Services & Organisation Committee - 11 March 2025
Date: Tuesday, 11 March 2025 at 1:30PM
Location: Noosa Shire Council Chambers , 9 Pelican Street , Tewantin , QLD 4565 , Australia
Organiser: Noosa Shire Council
Duration: 00:39:33
Synopsis: Public Art Policy adopted: 1% provision, governance, lifecycle, deaccessioning, Disaster Management: report adopted, upgrades, readiness validated, collaboration, comms gaps, Meeting Access: time/venue moved, livestream.
Meeting Attendees
Committee Members
Karen Finzel Jessica Phillips Frank Wilkie Nicola Wilson Non-Committee Members
Executive Officers
Chief Executive Officer Larry Sengstock Director Community Services Kerri Contini Director Infrastructure Services Shaun Walsh AI-Generated Meeting Insight
Key Decisions & Discussions Karen Finzel: Committee unanimously adopted a new Public Art Policy to strategically grow and manage Noosa’s public art collection (Item 7.1) (02:56–06:40; 17:37–19:09). Paul Brinkman: Policy includes a 1% public art provision for eligible civic projects over $2M, excluding utilities repairs and disaster-funded works; integration can be modest (e.g., fixtures) (06:54–08:23) (Item 7.1). Kerri Contini: Policy formalises selection, maintenance and decommissioning, addressing past ad hoc acquisitions and community sensitivities (03:20–04:57; 08:57–11:12) (Item 7.1). Shaun Walsh: Endorsed policy flexibility to fund utilitarian and ephemeral art (e.g., stages), noting whole-of-life management needs (16:40–17:35) (Item 7.1). Frank Wilkie: Noted 40 existing artworks; policy codifies criteria already informally applied, improving transparency and durability/safety assessments (08:57–16:40) (Item 7.1). Karen Finzel: Council adopted the 2024 Annual Disaster Management Report and thanked LDMG members and advisors (Item 7.2) (19:31–35:53). Sue Lowry: 2024 outcomes: LDCC opened at Noosaville Depot; disaster dashboard/Guardian upgrades; Pomona community sub-plan; recruitment; statewide coordination (20:49–22:27) (Item 7.2). Shaun Walsh: Recent cyclone readiness validated “back-to-basics” approach; Guardian enabled rapid intel-sharing and comms (e.g., wind thresholds from Sunrise Beach/Tewantin feeds) (24:51–27:10) (Item 7.2). Jessica Phillips: Highlighted Get Ready Schools, aged-care workshops, dashboard utility, and SES’s ~90 volunteers; praised inter-agency collaboration (32:03–34:50) (Item 7.2). Larry Sengstock: Ordinary Meeting on 15 May 2025 moved from 10am Tewantin to 5pm Cooroy Memorial Hall; will be advertised, community engagement beforehand, livestream and recording planned (Item 7.3) (37:06–38:30). Councillors: Change of time/venue carried unanimously; aim is broader community access (Item 7.3) (38:33–38:54). Committee: All items carried unanimously; no presentations, deputations, or confidential session; meeting closed 2:10pm. Contentious / Transparency Matters Public Art Funding: The 1% set-aside applies only to specified eligible projects; clear exclusions reduce ratepayer risk of cost-creep yet require diligent scoping to avoid misapplication (06:54–08:23) (Item 7.1). Deaccessioning: Policy codifies artist-first refusal and documentation to mitigate disputes when removing beloved works; sensitive but transparency-enhancing (10:57–12:27) (Item 7.1). Panel Governance: Internal panel with option for external experts, Director decision-making for routine works, Council for major works; balances efficiency with oversight (18:35–19:09) (Item 7.1). Meeting Accessibility: Time/venue shift to Cooroy with advertising and livestream improves public participation; ensure disability access and audio quality meet standards (Item 7.3) (37:06–38:30). Sandbag Misuse: Staff flagged significant, possibly non-intended uptake; clearer eligibility guidance and tracking could curb diversion without chilling preparedness (26:23–27:15) (Item 7.2). Data Transparency: Disaster dashboard upgrades and fast intel dissemination cited as high-value; continue publishing methods/thresholds to sustain public trust (24:51–27:10) (Item 7.2). Legal / Risk Statutory Compliance: Disaster report aligns with Disaster Management Act 2003 obligations across prevention, preparedness, response, recovery; LDMG structure and annual reporting noted (20:49–22:27) (Item 7.2). Meeting Law: Change to meeting time/venue resolved under s 257(3)(b) Local Government Regulation 2012; CEO tasked with suitable advertising; livestream/recording planned (Item 7.3). Art Governance: Policy addresses IP/artist rights, maintenance, safety, and deaccessioning procedures; mitigates liability from unsafe/durable materials in public realm (11:52–16:40) (Item 7.1). Procurement/Allocation Risk: The 1% mechanism must be integrated with procurement and project governance to ensure spend is within scope and delivers public value (06:54–08:23) (Item 7.1). Operational Communications: Identified vulnerability when power outages cripple mobile networks; Council exploring VHF, satphones, and LEO satellite options; GPS/duress in vehicles raises privacy and data-handling considerations under QLD IP Act (28:55–31:02) (Item 7.2). Third-Party Installations: Clarified boundary between Council-commissioned public art and private murals in public view; maintenance liability rests with property owners, reducing Council risk (12:36–14:32) (Item 7.1). Disaster Management & Community Resilience Shaun Walsh: Rapid Guardian-tasking example: within six minutes intelligence on unsafe wind speeds sourced from Sunrise Beach hang-glider station and Tewantin BoM site, informing comms (24:51–27:10) (Item 7.2). Sue Lowry: Technical improvements included recognition of permitted burns and a recovery module; LDCC operationalisation improved deployment (20:49–22:27) (Item 7.2). Inter-Agency Scale: Core agencies span QAS, QFES, QPS, SES, National Parks, Energex; advisors include