or separate sites altogether? Robyn Mercer 06:40.790
Both. So we would look at parcels surrounding so there are some opportunities in Boreen Point for that. Council did acquire Johns Landing several years ago so we can run some due diligence in that space or look alternatively throughout the region for the sites that are suitable from planning and topography and natural amenity. From those perspectives. Frank Wilkie 07:06.254
The figures do suggest that there's an increased demand for these low-cost holiday experiences that the campgrounds provide. Your report notes that Noosa North Shore campground was mainly responsible for the increase in visitation and revenue recording annual growth of 6.2%. What do you, can you, put that down to? Robyn Mercer 07:33.038
I get asked this question sometimes about what's the drive behind growth and I think it has to be a combination of multiple things. So, um, Noosa North Shore is like a very blessed location, obviously right on the it's a very special location. So I think having beach side location, um, in a park with that quality of, um, infrastructure and amenity is quite a unique product offering. And it's just steadily growing over time since Council, um, very cleverly invested, I think it was just over $2.5 million in that refurbishment in 2019 and 2020. So I guess following a big capital investment, we are just seeing the product come to fruition in terms of how consumers enjoy it. And do we have any, sorry, go ahead. I was just going to say, and it's a bit of a mix, it's getting pricing right. Um, we've done a lot of work with getting sites leveled so we don't lose the capability to sell sites during periods of rainfall. So, you know, having the roads looked after and facility maintenance. Know, chairs and tables and the camp kitchen being really pleasant places to use so quite often it's a combination of multiple things working together. Frank Wilkie 09:00.351
And do we have any data that indicates where all the visitors to these campgrounds are coming from and are there any particular region people from certain regions attracted to one or the other car parks, caravan Robyn Mercer 09:16.160
To yes, so we do have access that information within our booking system. We can do a postcode analysis of guests and their, when they put in their booking information, making the assumption that it's their home address that they're entering. I haven't done that exercise recently. About a year ago I did it for Boreen Point campground and it showed that over 52 percent was coming from out of region. When we've heat mapped visitation over time, looking at year-on we can see that the visitation from outside of the region is definitely growing over time. Frank Wilkie 09:55.300
Thank you. Nicola Wilson 09:58.055
Any questions from you? Thank you. I just want to note as well for the Minutes that we have Councillor Lorentson and Councillor Wegener also in attendance as observers in the gallery. Councillors? SPEAKER_07 10:13.155
Hi Robin, just a continuation with Johns Landing. Was it 2017 when it has been acquired the land? And my question is how is it paid for and what was the purpose of acquiring the land? Was there an intent at the time that it was to be rehabilitated and repurposed for recreational use or was it rehabilitated for other use? Nicola Wilson 10:46.655
Robyn would you like answer that one? He's got his hand up. I think it's true. Larry Sengstock 10:51.175
It's true. Trent let okay, me come up closer to the mic. Trent Grauf 11:01.960
Through the Chair, good afternoon. It was purchased, the funds used to purchase a proportionate mix of environmental reserves as well as general open strain cash. The intent of that mix of funding was that then. Use of the land was that land and potential for. A proportion of that for activated purposes and obviously one of the. Opportunities for this type was discussed was in regards to. Potential of a site such as a holiday park. But the work hasn't been done yet on the feasibility of achieving that sort of activation on the site and that's part of our program. Robyn alluded to that expansion program before coming out of the realignment and the work we're doing in terms of the revenue diversification strategy, looking at what is the best return and what are the opportunities for that site. And to some extent that probably feeds into also the strategic land project, which is also on the operating plans to for deliver the this village. Year. We look at each land parcel. There are a number of competing and complementary uses. It's what gives the best value outcome in terms but also social or environmental outcomes. So that land parcel of work in progress that we committed to as part of the strategic land review and the Council minutes upon acquiring the property. Look at those options. Thank you. Hopefully that helps us. Nicola Wilson 12:37.926
Any further questions? The recommendation here is that Council note the report by the Commercial Business Advisor to the Services & Organisation for the meeting. Dated 6 August 24, 2014. Providing an update on operations at the Noosa Holiday Parks business activity to 30 June 2024. Thank you for that report, Robin. Thanks would anyone be willing to move the motion? I'll Madam Chair. Thank you. Do we have a seconder? Does anyone wish to speak to the motion? Frank Wilkie 13:09.511
