Retirement breaks historic shire link
Some big changes – most for the good, some so-so and others not so good – are inevitable over a career with local shires spanning 37 years.
That has been the story for civil engineer Ian de Bruyne who will walk away from his desk at Baw Baw Shire at the end of next week to start pre-retirement leave.
But it has been a rewarding time starting at Narracan shire in 1980, moving to Warragul shire that was later re-branded Rural City of Warragul and then, with amalgamation of the Warragul, Narracan and Buln Buln shires, the Baw Baw shire.
Gippsland was alien territory for him when he walked through the doors of the Narracan shire office at Trafalgar for his job interview after driving from Myrtleford where he was working with the shire.
He recalls how different it was to today when moving to another shire.
“You had to either live in the shire or commit to live there” and, if it required a move as it did for Mr de Bruyne and his wife Anne, the shire would help find accommodation, he said.
That requirement soon became a bit of a test when Mrs de Bruyne was appointed to a teaching post at Neerim South, then regarded as a “remote area” by the Education Department, with an offer of subsidised rent much lower than they were paying at Trafalgar.
“I had to seek permission, which was granted, to live there while working from Trafalgar,” Mr de Bruyne said, comparing it to today where it is not uncommon for staff to live outside the municipality where they work.
Rationalisation through amalgamation of shires in 1994 has been the biggest change he has seen in his long career in local government.
“In Baw Baw it coincided with the start of the rapid growth in Warragul and Drouin, a move to extensive outsourcing of shire works and services and changes to administrative systems”. It was an exciting time, Mr de Bruyne said. The commissioners, appointed by the State government to bed down the new Baw Baw Shire, made decisions quickly.
A prime example, he said, was the approval of the new Fonterra dairy processing factory at Darnum and the associated work required by council, particularly upgrades to roads leading to the new plant.
Mr de Bruyne said that until amalgamation the focus of councils and staff was mainly on roads, bridges, drains and rubbish.
“The work force and machinery needed were all in-house; Warragul shire had two street sweepers, Buln Buln shire one”. “Most of the work now is contracted out”. Another big change Mr de Bruyne has observed post-amalgamation has been the broadening of local government’s role with a greater emphasis on community and human services that “compete” with the traditional functions for funds.
“The shire’s growth and legislative changes have necessitated dramatic changes to internal systems and processes” but he believes that in some instances reporting requirements have gone overboard.
One of Mr de Bruyne’s first projects when he moved to Warragul shire from Narracan was to remove a (horse) hitching rail from a water trough in the shopping area in Smith St, Warragul.
There was no fuss, no issue about historical or heritage significance he recalled.
It was also, according to Mr de Bruyne, the “era of the roundabout” with two in Sutton St among the first to be built in Warragul and soon after the town got its first pedestrian crossing and set of traffic lights.
He sees some irony in his last job in Baw Baw shire being project manager for the early stages of the redevelopment of the West Gippsland Arts Centre, the initial building of which was underway when he joined Warragul shire.
Mr De Bruyne considers Baw Baw Shire ideally placed for growth and is making a good effort to deal with the challenges that is bringing.
Having enough funds to do what will be needed is a “real challenge”, as is providing the infrastructure to service growth and upgrading roads built 40 to 50 years ago that aren’t coping with the volume and weight of today’s traffic, he said.
Mr de Bruyne remembers that in his days at Narracan and Warragul shires staff numbers were small and everybody knew everybody by name, from the senior staff – shire secretary and shire engineer – to the cleaner.
That’s not the case with the larger numbers today. Mr de Bruyne believes he is only one of a handful of people that were with one of the three shires when he got the job in the engineering department at Narracan and are still working at Baw Baw shire today.
He has an especially fond memory of one of those people, Karen McGregor, then a teenager and the front office receptionist at Narracan; the first person he met when he went for his job interview at the Trafalgar office 37 years ago and who’ll be one of the last goodbyes when he leaves the office for the final time.