Health, TMR, Seqwater, Unitywater, Red Cross, education, surf lifesaving, tourism bodies (23:22–24:34) (Item 7.2). Community Uptake: 890 new Noosa Alert subscribers during event week; record traffic at Resource Recovery pre-cyclone indicates messages landing (28:13–28:25) (Item 7.2). Lessons Process: Live “lessons learned” board and post-event feedback loop to Councillors/LDMG embeds continuous improvement (28:25–28:55) (Item 7.2). Councillors: Bipartisan commendations for staff/volunteers and community compliance; emphasis on preparedness culture (31:15–35:53) (Item 7.2). Public Art Policy Implementation Highlights Paul Brinkman: City Deal program drew 65 applications; policy will channel proposals strategically and document assets to prevent orphaned works (05:00–06:40; 11:12–12:27) (Item 7.1). Kerri Contini: Prior 1% practice yielded integrated art across Shire (e.g., Cooroy seats); policy guards against unsafe, maintenance-heavy installations (08:23–16:40) (Item 7.1). Examples: Bunya/Bunyanup sculpture refurbishment and Indigenous “bubble gum” bubbler repaint exemplify lifecycle costs and artist permissions (12:36–14:32) (Item 7.1). Governance Flow: Expert panel recommends; Director Community Services decides for routine; Council decides major works—clear escalation path (18:35–19:09) (Item 7.1).
Official Meeting Minutes
MINUTES Services & Organisation Committee Meeting Tuesday, 11 March 2025 1:30 PM Council Chambers, 9 Pelican Street, Tewantin Committee: Crs Karen Finzel (Chair), Cr Jessica Phillips, Cr Frank Wilkie, Cr Nicola Wilson “Noosa Shire – different by nature” SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES 11 MARCH 2025 1. DECLARATION OF OPENING The meeting was declared open at 1.30pm. 2. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY Noosa Council respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands and waters of the Noosa area, the Kabi Kabi people, and pays respect to their Elders, past, present and emerging. 3. ATTENDANCE & APOLOGIES COMMITTEE MEMBERS Cr Karen Finzel (Chair) Cr Jessica Phillips (via Microsoft Teams) Cr Frank Wilkie Cr Nicola Wilson NON COMMITTEE MEMBERS Cr Tom Wegener EXECUTIVE Chief Executive Officer Larry Sengstock Director Community Services Kerri Contini Director Infrastructure Services Shaun Walsh APOLOGIES Nil. 4. CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES Committee Resolution Moved: Cr Frank Wilkie Seconded: Cr Nicola Wilson The Minutes of the Services & Organisation Committee Meeting held on 11 February 2025 be received and confirmed. Carried unanimously. 5. PRESENTATIONS Nil. 6. DEPUTATIONS Nil. SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES 11 MARCH 2025 7. REPORTS FOR CONSIDERATION OF THE COMMITTEE 7.1. PUBLIC ART POLICY Committee Recommendation Moved: Cr Karen Finzel Seconded: Cr Nicola Wilson That Council note the report by the Arts & Culture Manager to the Services & Organisation Committee meeting dated 11 March 2025 and adopt the Public Art Policy provided at Attachment 1 to the report. Carried unanimously. 7.2. 2024 ANNUAL DISASTER MANAGEMENT REPORT Committee Resolution Moved: Cr Frank Wilkie Seconded: Cr Jessica Phillips That Council A. Note the report by the Disaster Management Officer, Disaster and Disruption Resilience Officer and the Disaster Reconstruction Officer to the Services & Organisation Committee meeting dated 11 March 2023 providing an update on disaster management, resilience and reconstruction activities; and B. Thank the members and advisors to the Noosa Local Disaster Management Group for their participation. Carried unanimously. 7.3. CHANGE OF TIME & VENUE FOR ORDINARY MEETING DATED 15 MAY 2025 Committee Recommendation Moved: Cr Frank Wilkie Seconded: Cr Karen Finzel That Council A. Note the report by the Chief Executive Officer to the Services and Organisation Committee Meeting dated 11 March 2025 regarding the 15 May 2025 Ordinary Meeting and B. Pursuant to Section 257(3)(b) of the Local Government Regulation 2012, resolve to 1. Change the commencement time of the Ordinary Meeting dated 15 May 2025 from 10am to 5pm; and 2. Change the venue for the meeting to Cooroy Memorial Hall, 23 Maple Street Cooroy; C. Request that the Chief Executive Officer ensure suitable advertising is undertaken to promote this community based Council Meeting; and D. Note that Council plan to livestream the meetings and place a copy of the recording on Council's website. Carried unanimously. SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES 11 MARCH 2025 8. REPORTS FOR NOTING BY THE COMMITTEE Nil. 9. CONFIDENTIAL SESSION Nil. 10. MEETING CLOSURE The meeting closed at 2.10pm
Meeting Transcript
Karen Finzel 00:00.000
Meeting Tuesday the 11th of March 2025 starting on time at 1:30pm. I'd like to declare the meeting open and acknowledge the Kabi Kabi country on which we live work and play and our values of their inherent connection and wisdom to the land. I'm noting that we have the mandatory councillors present at the table welcome Councillor Wilkie, Councillor Wilson and we've got Jess Phillips online welcome. welcome. We have no... Karen, I just noticed that Tom has just jumped on the line. Oh, yes, thank you and welcome. We have Tom, Councillor Tom Wegener in the room. Welcome, Tom. Jessica Phillips 00:49.122
Welcome, thank you. Karen Finzel 00:50.364
You're welcome. Thanks for joining us. We have the CEO with us. Welcome today, Mr CEO and some of the executive staff. Do I have a confirmation of the minutes? I'll move it Madam Chair. Thank you. Do we have a seconder? Thank you. Would you like to make a comment? Frank Wilkie 01:08.948
No thank you Madam Chair. Karen Finzel 01:10.428
Would you like to hold your right of reply sir? No. Let's get it done. Let's get it done. We'll take it to the vote. All in favour? And that's unanimous. Oh Jess? Yes. That's a yes from Jess. Yes I'm here. Tom doesn't have to vote. Frank Wilkie 01:27.608