Yes. Thank you, Robin, for the report. It's always good news and it's great to see how well the parks are being managed, which is important because it's very we continue to provide these sort of camping experiences for families in the Noosa Shire. You look across the country and councils seem to be more and divesting themselves of campgrounds. So it's wonderful to see that this sort of experience still exists in Noosa Shire. Nicola Wilson 13:43.984
I'll speak briefly, it's a great news story. On this, returning a small profit really helps our community in terms of reducing the burden on ratepayers but also, of course, providing a lower cost accommodation for the community and visitors as well. So thank you for that. I shall put it to the vote. And that is carried unanimously. Thank you. Much, I'm glad. We'll return to item 5 from the agenda. Another for consideration of the committee. The Register of Prequalified Suppliers for provision of fire tech services. Chris Boden 14:31.850
Thank you very much. For a while. Apologies for the lateness. I was just running a HUB member function and I missed it by a couple of minutes. Would you like to give a summary of the report? Perhaps just a bit of context and certainly we have some briefings coming up over the next few weeks and I hope we will have the chance to really dive deep into the underlying thrust behind this report. But the Peregian Digital Hub runs a program called FireTech Connect which was born out of the 2019 bush fires that ravaged the town, almost burnt down the Peregian Digital Hub and severely affected Peregian initially the beachside suburbs and then subsequently Tewantin, Cooroy, boat etc. We resolved that the Peregian Digital Hub could play an important role in how technology could be used to improve the bushfire resilience of not only our town but other towns like ours that are faced with bushfire as a significant threat. It's amazing. Of five lots of brain in between, sort of forget the fact that the number one threat that we have really existentially is a massive bushfire. Those of us that were around for that I think really did have a shock at, you know, if we don't do enough on the bushfire resilience front all the other things we do are somewhat moot that was the reason that we made it a priority to think about how the Peregian Digital Hub could be an asset in that particular objective of building resilience. Over the last five years we've created a program that's become very well known around the country and indeed has some global prominence where we have sought sort of to identify promising technologies across four different categories and provide a platform to allow those technologies to be trialed with the objective of accelerating their adoption both at the local Council level but also by the state's emergency authorities and others that are in the business of protecting communities. Four areas of focus are bushfire detection so using technology to detect bushfire very very early on when it starts. Bushfires have got to the point where once they begin they're very difficult to bring under control beyond things like that burning so the only way to really deal with a major bushfire is to deal with it very early when it's small. So detecting early is a critical initiative and there are some fantastic technologies that we've been trying that can assist with that. We then sort of have technologies that assist with understanding how fires might evolve and behave so that we can better predict what actions we should take to ameliorate their effects. We then have technologies that as these fires grow bigger and more dangerous and if you remember the fire in Peregian in particular you know we were talking about hundred foot high flames and firefighters standing with hoses incredibly dangerous situation so how can you use technology to help bring those first responders further away from points of extreme danger by using things like robotics and other technology that can reduce the risk factor there and fourth category is how do we use drones which are an increasingly powerful technology that gives us eyes in the sky and another dimension for fighting these fires and one of the frustrations of the bushfire in 2019 was that we weren't able to use drones. Peregian community and others went for four days with no idea what was happening. On the ground because we just weren't able to get intel. It was too dangerous to go in and see what was going on. Drones flying overhead would easily have been able to tell us that information and we could have saved a lot of pain and heartache when people who thought they'd lost their homes, pets, airrooms, etc. for four days went through massive psychological trauma weren't able to do that because the regulations prevent drones from being used during the bushfire, so we have been trying to prove that specially qualified pilot, specially equipped drone, special set of operating procedures