James Roncon is general manager of Broken Hill City Council, Australia’s first heritage listed city. The best of the old and new world’s fuse together in outback NSW.

Council took a proactive approach to the epidemic early, standing up the Continuity Management Team on March 13 to enact our pandemic response measures.

All major events and council programs involving people congregating were cancelled, and staff were given FAQ to provide information on COVID-19. Staff who had travelled by air were asked to self-quarantine and any employees with flu-like symptoms were advised to avoid work. Managers prepared their staff to work from home and organise rotations to ensure entire departments would not be compromised if a team member contracted the virus.

On March 18, we closed our library, art gallery, tourist centre and museum, and banned cash handling across the organisation. Outdoor works staff undertook waste collection training to ensure the essential service continued if the virus was detected among our waste crew.

By March 20, all customer-facing facilities were closed, with residents encouraged to utilise online services via our website or by phone.

Our CMT is meeting three times a week, with updates provided to all staff and elected councillors. We will also be implementing temperature testing upon the arrival of PPE this week.

We have avoided job losses by requesting staff with excess long service leave use some of their entitlement, creating temporary internal vacancies filled by colleagues with little or no entitlements.

We are lobbying state/federal governments for financial assistance for all councils and advocating for travel restrictions to the Far West to protect isolated and predominantly indigenous communities in our region, such as Menindee and Wilcannia.

James Roncon
Chief Executive Officer
Broken Hill City Council