Tom's an observer. Karen Finzel 01:28.748
Tom you're an observer. You don't need to vote. Thank you. Okay so we're moving on. We've got to item five. There's no presentations, no deputations. We're coming up to item seven, reports for consideration of the committee. Item number 7.1, public art policy. Welcome to the We have the author of the report, Mr Paul Brinkman with us. Paul Brinkman 02:04.660
Thank you. Welcome councillors. Good afternoon. So this report is for the new public art policy seeking for endorsement. Through Noosa Council's Cultural Plan 2019 to 2023 Council recognised the value art in the public domain to promote and celebrate the community's identity, values and aspirations. Best practice public art provides a sense of place, enhances the vibrancy and character of the urban environment and engenders a sense of civic pride. It can also highlight the stories and heritage of a community for residents and visitors. So the adoption of this public art policy will enable council to strategically and transparently grow the valuable public art collection for future generations. And so we seek endorsement of this policy to move forward. Karen Finzel 02:56.031
Wow, that sounds fantastic. Thank you. Welcome Kerri Contini to the table as well. Just a question to table as well. Just a question to Kerri, you've been on this journey for a long time, since I think I've come off the campaign in 2020. Can you just tell us a little bit about how you see the value of the public art infrastructure contributing to our community? Sure. Kerri Contini 03:20.412
As we move through the development of the cultural plan process, the concept of art in public places really came home to us through that engagement, because it enables people to engage with... connect with the history of their area, understand... resonate the values through a creative form, without actually requiring people to, for example, go to an art gallery who might feel a bit, you know, that that's not a place for them, but it certainly... what we've got is that it encourages people to have real civic pride in their community when there's... public art. It helps people in terms of when they've got visitors come and they get really excited about showing them around town and showing them the pieces of public art and they... pieces of public art that have strong attachment. Those... become part of the narrative of a community. We can certainly see that, for example, with the bunya sculpture that's in Cooroy, a much-loved piece of public art that went in now about 12, 13 years ago. So, through that journey outside the cultural plan, we identified the importance of an actual policy to be able to do two things: to manage the existing public art that we had, to make sure that it goes through a through a good selection process for any new public art that we're able to decommission public art that it's reached its end of life and to be able to have a mechanism to partially fund future public art. Fantastic. Karen Finzel 04:57.987
Paul, I have to acknowledge it was a very thorough report. Paul Brinkman 05:00.967
Thank you. Look, I definitely think that Noosa is needing a public art policy, particularly with the city... the city deal program, which we've released recently. We've had 65 applications to that program, which we're working through at the moment. And so that really does show just how many fantastic... a lot of those local artists, just how fantastic... those local artists. Just how fantastic an arts and creative community we have. So it'll be fantastic through that City Deal program to see some really high quality public arts starting to be seen around and added to our urban environment. Karen Finzel 05:37.298
Fantastic. And do you this is like a legacy opportunity to... Paul Brinkman 05:42.024
Certainly and I think there's lots of examples in smaller towns but also in large cities of how public art has made a huge difference to community bonding. Community bonding, we had Kendall Henry from the US come over recently and provide a talk to our creative community and he was fantastic talking about the New York public art initiatives which of course is a few more zeros on the end but certainly talked about the value of public art to build resilient communities particularly in times of stress and of course with recently gone through a bit of a time of stress at the moment and it's interesting to see how how public art initiatives can can bind together a community in those times of stress and identify you know the things that they love about their community and that's that's what public what public art can do. So you're very enthusiastic and excited about showing the outcomes of the City Deal public art initiative that we're about to roll out. Karen Finzel 06:40.587
Yeah, fantastic. Just one more question before I open it up. I'm really interested in the infrastructure with the... up to 1% that's locked into future projects. Can you talk us a little bit through that? Paul Brinkman 06:54.044
Yes, so within the policy we've written 1% of city projects above $2 million. Would go towards a public art fund or go towards a part of public art being a part of that civic infrastructure project. It is only limited to specific projects so it's not all projects and within the policy it's quite descriptive about the kind of projects that that initiative can be applied to. So repairing civic works like pipe work and things like that would not apply. Any sort of major projects or civic projects or building projects that we have that are funded through disaster recovery money or anything like that would not apply. These are really the projects that our community needs and this is really a way in which we can ensure that the civic infrastructure that we build does more than just a single purpose. There are more aspects to it where we can bring in our Noosa design principles into some public art installations within that work. We're not talking about large sculptures or anything like that, it could be integrated into door handles of toilet blocks. Kerri Contini 08:23.040