can indeed allow for the orchestration of drones and crewed aircraft safely in an airspace. Way so those are the four areas of trials. We do this is that we typically have attracted funding from NEMA, which is the national emergency management authority, Federal and more recently we've attracted some grant funding from the State government that has allowed us to fund a series of trials across those four categories where we use what we call the living lab in our Noosa hinterland in combination with the Peregian digital hub's AI Lab to prove that these technologies can indeed be used safely and that they can make a difference and in so doing help give emergency authorities and other councils the confidence to adopt them more rapidly and build resilience in those times the report before Council today is we've worked very closely with our procurement team over the years to develop a mechanism where we can work with these kinds of third parties in a very collaborative and exploratory way this is unlike a typical sort of tender where we have a specific job that needs to be done we go out to market we pick a winning vendor and we assign a contract in this particular instance what done is we've built a Register of Prequalified Suppliers a panel if you like that gives us a sort of wide array of potential collaborators and as we sort of attract funding and develop specific hypotheses around and hypotheses around trials we might want to conduct we then engage with folks on that panel that have been pre-qualified and gone through our procurement process we've done this a number of times and this particular report is if you like the refresh of that panel which allows us to add additional suppliers that we have vetted through an ITQ process a procurement process so that through the next phase of trials we have additional vendors we can work with and collaborate with so that in a very large nutshell is the report before us there are eight technology companies on that list to be added to an existing list of 14 and the eight companies there span a wide variety of capabilities across those four areas that I've talked about. Nicola Wilson 21:18.430
Who is going to take up the work that's happening in the community casino? Hub. Does anyone on the table have any questions? Frank Wilkie 21:23.929
Just a question about what does Kablamo do? Chris Boden 21:27.429
Kablamo is a very interesting name and there are some fascinating names on that list. Kablamo is in the business of using advanced and AI AR technologies. For detection and prediction capabilities with bushfires. Frank Wilkie 21:43.449
How operational are these technologies at the moment? How are we going? Chris Boden 21:50.410
Know, that's a very good question and you know that is the ultimate sort of benchmark for are we having the kind of impact that we really want to have with this is to see technologies being adopted not just in our own Council but more broadly and there are some really good examples of where this has is happened and where we've certainly played a direct role in building confidence around deploying these solutions and we've expanded the allowable use of drones quite significantly and a recent bushfire in southwest Queensland tapped into this the trials that we've been conducting to use the methodology to actually use drones to help in a real bushfire which you know hard to put a sort of number on the value of property saved and whatever it might be but certainly added a significant you can think about fighting fires on the ground in two dimensions but having a third dimensions makes a hell of a difference so that's an example the detection technology that we've been trying over a number of years it's been rolled out in places around Australia the sensing technologies for understanding the environmental conditions that give rise to really bad bushfires have also in particular in New South Wales it's an ongoing process and part of what we try to do is develop playbooks that make it easy for others to adopt technology in the way that we've tried it here. Frank Wilkie 23:27.980
Just on a local level has the cameras or the sensors detected fires early and been able to their notifications alerted QFES and directed resources to fire fighting early here in the Shire? Chris Boden 23:45.521
Yes, over the last few years as we've well. Actually tried multiple different sort of camera systems and detection approaches and they have indeed played a role. One of the challenges that we've discovered through the trials the whole idea of a trial is you know the concept is you have a hypothesis we think this technology is going to work, what do we learn from the hypothesis? What we've learned is that AI enabled cameras are incredibly good at detecting fires. Now if you put an AI detection camera on top of mount mbiwa with a 360 panoramic it has an incredible view of almost the entire Shire and I hope to show that to you in good time. But there are lots of fires that happen at any point in time across the Shire and one of the challenges is how do you discern the difference between a fire that may be a legitimate is not legitimate but isn't