Peter Fitchat, Chief Executive Office, Shire of Dundas in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia. The municipality is centred around the town of Norseman along the Nullarbor Plain and covers more than 90,000 square kilometres.

One of our specific challenges is the many tourists who visit or pass through our region as they cross the Nullarbor Plain. Now find themselves far from home amid this pandemic. We need to help our scared travellers – consider how we can assist with safe passage for them to return home, bearing in mind all the travel restrictions set to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Take care of family – find ways to help them deal with this crisis, keeping in mind all of us have different strengths and react differently to situations. So if someone has a meltdown, let them vent and listen to their concerns. They may be frustrated or have issues explaining their feelings, so try to reassure your family and support them through this.

Importantly, take care of yourself. Make sure you take a moment to go through what we are dealing with, then find something unrelated to do to give yourself a break. It doesn’t matter what, just try to spend a couple of hours a day that’s “virus update free”.

This is the only way we will get through this. If you get this right, you will start seeing the superstars in your organisation standing up and contributing. This is affecting everyone in different ways, and to win we need to get everyone involved.

It will be all good eventually – and even the bad bits will teach us lessons.

Peter Fitchat
Chief Executive Officer
Shire of Dundas