We had a similar arrangement in place at the time and it was very successful in being able to have public art across the Shire rather than just in several large pieces of sculpture that it was integrated in. Frank Wilkie 08:57.837
Lot of people would be interested to read in the report that there are 40 existing pieces of public art already in Noosa Shire and I think it's testament to the criteria against which they've been assessed that they don't jar with the landscape and they with fit their setting so which which indicates that there has been some sort of criteria applied already and there's obviously a lot that's been learned through that process but how much learning of that has gone into informing this public art policy and guidelines I can talk certainly Frank about historically in selecting public art we've actually had a strong process in selecting because it you know we've got really good expert knowledge on within council and externally to be able to select the advantage of the it policy is is that an that's then external face to that so we often get approached Paul Michael etc with great ideas for public art a policy helps them understand well what would council actually consider importantly for us what the policy enables us to do is deal with maintenance and the very sensitive aspect of decommissioning decommissioning a piece of public art can often be problematic in a community that's very attached to it and this ensures that we go through a process that's a considered process that respects the rights of the artist but also understands there's a point of time and which some pieces of public art can't be maintained any longer might need to be removed so the you know Paul used the word transparent I think that's really important in terms of a selection process that people really understand that there's a process that we work through it it doesn't mean to say that because a piece of public Art art wasn't selected, that there's an issue with it either artistically etc, it just means that it's not right for Noosa in the project that we're undertaking. Did you have any more to add to that Paul? Paul Brinkman 11:12.190
No, it's very important to have this policy to, as you say, for deaccessing. We have over, since the 70s, pieces of public art have come to Council in a whole range of different ways, through other departments, through donations, through just community goodwill. The issue No, it's very important to have With that is that it comes into Council through those lots of different channels, so we don't have a strategic approach to it. So this POSIT aims to funnel those proposals, not to dissuade them, but to make sure that we've sure that we've got a proper strategy moving forward and also to actually properly document them because often I'll be approached to say hey you need to fix this piece of public art and I may not even be aware that it exists because our records are pretty historically on those and when it comes to deaccessing the first right should go back to the original artist the work should be offered that's just good practice practice. And that hasn't necessarily always been the case. So this policy puts that into a policy where if we do choose to remove something, we will find that artist and we will offer it to them first before we remove that worker. Frank Wilkie 12:27.299
And just in regards to those 40 pieces of public art, could you talk us through some of the more major pieces that come to mind? Paul Brinkman 12:36.240
Well certainly the Bunyanup sculpture is probably our largest piece of public public artwork and interestingly we recently had to refurbish the base of that. So when we talked before about the 1%. Money that's not spent on Sort of epic centre of public art for Noosa. There's a lot of pieces the council has commissioned, but also the local junction traders association have commissioned a number of murals on private sites through that space as well. that's where there's that intersection between public artworks that are commissioned by local government authorities and private works on private walls that are still in the public domain, but they're not the responsibility of council, they're the responsibility of the property owners. So this also goes towards that as well. Other pieces of public artwork, we recently restored or repainted one of the bubblers on Hay On Hastings Street in front of the Visitor Information Centre. The bubble gum one? Yeah, it's multi-coloured. It's actually by an Indigenous artist that originally painted that, but we had to go through a lot of process to get back in touch with her. To get authority to repaint that or restore that work, but interestingly that was a piece that was originally done through Unity Water, and it was a good test case of how probably public art could be done better around that kind of So that's another reason why the instigation of this policy sort of came about from those kind of situations. Frank Wilkie 14:32.814