problematic, and rapidly evolving into something that needs to be adjusted. That has been a key learning of that trial, and indeed we've paused the detection part because we're satisfied that the detection is taken care of. Next phase place for us is really having the intelligence around figuring out given constrained resources which of the fires that have been detected really do we need to get onto very quickly because you could imagine the nature of the plumes of smoke maybe the colours of smoke there are a whole range of things around that give you signal as to which of these need to be addressed very quickly before they become a big fire so the actual detection is working really really well it's now the sort of almost the characterisation of that fire is this a problem fire as opposed to fire you know it's that's the next lot of trials we need to run thank you Jessica Phillips 25:32.043
I have a couple of questions I worked through the fires as a police officer at Peregian so I kind of like the concept it sounds really exciting as a drone operator that will be an external it won't be long to QFES or QPS have you gone into consideration around how that communication is going to assist because can tell you what it's like to work on the ground in a fire and external communication coming from inexperience or other it will be very challenging having operational people on the ground having even a drone tell you what to do when these guys are worked in fires and they like that the pretty empires was a it wasn't it lit deliberately but also the weather the wind caused that to be almost impossible for them to dictate it was gonna to so I'm not sure how a drone will assist or can you tell me explain it to me I guess Chris Boden 26:38.517
Yes I mean you've hit the nail on the head coordination and communication are really the fundamental aspects and lot of the trialing that we're doing really is around the sort of it's not is the camera strong enough to see what's going on the ground the technology is well proven in that respect it's really the coordination and communication so we have a thing called a common operating picture to your point which is all of the various stakeholders all the agencies need of what's happening in the air because of course the reason you're not allowed to fly drones is the assumption is during a bushfire will be crude crewed aircraft both helicopters and fixed-wing and it's just too big a risk particularly during smoky and visibility constrained conditions to be having drones in the air however with a special set of operating procedures special software which shows the location of every single one of those aerial vehicles in the air de-escalation procedures everyone on same comms channel and literally a team of dedicated people on the ground coordinating all that we believe it can be done safely we've been working in lockstep with QFES and CASA the civil aviation regulator who is has guided each step of these trials to say look if you can prove that this particular incremental step can be done safely and this step will gradually open the regulation to allow for that to happen so yes you're 100 correct it's that communication community and between these assets when things are frenetic there's a lot going on to be able to see a common picture of what is in the sky what is on the ground where are the human responders and that all-in-one picture is a crucial element and indeed that's something is a key part of these trials. Okay, thanks. Any questions from councillors and Nicola Wilson 28:32.448
Thank you. They should be able to read out the whole recommendation. So we're going to note the report, approve the award of contract to the listed suppliers, and authorise the CEO to approve the option to extend the contract for a further two terms sorry, I forgot my t-shirt, I'll move it. I'll second. Would anyone like to speak to the motion? Frank Wilkie 29:01.833
Yes. Thank you, Chris. Excellent report. Thank you for the summary and the explanation about the fire tech program. Generally, as someone who was evacuated twice in six weeks in the Peregian fires, I really appreciate the need for this work to be done and it's very exciting. I'll ask a question. How is NASA involved in this, or even distantly related to this work that's happening at the Peregian Digital Hub? Chris Boden 29:28.126
Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the feedback and the question. This is an unsolved problem. This Councillor, that you raised globally. You know, drones. It feels like they've been around for long time, but the idea of drones and crewed aircraft in the same airspace is not a solved problem internationally, which is why this project has attracted interest from the likes of NASA, XPRIZE, some of the major airspace players, which I'll be telling you about in the weeks ahead, because we have a really fantastic opportunity through this project, to move the needle and set a kind of national and international sort of standard. For how this gets done. We have a real prerogative to do it, and recent memory on why this is important, but it is an unsolved problem, and it's the reason that this kind of collaboration is so valuable, because you can bring in expertise and technologies in ways that we would never be able to develop ourselves. Frank Wilkie 30:25.295
