Parting thoughts from Warren Sharpe, Former President of IPWEA NSW & ACT
As Warren Sharpe OAM hangs up his high-vis this week after almost 38 years with Eurobodalla Shire Council, he’d like to share some parting thoughts.
As a local government engineer it is amazing to be able to help build a safer, more equitable, prosperous and resilient community while looking after this unique place we know as Eurobodalla.
It is the challenge of most regional councils and a financial reality that our rate base in Eurobodalla cannot support the range of services we deliver alongside the $2 billion worth of infrastructure we look after for our community.
So we must continue to find clever ways to get better outcomes for our community, including partnering with the NSW and Australian governments through grants or service delivery. Eurobodalla Council’s success in this space has seen us deliver some incredible outcomes while avoiding major hikes in rates.
It’s necessary to be patient at times. For example, we’ve been planning for the southern water storage dam since 2016. We fought for funding, bending the ears of MPs and Ministers from all sides, until we got what our community needed and construction is now underway for a dam that will secure our water supply for decades to come.
The clever way we have integrated road safety, worker safety and first responder safety into our work and transport strategies – including effective re-use of earthworks and other material – is already saving lives and road-related trauma.
Success is the result of our highly skilled, committed, and diverse team. I know they will serve our community well beyond my own tenure. I’m proud to have been instrumental in the development of nationally-accredited training structures for our operational teams; creating hundreds of opportunities for local youth using our apprentice and cadet programs, and in driving diversity within the engineering sector.
Years ago I decided to get involved at the strategic level, to advocate for regional communities, and to keep learning every day. As a kid from Bemboka who did well at university and was able to return ‘home’ to work as a qualified engineer, I wanted to continue that contribution. I sought out roles that included; executive member of South East Australian Transport Strategy, Chair of the Canberra Region Joint Operations’ infrastructure working group, NSW Roads and Transport panel, NSW Skills Shortage Panel, NSW Asset Management Panel, board member and president of IPWEA NSW/ACT and an Australasian IPWEA board member.
These roles helped me work with others to put forward aggregated, evidence-based cases to the NSW and Australian governments to influence policy and attract funding.
It is very humbling to have my community and peers provide public recognition of my work including the NSW and Australian Public Works Leader of the Year 2011, Medal of Order of Australia 2014, SEATS Inspirational Leaders Award 2018, IPWEA Emeritus Award 2021, and the Australasia Keith H Wood Medal 2022.
As the public face of Council’s infrastructure team and as Eurobodalla’s local emergency management officer, the 2019-20 bushfires and following years of flood meant a very busy time.
People will always look to government during and after natural disasters and the challenges our community faced were huge. During that time, my goal was to bring a sense of calm to the chaos. What our multi-agency and Council teams did during that period was beyond incredible and still makes me emotional thinking back on the extraordinary efforts in the face of such adversity. I was proud that 87 members of our team were recognised with a National Emergency Medal for their work.
We all need to take responsibility in an emergency. That is what we saw the community do and that was the most inspiring element of that awful time. There will be more natural disasters in the future and we must all commit to being prepared. Directly engaging with so many people – often in quite stressful situations – has provided unique insights and driven me to put together our Eurobodalla Infrastructure Resilience Plan to address major challenges to resilience, including some well outside the remit of local government.
By partnering with others, we’ve made real progress around the resilience of local roads and bridges, water and sewerage systems, telecommunications, power supply and highways. We’ve secured support from state and federal governments to better integrate resilience in everything we do.
My original retirement plans were put on hold while working with the community to recover from the bushfires and floods, and to secure the major grants for infrastructure necessities like the new dam in the south of the shire, replacement of 30 timber bridges and causeways, and the new regional emergency services precinct for Moruya, among others.
I feel incredibly privileged to have shared the journey with so many wonderful people.
Now for some time with family and friends.