And you were saying it will help us avoid this ad hoc approach to public art because Unity Water did arguably a fantastic job in the public art. Ensuring that the bridge in Watertown is engaged in the community, the local artists, and it fits very well, but then this... We generally thought, yes, yeah. We generally find there's very good intent. It's that moving through the process. Without that expert advice, there are a range of things that people may not think about. So artists' rights are one of these. to one of these. The durability of a piece of public art is another issue that we really seriously consider. The durability of... Safety. I recall a couple of years ago now there was a strong push from our hinterland community around a piece of sculpture. Now that piece of sculpture was, you know, a fabulous piece of sculpture, but it would not have been... would not have been able to stand up to the rigour of being in a public space. It would have absolutely had children climbing on it. It just invited that and the materials were quite unsafe. So it enables us to actually work through worked through that process and if we are, we do have other agencies that are looking to put public art in to actually help guide them about what's going to be a great, fabulous piece of public art that we can celebrate rather than something that actually, hang on, we've now got some maintenance and safety. etc. issues around it. In terms of the pieces, you know the seats in Cooroy, they're public art, they might be seats but they are also a piece of public Now we've had some maintenance challenges around those over the last years and so that's the sort of thing that this policy helps us with. So you mentioned the intersection between functional, utilitarian, infrastructure and public art, so the infrastructure... department would have had strong input into this policy, I'd imagine. Kerri Contini 16:40.173
They certainly did, Shaun's here with us now, he might want to be able to provide some comment on that, Shaun. Shaun Walsh 16:46.093
Through the Chair, so I commend Paul on his engagement through the preparation of the policy and raised, you know, we had some really good discussions about how we make it work and I've been in a space management at South Bank of Roma Street where I've had to inherit and manage public art so I know the challenges that are out across the longer term. I think the nexus between the funding stream through public spaces is appropriate and I also like that the application is really broad because it's not just static objects it can also apply to utilitarian objects and also to ephemeral objects like stages that can be useful. objects like stages that can be used for performing arts. So we can actually look at the merits of how we use the fund and what the community wants in a particular space. So art's a very broad spectrum, so I think rather than a very narrow prism, it allows us to apply the policy appropriately. Thank you. Karen Finzel 17:35.638
Thank you, Shaun. Frank Wilkie 17:37.118
Madam Chair, I hope you're going to move this, you've been a strong advocate for this public art policy for a long time. Absolutely. I'm glad you have that at my attention. Oh, Jess, you've got your hand up? No. No. Well, definitely. Do you have a question? Thank you very much. Oh, okay. Well, I'd like to move the motion. I'll second. Nicola, you go. No, no, you go. Thank you. Which one? Tom Wegener 18:00.293
Who got it? Frank Wilkie 18:00.933
Nicola. Nicola. Karen Finzel 18:02.193
Yes, thank you. So, I think it's all been said. We did discuss the panel. I just quickly ask you to say a few words about the panel, which I think is really important around this process. you know, engender that trust that it's all, you know, got a framework that can be trusted and that everything is going to be done, you know, under, I don't want to say regulation, but, you know, a process that, in my mind, elevates the opportunity for the arts sector to grow in a professional way. And I think the panel reflects that. Paul Brinkman 18:35.903
Certainly. And so we've got our So we've got our panel of internal experts, our other core panel, but then we reserve the right to call on experts from external to also come and advise that panel and then through that process the recommendation goes to the Director of Community Services to make the call on those and for major works within the policy it says that then goes to Council. for them for the main administrative kind of decision-making it sits within that panel so we can get some continuity through that process. Karen Finzel 19:09.749
Fantastic well I think we're in good hands and looking forward to it. forward to a you know a really exciting future around how we can grow that public art throughout the Shire. So thank you to everyone involved. Oh we'll take it to the vote. All in favour? Yes that's unanimous in favour? Yes, that's unanimous. Tom Wegener 19:28.105
Thank you. Karen Finzel 19:31.085
So did you get all of them? Yes. So we're moving on to item 7.2, 2024. Annual Disaster Management Report, and we'll welcome the staff to the table this afternoon. Shaun Walsh 19:45.430
Through the Chair, I've got myself as the Life Disaster Coordinator, Sue Lowry as our Disaster Management Officer, and Ian Williams as Disaster Disruption and Resilience Officer. Karen Finzel 19:58.276
Well, thank you and welcome. What an amazing group of people we've got in front of us this afternoon. I'd like to take this take this opportunity to, you know, thank you from the bottom of my heart on behalf of our community for you and your teams and the amazing job you've done at looking after our community, sending out timely messages and working to the best of your ability... I will note that this report was prepared prior to the recent disaster event and was meant to be a very routine report about some of the activities that we've been up to over the last 12 months to assist the Queensland Disaster Management Committee meet their statutory obligations of preparing an annual report so and this feeds up Sue Lowry 20:49.906