Thank you. Nicola Wilson 30:29.208
Like to hear more about this in the future when it's just exited to hear that the work that's happening right in our community has benefited think it's such a real risk as well. Thank you very much. I'll put it to the vote. Thank you. Chris. Moving to 6.2. Capital program 23-24 delivery status. So a wrap-up for the financial year and we have another Melissa Hayley ready for the next report. Could you please give us a summary of what that list will be? Shaun Walsh 31:14.525
Yeah, I'm going to speak today on behalf of Mel. She's actually got that on her choice. No, no, I just wanted her voice. But thank you. Thanks. Yeah, so, um, it's as mentioned, this is the capital status report for 23-24, truly summing up the final quarter. Give us an update on that. Just some key stats were that we had a capital budget of 45.9. For '23-24 and '24. And that included $19.5 million for 22-23. As of the 30th of June, we had expended 72 or $33.2 million with $5.9 million in commitments. Price the Reseal Program is one of the success stories, and that's expended 100 of its $5 million budget for 23-24, and there's currently 53 multi-year projects still in completion, so there are over multiple years. Thank you. Nicola Wilson 32:15.974
Any questions or answers? So how are we tracking? Happy with the results? Frank Wilkie 32:22.454
Are you happy with the progress? Shaun Walsh 32:24.794
Well really in 22-23 we had two large projects being Beckmans Road and Noosa Parade, and that allowed us to outsource those projects and achieve a big sort of chunk of our program and that year I think we delivered on 45 million. But this year we were challenged with a different type of program where we had multiple smaller projects over the whole Shire. So it had different complexities and challenges. Plus we've seen a turnover of staff for the last two years, especially seniors. So we're in a process of rebuilding and developing our team at the same time. So we've got different challenges this year. But I believe that we've achieved best we could with the circumstances that we've been faced with. Frank Wilkie 33:13.939
So and this is separate to the work that's being done with the QRA funded disaster recovery work which is happening concurrently could you? So that program has been treated separately and that's got external resourcing delivering that program. However, we are providing some support with that program also, so yes, and what was the impact of the very wet weather we had earlier in the year? Shaun Walsh 33:42.572
I mean, there has been delays, but it's probably not as much as what we saw in 22/23, but it hasn't helped us. I know it's impacted the disaster projects probably more so. I think our challenge was just the sheer number of projects and size of those projects in not but being small. So they're the challenges that we faced. Frank Wilkie 34:04.821
And how you set up in terms of resourcing down infrastructure. Currently? Yes. Shaun Walsh 34:10.701
We're pretty much full at the moment. I think we have two vacant rungs. It's really developing the and building the team and upskilling the team. We have a lot of younger staff and they're the ones that we're developing and investing in now. Frank Wilkie 34:29.329
And in recent years you've employed a couple of Graduate Engineer? Yeah, yeah. And they're getting very good experience here beyond what they would get perhaps elsewhere? Shaun Walsh 34:40.422
Yeah, yeah and we've got a report coming up shortly and we'll have Lindsay presenting that report and that's part of this development program and I don't mean to single anyone out but, you know, jasper's a great story where he's come through a student placement graduate project officer manager and liam's following that path and I'm sure Lindsay will be a Frank Wilkie 35:01.802
Success too. And they're all Noosa Shire locals I understand. Shaun Walsh 35:05.662
Yeah, yeah, very successful program. Yeah, very good. Jessica Phillips 35:10.143
Do you have any questions? I do. Please, because one of the ones that I'm quite interested in, emergent works coming up, 2024, 23-24, it says Noosa Heads, drive, CCTV street lighting and street lighting replacement. Could you tell me more about that? Melissa Hayley 35:34.783
So project has been completed. So the project that you're referring to in emergent works, so that listing is a the emergent projects that came up throughout the year. So the project has been closed off now and that was based on, we had some grant funding through the State for fixing up through Maze Carpark then there was an accident on one of the street poles that took out the CCTV as well. So at the end of the initial street lighting work we did in the Maze Carpark we undertook the additional CCTV and street lighting repairs and my understanding is that our governance team were chasing up insurance to fund that separately sort of thing and make a claim against our insurance for it but that work is now complete and wrapped up. Shaun Walsh 36:23.089