This report provides an overview of the work and initiatives developed in all areas of disaster management in compliance with local, state and commonwealth legislative requirements over the past year, being 2024. In accordance with the Disaster Management Act 2003 regulations and other disaster and recovery management doctrines, the Noosa Shire Council is responsible for multiple functions across the key pillars of prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. In accordance with the Disaster Key initiatives for the 2024 year include delivery of the extensive disaster reconstruction program across the Shire, review of the local disaster management plan, endorsement of a community sub-plan template that has now been applied to the first community that has now been applied to the first community sub-plan and endorsed by the LDMG for Pomona. Opening of the dedicated local disaster coordination centre at the Noosable Depot. Technical improvements to the disaster dashboard and supporting Guardian system including recognition of permitted fire burns and the addition of the disaster recovery module. And recruitment of the ongoing disaster and disruption resilience officer. It's quite a mouthful, isn't it? And more recently, myself. To ensure effective delivery continuity. A key focus of the program moving forward is a focus on basics including effective functioning of systems, document and procedure review and updates. Staffing and pertinent training in disaster support functions. The disaster resilience The disaster resilience program will continue to focus in disaster preparedness or also undertake lessons learned exercise from the extended disaster reconstruction program to assist in informing future programs of this magnitude. You see Shaun Walsh 22:27.093
These focus areas will can ensure optimal readiness for any future disaster event and if I could just note in closing the report also references the work undertaken by community services in community disaster recovery. It's part of the Good Neighbourhood event and also our strategy environment in terms of climate resilience and readiness as well as their fire program so we touch on that but the report is meant to focus on more our know pertinent you know tick-the-box mentality of our functions under the Disaster Management Act. Frank Wilkie 22:59.845
I note that your recommendations that we note the report but also thank the members and advisers to the Noosa local disaster management group for the participation which is fantastic. A lot of people probably don't realise how many agencies are actually involved could you just speak a bit to that because they've been critical to what we've just gone through. Shaun Walsh 23:22.066
I know that there's a distribution list of 91 people on our local disaster management group when I look at the email. Sue do you want to go through the core agencies that are on the list? do you want to go through the core agencies that are on the list? Sue Lowry 23:30.926
Yeah, we do have core agencies and then we also have the advisors group. So a core agency consists of all of our emergency services, which is ambulance, fire department, police. We also have Queensland National Parks, SES. Shaun Walsh 23:47.486
Queensland Education. Sue Lowry 23:49.186
They're one of our advisors, yeah. Shaun Walsh 23:51.765
And Energex, yeah. Energex. Sue Lowry 23:53.666
And Energex. So they're essentially our core group. And then our advisors consists of Queensland Health, Noosa Hospital, Red Cross, Transport of Main Roads. Shaun Walsh 24:08.147
Transport of Main Roads, Coast to Country, Queensland Education, Surf Lifesaving Queensland, so I'm trying to go down the list visually. Doing a great job. Seqwater, yes, Unity Water, yeah. Anyone who may have, whose services may have an impact in Noosa and have tourism Noosa and Sunshine, visit Sunshine Coast as well. Frank Wilkie 24:34.768
It's an enormous team effort. It certainly is. And how pertinent was it that the training exercise in October happened to be a cyclone, preparing for a cyclone? Shaun Walsh 24:51.064
One of the things that I'm really happy with is that our focus back to the basics in terms of document control and procedures has has served us really well over the last week because we had people front up to the local disaster coordination centre and actually able to use Guardian which is our system of managing you know information flows and outputs really quickly and within you know a day. Familiarisation of you know we were actually by day two I'd say we're optimally running at about a hundred percent effectiveness of the people in the LDCC and we have a lot of new recruits so that focus on training is really is really good and as an example one of the tasks we had later in the week when we were concerned for the high gusts of wind and it's unsafe for people to be outside in their normal cars about 70 kilometers an hour and one of the intelligence tasks are what is the best way of tasks are what is the best way of getting current wind speed data in Noosa and I put that task into the system and within six minutes I had answers from people in the intelligence unit to actually be able to inform all our stakeholders and all our staff and all our and all our LDMG members about when wind gusts were getting to an unsafe speed and then we could use that in comms messaging to the broader community. So we had wind recording devices that we found at Sunrise Beach, the Hang Gliders Association, that publicised their data and then a link to the Tewantin. bombsite here, the Tewantin measuring site, which are quite different. So trying to get two different wind speed. But that's how good Guardian can be as a key example. I think the other thing is our resilience program. We had and Ian, you want to talk to the uptake of the sandbags and then about, do you think that was a good example of resilience working? Yeah, yeah. It's one of those things I think across the board where trying to see what the reflection of community is on our exercises. And certainly through Shaun, the idea of how sandbags suddenly became the toilet paper of COVID very, very quickly in relation to those who wanting to use them in a certain way. There's also the usual challenges of major number of sandbags disappearing, not necessarily for the purposes that are intended. But I think the main thing there is as far as getting the messaging out was the concept, the points of delivery. procedure we were recommending to happen and then the uptake, and then more importantly was how we were then able to move, how many cubic metres? Sue Lowry 27:10.832