So Mel, I think we were renewing the poles and we took the opportunity to do the CCTV at the same time. Potentially sorry, yeah. There was an opportunity there where we were coming and renewing the lighting poles and it was an time. And that's where I was emerging. Okay, Melissa Hayley 36:40.405
Thanks. Give me a second. Nicola Wilson 36:50.882
The report says there are 53 multi-year projects in various stages of completion. How does that compare to a normal kind of work title previous years? Shaun Walsh 36:58.321
My understanding is that's more than previous years. Yeah, so this is part of the challenge of having just the sheer number of projects. I think we've got 146. Yeah, that's quite significant. Yeah, whereas in other years you may have down around the hundred mark and even in previous years where we had smaller budgets. So we've seen an increase in value over the last say four to five years from $28 million to $53 million. Plus the complexity and sheer number of projects has increased. So 146 projects whereas when our budget was say $28 million it might have been around 70 or 80 projects. Melissa Hayley 37:37.198
And if I could extend on that as well, the infrastructure team has done a lot of work on putting emphasis on planning at the beginning and the initiation stage. So we're profiling our projects over multiple years to make sure that what we're allocating per financial year is going to be more in line with what we expect to spend rather than adopting a project budget and realising or having that then move over a few years. We're instead getting on the first foot and profiling in the style. Shaun Walsh 38:05.804
Think I another key factor- is, and this is a good example, where we had a window governed by birds and fish and the environment. And another good example is the Noosa Tri where it was governed by the end of our peak Christmas period and then we've got a major event coming up. So we couldn't build that in one financial year, we actually had to span that over two financial years. So your projects don't run to a calendar year or financial Nicola Wilson 38:33.985
Toward that's actually my next question to clarify. So a multi-year project, whether that's a project that takes longer than 12 months or it's that struggles to financialise. Shaun Walsh 38:47.424
Yeah, and it's really flowing that over the two financial years. It could be six months that it will work, it just happens to fall. And sometimes that a that provides opportunity from a budget point of view as well. So it's not putting too much over us in one financial year. Jessica Phillips 39:05.532
It allows that spread over two I remembered my question. I got to it. Dog Beach, the nourishment works. Can you tell me more for the people listening? Why do we do that? Maybe just give me a bit of backstory and how we get to this and when we will expect the next one if you can or. Shaun Walsh 39:32.173
Did you want to take that one away or I can talk to it? Larry Sengstock 39:35.133
Yeah, look, ultimately it's because being made, it's created. Protecting the, we move the river. So the river always wants to get back to where it once was. Yeah. So. So what's happened over a number of years is it's just, gradually eroding and It got to a point where we didn't want it to break through, otherwise we would have had to intervene with something more substantial like rock, walling and things like that. So the idea was to replace it with sand and use you sand out of the river mouth which makes sense anyway because it was already silky enough. So to that point we used that sand to replenish the beach which then protects Noosa, sound but Main Beach because it's all part of the same area. Exercise. The idea now is that we did let it get to a point where it was getting quite critical so we had to intervene in a major way so we spent a bit of money on that and doing it properly now to create and we've created a much better environment down there as we talked about previously, but in the future the idea is to not have to go back and do our major work, it's just to continue to replenish it and use a smaller dredge on a regular basis. So part of our normal works that we do along the river in terms of Noosaville, Gympie Terrace, we're constantly having dredges thrown along there and just replenishing to protect the foreshore there. So we do the same thing for the dog bridge. So just continue to put some sand on there so we don't have to let it get in all the way. It's fairly well protected I believe at the moment because of the amount of sand there. The biggest issue is if we get a cyclone or a number of cyclones in a row, you know that's nature and we can't. We have to deal with it as best we can. So all we've done is protected with sand but if we get a cyclone, my understanding is that sits up to the north around K’gari, the prevailing winds and the waves will come through the river mouth and basically on the donbass and cause quite a bit of erosion. So that's what we're trying to protect against and we believe now we've done our best to it happens again, I mean that's nature and that's what we've created and we need to deal with it accordingly. And we do have a monitoring program there. Lines of, what would you call it, intervention where we can survey, take measures and then we trigger interventions. Yeah, we know when we need to step in and who's getting to that point is the red line and we need to give that, intervene and fix it as well as we've gone as hard as we have and created what we've done. But we believe that a good, outcome. It's a, you know, it's a fantastic looking outcome but it's also a good outcome for protection. Jessica Phillips 42:18.550