20,000 Cubic metres. Shaun Walsh 27:15.452
And we know across the State, certainly across South East Queensland, how that was received in every community. was received in every community. community. So, once again, Kevin being our leader here in relation to how we pivoted with that fairly quickly, and it was how then we were able to use communication within our larger network of council-to-council relationships. So. Which generally, you know, north and south and west, through Susan and my ongoing work and obviously Shaun's leadership. So, the sandbag, and today as we speak, the sand is now even being disposed of in a really well-communicated We also, I've just heard this morning, we had our largest visitation to the New City of Mundey Road resource recovery area on Wednesday with people preparing their yards in the event we did have a cyclone event and to me that's another indication that our resilience program and its messaging is working and ensuring people are prepared for the consequences and feeling much safer in the event we did have a very unsafe Sue Lowry 28:13.350
And part of Ian's work with the emergency action guide, we also had an uptake on our Noosa alert system of 890 people last week. Shaun Walsh 28:25.816
There are always lessons learnt through exercises like this, so while we're actually undertaking the Disaster Coordination Centre, we're running a whiteboard of lessons to be learnt running a white board of lessons to be learned and we'll be actively working through those feedback and then inviting councillors and also members of the LDMG to also put in their feedback and then we look forward to coming and giving a briefing to council about things that we've learned that we can improve on for next time. Frank Wilkie 28:55.301
One of the big vulnerabilities that came through being plugged into the Queensland Disaster Management Group daily forums that when power goes out, so does communications. People's mobile phones don't work, and communication is a huge issue. We were very lucky we didn't have that here, but what are your thoughts on strategies we can employ? I know you've got some ideas that are in chain about how we can mitigate that. Should we really suffer some damage? In terms of the broader community before we get to staff and our agency, so the relevance of radios is still there and I know that transistors and I know AM radios are harder to purchase, but I do note that our national emergency broadcaster switched to FM. for all its transmission and took over classic FM I think in the south east Queensland region, so the importance and as part of our messaging to the community is keeping a radio, so and that's something that we can do. We have started in terms of staff and agencies exploring different measures of communicating to our staff and agencies, so we have in the process of deploying GPS systems on all our vehicles so that we can actually track our staff movements and also having duress our staff movements and also having duress buttons in those vehicles so which will actually keep much safer but we're actually on the back of actually looking at new technologies to actually communicate in the field because mobile phones are unreliable when towers go down and also there's capacity issues the network when the community were trying to use them so we need an alternative way now some of the things that we've looked at include VHF you know sat phones and then we're very interested in the deployment of low-level satellites which are you know immune from weather systems to see whether they've got veracity in our system. So that's something we look forward to exploring further. It's still a just being truthful it's still a key finding from the 2019 bushfire event that we've achieved some improvements but we still got a way to go in terms of communication with our staff and our agencies I'm happy to move the recommendation Madam Chair. Karen Finzel 31:02.538
Oh. Jessica Phillips 31:03.858
Just got me. Karen Finzel 31:04.958
Oh. That's alright. You can put Councillor Phillips down a second. I know she's passionate about her role in here. It'd be good to get it documented. Thanks Jess. Frank Wilkie 31:15.297
Thank you very much for the report. I know each and every one of you here have worked very hard to keep our community informed and prepared and that's what the whole disaster management team is geared towards, ensuring the community has the best opportunity to be informed and prepared, you know, when a disaster does threaten, all the agencies are poised to assist where needs be. We've been very fortunate this time, but the processes that we were able to improve as a result of the exercise, what I observed with everyone being so professional and focused was very reassuring and I thank you your work and please pass on my thanks to the agencies as well. Thank you. Jessica Phillips 32:03.744