Sure. Okay, so we won't anticipate seeing the extent of what it got to before we do some. Larry Sengstock 42:25.542
That's the intention, to do it on a regular maintenance, however if there was a major storm or major something, you've just got to deal with what's the end of that. Generally, we would be looking at just continue the maintenance of it, yeah. Jessica Phillips 42:38.959
You mentioned ROC or something. Has there been a study or something done to see. Because I imagine it's quite costly to continue even the works of something long-term, a solution long-term. Shaun Walsh 42:55.990
So when council's was amalgamated, there was a project developed and we've seen stage, we've seen two ends done of that. The growing, sandbag that's there and then there's some ROC around the pump area there. So was a segment of a third stage to do some protection around the centre of the dog bins. However when Council de-amalgamated there was a report presented and decision made not to go down that pathway, the new Noosa Council. That was that's good ten years ago and so that's the information that we have that's been presented to all the studies that have been done and come up with the SEMP program that we've got now. So so we've had studies done of that area and we've included the information from Sunshine Coast Council. We've developed up this program it's more of a softer approach SPEAKER_05 43:55.693
More question when we do it because I'm not a boatie but I've run the river a lot and recently I've seen quite a number of boats. You call it when they like you know they accidentally like they didn't mean to but they're stuck what do we do for education around what it will do to the river mouth Larry Sengstock 44:21.710
I mean that's an ongoing program. The sand is moving all the time. The channels are marked but they're changing regularly so that's really as best we can. Plus it's an MSQ next to the water. A, I think it's, Shaun Walsh 44:39.890
I think it's probably like driving to see the road conditions. It's probably very similar because the tide's changing as well. It's a dynamic environment so similarly with the gravel road you need to drive We can't speed pace that so when working in a dynamic environment like the ocean you need to be aware and slow down and make decisions. I completely agree with that. I'm just wondering what part of, like a road, we do road safety, lots of education from TMR, so what's MSQ doing for them? Throughout project there was regular communication educating that there was going to be a change from the channel was here, explaining what the intent of the project was and then how channel would be moved over to the centre of the river. There's that education process that the channel was changing and that we were dredging and opening up the channels. But if people still run aground, I mean there may be some experience or inexperience issues there. I'm not saying that may be all the case, but we are a tourist town and we do have a lot of hire boats and people don't need a boat licence to drive those boats. Frank Wilkie 45:57.780
General no questions. Thank you. Just a more general question. During COVID and post COVID there was a lot of migration of staff, more local governments to private industry and between local governments. Has that settled down now? Yeah. Got any industry-wide feedback about that? Shaun Walsh 46:17.364
What I've noticed is probably in the last two years we've had at least eight seniors leave our team. So we've lost that depth layer. That's what I've seen in the last eight years. I'm What seeing is there's been a change in the employment market where we're now starting to get good quality candidates. Responses in numbers as well. So I think it's starting to shift back towards the employer. I think people are looking for security. I suppose more secure jobs and there are opportunities now going forward from an employers market I think. It's probably shifted from an employees market over the last two years to the opportunities. That the local government can offer are security, training, working for the community. Frank Wilkie 47:09.069
Yes the other question is around emergent works. There are a number of them and when the win working work emerges, it's issues that have to be dealt with immediately and they are. But there's also a lot of proactive work going on in the background to minimise the amount of emergent works that occur. You just talk a bit about that please? Shaun Walsh 47:33.754
Sure. I think one of the key challenges is funding that emergent works. I think that's a real key role that Mel plays. It's looking at renewal, depreciation. Grant funding. So is there ways to take the burden off the general rates and still fund those emergent works? Is there an opportunity? Use some depreciation funds? Is there grant funds available? And that's what we're constantly working on to balance that capital works program. Frank Wilkie 48:06.571
I'm talking about the asset assessment work that's being done. Shaun Walsh 48:11.052
Yes. So we do have a Shire-wide ongoing program and a couple of examples of that are CCTV inspections of our stormwater, bridge inspection programs, our footpath programs, our road programs. So we're constantly inspecting all of our assets. We're trying to inspect but it's a very large program. And then the idea of that program is that we're anticipating assets that are depreciating and we're intervening before they fail. So there's a measure where we can come in, allocate funds and lift the life of that project back up for another 25 to 50 years. And our bridge program's a classic example and Garth Prowd where we've intervened at a 50 year life and we hope to extend that for another 50 years and get a hundred years out of that bridge. But we can't always be ahead of that curve and seeing what's under the ground and some of the emergent projects that are coming out are say water pipes at Noosa Spit we couldn't see what was similarly we've got a similar pipe up at Boreen Point. So they're the ones that we can't see. Frank Wilkie 49:27.033
Thank you. Okay, any further questions? Nicola Wilson 49:33.814
Recommendation is that Council note the report by the infrastructure planning officer to the Services & Organisation Committee Meeting dated 6 August, providing an update on the delivery of the 2023-24 capital program as up to June 2024.20th, I'll move it. You're beating me. Baiting- Oh, can bait it's SPEAKER_05 49:53.657
Fine. No, it's fine. All good. Nicola Wilson 49:57.157
Can we move that to the vote? Frank Wilkie 49:59.997
I'm sorry to hear this. Look, thank you. Could you please pass on our thanks to the team, a very hardworking great work with the recruitment. Hear good to you've got a full complement of staff down there. As you explained, it was a program of 140 plus individual projects, not necessarily high value, but tricky, and you've had significant challenges with weather, and it's a very hardworking and ambitious team down there, so please pass on our thanks for good work done. Thank you. Very much. Okay, the, oh, zoom, Larry Sengstock 50:46.211
Thank you, no, no, don't do it, um, you know, it's shaky, Nicola Wilson 50:54.852
Yes, it is, it's shaky, now, we have item number seven, which is a confidential item. Before we actually move into the confidential session, um, I just want to say a few words so that those watching in the public can have a bit more transparency about why we're actually going into, um, the confidential session. So when we do move into we will discuss a report prepared by Lindsay Lee, he's, who's, um, a graduate engineer. Report makes a recommendation as to which supplier should be awarded the contract. The report contains details of all suppliers who tendered for the contract under the property rules and information provided for the team to make the decision. This includes the prices each supplier submitted and is therefore commercially sensitive financial information for those who submitted. As Councillors might this information when asking questions about the report, the meeting will be closed to the public. So, we'll now move a motion to move that the meeting pursuant to section 254J 3G of the Local Government Regulation 2012 for the purpose of discussing item 7.1 confidential, not for public distribution, contract number CN00644, construction of pathways, package three. Could I have a second? Jessica Phillips 52:21.204
I'll second. Thanks. Nicola Wilson 52:24.064
And I'll put that to the vote. So, you know the that's rest of it. Larry Sengstock 52:28.820
Thank I was doing to the vote. SPEAKER_07 52:44.260
Yeah, it's closed. Nicola Wilson 53:07.962
I move that the staff recommendation be carried. The Council note the report by the Graduate Engineer for Services & Organisation Committee dated 6th August 2024 award number CN00644 C for construction of pathways 2023-24 package 3 to the trustee for Integral Concreting Services Family Trust as outlined in the report. And b, authorise the CEO to negotiate and finalise contracts on Council's behalf with I'll second it. Larry Sengstock 53:48.255
Just to clarify that, then this is a recommendation that goes to the Council meeting next Thursday, and that's where it will be ratified and then it becomes formal and can be continued on for just the people watching. Nicola Wilson 54:01.526
Great. Thank you. And I'll put that to the right. Thank you. Noosa. Councillors. Thank you. That was the last item on the agenda for today. So that brings us to the end of the meeting and we close the meeting at 2:40. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Madam Chair. Related Noosa Council Meetings
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