If I could just speak to it as well, I made a lot of notes about this report, not specifically on the week just gone because it was more around the 2024/25, so bear with with me as some of our, because I just wanted to. Because I just wanted to really highlight the report and showing the commitment that this team has shown and demonstrated to safety and resilience and it is something that I'm very passionate about. I just want to congratulate. know, the team and the details outlined in Council's adherence to the legislation requirements and the report also highlighted the proactive measures that have been taken across prevention preparedness. response and recovery. I also wanted to really highlight and celebrate the get ready schools program and the workshop for the aged care facilities playing that vital role in fostering the preparedness for those two separate sort of community groups. I wanted to celebrate the opening of the local disaster coordination centre being a bit of a milestone for the council and in showing our response capabilities and that was demonstrated last week. I wanted to really praise that improvement to the dashboard, the disaster dashboard and that was certainly recognised last week and how many people spoke of the efficiencies in getting that up-to-date information which I think was really important. I really liked reading about the Reconstruction Authority collaboration and that really demonstrated to me how much working together with that regional network shows the strengthening in our disaster management strategy. And then lastly, I just wanted to also extend my gratitude to the three of you at the table and also the disaster management group members. I looked around that table last week and in the meetings that we've had and I just think we're so lucky that we've got such experience around the table. And then my last shout out, of course, is to the emergency And in the report, something that I wanted to highlight was the 90 volunteers that we have in our SES and I think that we should be so grateful for them in their volunteer work, not just in what we saw last weekend, Natural Disaster, but beyond that to Anzac Day ceremonies, Christmas in Cooroy, the community events. doesn't overshadow any of the work that has been done in that last 12 months from everyone else. So thank you. Karen Finzel 34:50.600
Thank you Jess. Oh yes, Councillor Tom. Tom Wegener 34:56.400
Yes, I'd just like to back up everything that Jess said. Jess does a wonderful soliloquy. You're absolutely right. Great work team. Thank you very much Ian and the team for your work with this. I really appreciate it. Watching from here, from my bed, watching the comments and everything go through, I think that was a real good display for this council and the whole team. So I think we all did really well. Thank you very much. Karen Finzel 35:23.903
Thank you. And just before we close on that, I'd like to give a big thank you to community, to our residents and our visitors alike who responded well to the work that the team put together with that early messaging and being prepared. Cheers. So I think it was a really good indication of collaboration through disaster management and building that resilience. So I think it was a great team effort by everyone involved. So thank you. I will close. Frank Wilkie 35:53.260
As it's been said there were lessons learned through the exercise in October and also the process we've just been through which is a testament to the group because it's always focused on constant improvement. But ultimately, as Councillor Finzel said, it's up to the type of community we have and they've proven themselves to be very receptive. They kept themselves informed and were prepared. So, thanks to them as well. Karen Finzel 36:40.859
Item 8, reports for noting by the committee, that's nil, nine, is it? and that's a very important one 7.3 change They're all equally important, thank you. Change of time and venue for the ordinary meeting dated 15th of May 2025, Mr CEO. Larry Sengstock 37:06.602
Just very quickly, the council has made a commitment by the mayor of the council walls. To take our council meetings out to the community. At various times during the year. In 2024 we held meetings in Pomona and Peregian. to our standing orders and our legislation and our sort of responsibilities in order to change that ordinary meeting we need to bring to a decision making forum, which we'll do on when it goes to the first step of the ordinary meeting. We're looking to take the ordinary meeting from the 15th of May, on the 15th of May, out to Cooroy Memorial Hall and we'll be at 5pm. We have now normal meetings at meetings at 10am in the morning, but this one, because it's out in the community, we'll be at 5pm on the 15th of May at Cooroy Memorial Hall. And as with previous meetings, we'll be having time before that. We'll advertise and promote that further in terms of the timing of that, particularly a couple of hours before that, so we're councillors and senior staff will be out there to discuss and answer questions, chat to the community who wish to determine things for them. So we'll be there in that time. If it's 15th of May, changing it from 10am in the morning here at the camp, change this to 5pm at Cooroy Memorial Hall, and I'll put it to councillors to decide. Karen Finzel 38:30.562
Thank you Mr Speaker. Do we have any comments? Tom Wegener 38:33.982
Happy to move it. Karen Finzel 38:34.562
Happy to second. Do we need any further conversation around that? Tom Wegener 38:45.280
Thank you. Jessica Phillips 38:46.000
Yeah, I'm fine, thank you. Karen Finzel 38:46.980
Okay, we'll take it to the vote. Thank Tom Wegener 38:54.780
Thank you. Number eight, reports for noting by the committee, nil. Item number nine, there is no confidential session, and I'd like to report that the meeting closed at 2:10pm. Frank Wilkie 39:11.860
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Madam Karen Finzel 39:14.160
Chair. Thank you for everyone in attendance, Mr. CEO and the staff that joined us today. Related Noosa Council Meetings
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